Telephone English | English for Telephoning | Business English Pod

BEP 240 – Telephoning: Tech Support English (3)

Business English, Customer Service, IT and Tech, Telephone English / October 13, 2013

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on handling a tech support call in English.

A colleague calls you with a problem. You listen, you ask questions, and you figure out a solution. But you can’t fix the problem yourself – you need to explain to your colleague how they can fix it. It doesn’t matter how simple the solution is to you, you have to make it clear to the other person. And that can be challenging. Fortunately, you can learn some ways of making your instructions clear and effective.

In today’s lesson, we’ll listen to a tech support agent explain a solution to a computer user. But don’t worry if you don’t work in tech support. The techniques this agent uses are useful in any situation where you need to provide support or solutions to someone else. We’ll cover language that you can use to explain a solution in clear steps and explain the reasons for those steps. We’ll also look at how you can recap the steps in a solution, confirm that solution actually worked, and emphasize to someone how to deal with similar problems in the future.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Nick and Stacey. Nick is a tech support agent, and Stacey’s a lawyer in New York who is having trouble uploading documents to the company server. Nick has discovered the cause of the problem and is now explaining to Stacey how to fix it.

Listening Questions

1. What does Nick ask Stacey to do first?
2. Why does Nick ask Stacey to upload another PDF from her computer?
3. What should Stacey do next time she has a problem uploading a file?

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BEP 239 – Telephoning: Tech Support English (2)

Business English, Customer Service, IT and Tech, Telephone English / October 6, 2013

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on handling a tech support call.

Whether or not the words “solving problems” appear in your job description, there’s a good chance it’s something you do every day. And some days it seems like that’s all we do. So it’s important that we learn to do it well.

In today’s lesson, we’ll look at a tech support situation, but the techniques that we’ll learn can be applied to any situation. We’ll cover language for retracing a problem to the beginning and confirming what has already been done. We’ll also look at eliminating possible causes and suggesting alternative ones. And finally we’ll learn how to confirm the settings on someone’s computer or other device.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Stacey and Nick. Stacey’s a lawyer in New York who’s been having trouble uploading documents to her company’s server in the U.K. where Nick works in tech support. Nick’s been trying to help Stacey solve her problem.

Listening Questions

1. Why does Nick use the question “right?” repeatedly near the beginning of the call?
2. Why does Nick ask Stacey whether she’s made changes to her operating system?
3. Nick suggests another possible cause. What is it related to?

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BEP 238 – Telephoning: Tech Support English (1)

Business English, Customer Service, IT and Tech, Telephone English / September 29, 2013

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on handling a tech support telephone call in English.

We’ve all been in this situation: The phone rings. Someone’s got a problem. They need our help to fix it. So we work through the issue with the person, trying to figure out exactly what’s happening, what the person wants to do, and how to help them do it.

But it’s not easy, especially on the phone, because we can’t see what the other person sees. And when someone has a problem, they’re usually frustrated about it, which can make our job even more difficult. So we need to stay calm and positive, keep a clear head, talk through the issue and find a solution that works. This situation is not unique to tech support. Everyone has to be able to help solve problems over the phone.

Today we’ll look at several techniques that can help you deal with these kinds of situation successfully. We’ll start by asking open-ended questions, confirming what the user is trying to do, and asking what they see as they try to do it. Then we’ll try requesting the user to do something as well as putting our instructions in simple terms. And finally we’ll practice asking someone to wait while we check something.

In the dialog, you’ll hear a conversation between Stacey and Nick. Stacey is a lawyer in the U.S. who’s having some trouble transferring files to her company’s server in the U.K. Nick is the British tech support agent trying to help Stacey solve her problem.

Listening Questions

1. At the start of the conversation, what question does Nick use to get Stacey to describe the situation?
2. Why does Nick ask Stacey to try opening the file?
3. What does Nick ask Stacey to do to help him check whether the problem is fixed?

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BEP 21R – Telephoning: Opening Calls & Taking Messages

Business English, Intermediate English, Telephone English / May 12, 2013

This is a remastered edition of BEP 21 released in commemoration of Clayton Lee, who wrote and hosted this series.

In this is Business English Podcast lesson, we look at essential language for making telephone calls in English. Some of the key language we cover in this lesson include, identifying yourself and the caller, stating the purpose of your call and leaving a message.

In the dialog, we’ll hear a telephone call about a contract between an aircraft manufacture and one of its suppliers, called Airtronics. Nathan Beale from the contracts department of the client is calling to ask about a proposal he is expecting from Airtronics. Time is very short for all the proposals to be received, and so far, the aircraft company hasn’t received anything from this supplier.

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BEP 228 – Telephoning: Making Sales Calls in English (2)

Business English, Sales English, Telephone English / March 24, 2013

Welcome back to Business English Pod for the second part of our lesson on making sales calls.

Being successful in sales begins with getting your foot in the door. If you can sit down with someone in their workplace and show your product, or talk about your service, you’re more than halfway to making a sale. But if you don’t get the chance to sit down face to face, making the sale will be a lot harder.

There’s lots of advice out there about making cold calls in English. But usually you’ve got more to work with than just a phone number. A good lead might be someone you’ve talked to at an event, or someone you’ve been referred to by another customer or friend. So, you’ve got a name and number and perhaps a previous conversation or mutual acquaintance.

You call the person, you use your best professional greeting, you make a connection and you try to get them to talk about their company and their needs. Now comes the hard part. You need to make the next step and actually ask them to agree to meet with you. Today we’ll learn some great techniques that will help you get to that point. We’ll start with showing the value of your product or company, then we’ll cover asking for a meeting, dealing with a refusal, emphasizing the need to meet, and expressing gratitude.

In the dialog, we will hear the second part of a telephone conversation between Kate and Tina. Kate is a salesperson with a company called Thompson Medical. And Tina works at a dental office. Kate’s company sells machines called “autoclaves,” which are used to sterilize tools in medical clinics.

Listening Questions

1. Why does Kate mention ‘flexibility in the setup’?
2. How does Kate respond when Tina says that it’s hard to schedule a meeting?
3. What does Kate offer to do if Tina agrees to sit down and talk?

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