English Phone Customer Service: Problem-Solving Techniques and Case Analysis

Okay, so we learned about how to describe problems. Let's now look at how to deal with these problems. Here are the learning objectives. By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to list ways to identify and clarify a problem over the phone and identify good skills in customer service interaction. How do we deal with problems on the phone? You're going to listen to an example. Emily Hamilton from Northwest Events is calling about some invitations she has ordered from a printing company. Listen for the answers to these two questions. How many problems does Emily mention? Is this a good or bad example of customer service?

Good afternoon, Iprince. Yes, this is Emily Hamilton and I'm calling about an order I placed last week. Okay. Well, the order was delivered today, but when I checked it, I noticed that there were several problems. Okay. So let's see, first of all, they were the wrong size. I ordered 105 by seven invitations, but they were 4 by 6. Hello, are you still there? Yeah. Okay, and the color was wrong too. I want a dark green lettering on a pale orange background, but these look more like blue and yellow. And finally, some of them weren't cut straight. Okay, I'll look into it and we'll call you back. Hi, this is Emily Hamilton with Northwest Events. I'm not available at the moment, so please leave a message and I'll return your call as soon as I can. This is Iprince calling about your order. We have reprinted 157 green and orange invitations and 46 blue and yellow letters and sent them to you today. Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.

Let's go over the answers to those questions. Emily mentioned three problems with the invitations and this was a bad example of customer service. We'll talk about why specifically it was bad a little later. For now, however, listen again and answer these questions as you are listening. What are the problems with the invitations? Does the customer service person understand the problems? Do you think Emily is satisfied? Good afternoon, Iprince. Yes, this is Emily Hamilton and I'm calling about an order I placed last week. Okay. Well, the order was delivered today, but when I checked it, I noticed that there were several problems. Okay. So let's see, first of all, they were the wrong size. I ordered 105 by seven invitations, but they were four by six. Hello, are you still there? Yeah. Okay, and the color was wrong too. I want a dark green lettering on a pale orange background, but these look more like blue and yellow. And finally, some of them weren't cut straight. Okay, I'll look into it and we'll call you back.

So remember, Emily had three problems with the invitations. The invitations were the wrong size. She wanted invitations that were five by seven inches, not four by six inches. And they were also the wrong colors. She wanted green and orange, not blue and yellow. And finally, some of the invitations weren't cut straight. Did you think that the customer service person understood the problems? Not at all. He thought Emily wanted two different orders and two different colors. Of course, Emily won't be happy when she hears that message. She'll have to call back and explain it all again. So what could the customer service person have done better? We'll talk about some guidelines and some useful language.

First, how about when you answer the phone? Well, in our networking course, you learn that what you say when you answer the phone is very important. So let's review. You should give a greeting, then your name, end or company. And then ask a question to find out what the caller wants. Here's an example. Good morning, soft prints. My name's Marta. How can I help you today? Next, it's also a good idea to ask for the caller's name if you don't know the person so that you can use it during the conversation. Could I have your name please? You should then use the name during the telephone conversation. If you would like to be a bit more informal, you can ask if it is okay to use the caller's first name like this. Do you mind if I call you, Emily?

Have you ever been on the phone with someone and wondered if they were actually listening to you or if they were even still there? To make sure that the other person doesn't think this about you, you should use active listening. This means that you should show the person you are paying attention to what they are saying. You can use very simple language like this as the other person is explaining the problem. Okay, I see. All right, go on. Even a huh works. However, something like huh, wouldn't be appropriate. But that's not all there is to active listening. You need to check and react to what the caller is saying. Even if you used some of the phrases we just saw, it wouldn't be very helpful if you didn't understand. So you should also be an effective listener. If you remember from the example we heard, the customer service person didn't really understand what the problems were. How could you have been more of an effective listener?

Well, first of all, he should have made sure he had all the details about the order. When Emily said that there were some problems with her order, he should have asked for some more information. For example, the order number, when it was ordered, etc. Now, when we ask for information like this, it's often a good idea if we want to sound politer to use indirect questions or yes, no questions. Instead of asking, what is your order number, we can ask, could you tell me your number? Here are some more examples. Could you tell me what the reference number is? Do you know who you spoke to? Was this in colour or black and white? One thing to be careful of here is the word order after could you tell me and do you know? Notice how we don't say could you tell me what is the reference number? Could you tell me what the reference number is? And not do you know who did you speak to? But do you know who you spoke to?

You maybe then need to check your records so that you can see the information that your company already has because this might help solve the problem quicker. Here are some useful phrases to tell this to the other person. Let me just check our records. Let me just pull up your details on the computer. Next, when you have all the background information, you should ask the caller to explain or describe the problem. So, Ms Hamilton, what seems to be the problem? Okay, can you tell me what the problem is? Thanks. Can you describe the problem for me? Now remember, when you're listening to the caller describe the problem, you should practice active listening. But to be effective, you should also make sure that you understand everything. To do this, you should use ways to check as the caller is speaking. A simple way to do this is to repeat key words or phrases. When Emily said 105 by 7 invitations, if the customer service person had repeated the numbers, he could have checked if he had understood it correctly. And if he had made a mistake, Emily would have corrected him.

Listen to this example. I ordered 105 by 7 invitations. Okay, 157 invitations. No, 100 invitations size 5 by 7 inches. After the caller has described the problem, then you can check your understanding by repeating or summarizing the problem and asking if it is correct. Here are some examples of how to do this. So, if I understand correctly, you wanted a 12-inch screen instead of a 15-inch one. Let me make sure I got that. You wanted the professional edition, right? So, 5 by 7, not 4 by 6. Is that correct? So, you're saying that some of the invitations are damaged, right? Sometimes a problem might be very complicated or the caller might not be clear. In these cases, you'll want to ask the caller to give some more details or explain something again like this. Here, we would use indirect language. Sorry, could you give me a few more details about what happened? Would you be able to tell me exactly what you see before it shuts down? Even if it is difficult for you to understand the caller, you can always ask the other person to repeat the information or to speak slower. Your goal is to help solve the problem yourself. Don't immediately give up and pass the call to a colleague or your supervisor.

Here are some phrases you can use. I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Could you say it again? I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understood everything. Would you mind speaking a little slower? So, let's recap. To help deal with a problem, you should give your name and ask for the caller's name. You should use active listening. You should ask questions to identify the problem. You should continuously check that you have understood the problem and ask questions when you need more information.