节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-09-27
难易度:High
关键字:push someone into something, negotiation, nibble, concession, counteract
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And thank you for joining us for today's lesson called Customer Troubles.
Of course we've been joining Ben and his Uncle Bob as they are discussing how to
help Ben's business, his and Sandy's business.
And of course in any business, if you have customers, you might come across some
customers who are a little bit difficult to work with.
That's what we're going to be talking and learning about in this lesson Customer
Troubles.
Well, I do wonder, have you ever felt maybe cheated in some business deals where
you were trying to sell something,
or maybe you wanted to buy something and you felt cheated?
Maybe it wasn't worth the trouble.
Carolyn?
Well, there was one time that I was at a fruit market and you know, you can
negotiate the prices, you can discuss the prices and haggle a little bit.
Well, this man wanted to sell me some very ripe bananas for NT$80.
Wow!
OK, very ripe bananas.
Is that expensive or cheap?
That is very expensive for bananas.
Yeah. Yeah, it is.
You know, my friend, uh, was in China.
They were on the Great Wall of China, and he bought a scroll for RMB$200.
And he found the same one somewhere else for RMB$20.
So of course, he felt a little bit cheated.
Well, there are many ways you might feel cheated in business deals.
And I think every country has this problem.
And at every business deal, you want to try to be fair and honest.
Let's get started with today's lesson Customer Troubles.
(Music).
Customer Troubles.
Negotiating skills are an important part of customer service.
Hey, Uncle Bob.
Hi, Ben.
How's business?
OK, but I'm having trouble with some customers.
What kind?
I feel like they are taking advantage of me.
I keep getting pushed into doing more work for less pay.
Give me an example.
OK.
When I give one of my customers a price quote for a job, he'll agree to the
price.
But then when we're about to sign the contract, he'll say something like
"Technical support is part of this package, right?".
So what do you do?
All right.
Let's go to the top of this lesson.
We read: Negotiating skills are an important part of customer service.
So we're talking about negotiating skills, the skill of negotiating with people.
This is an important part of serving your customers.
It is. It's very important to be able to talk to them, to be able to discuss
prices and services, so.
It is a very important part.
And this month Ben Johnson needs Uncle Bob's help to deal with customers who
want too much for too little.
All right.
They want too many things, too much, uh, maybe in the way of services, for too
little money.
They don't want to pay that much for these services.
Of course you could turn that phrase around, right, Carolyn?
You could also say you're asking too little for too much.
That's right.
So you could do it the other way as well.
Usually when I hear this phrase, it's too little and there's just too much.
So you can reverse them.
All right.
Well, let's get started with this conversation.
I'll be Ben for today.
Ben says: Hey, Uncle Bob.
Hmm. Uh, hi, Ben.
How's business?
OK, but I'm having trouble with some customers.
Well, hey, I want to talk about that phrase there.
When you're having trouble with something, that means it's giving you problems.
You could say I'm having trouble with my homework.
My car is giving me some problems.
I'm having trouble with my car.
And it seems like Ben is having some trouble with some customers.
These are some difficult customers.
We talked before about difficult workers.
Well, here are some difficult customers.
And Uncle Bob has a question for you, Ben.
What kind?
Hmm... what kind of trouble?
Well, I feel like they are taking advantage of me.
I keep getting pushed into doing more work for less pay.
Oh, that's great.
There are some words there that we can talk about, Ben.
Now, "getting pushed into something" - that is from our Word Bank.
And if you are pushed into doing something or you push someone into doing
something, that means that they have to do it.
They are forced to do it and don't really have a choice.
That's right.
Maybe they're pressured to do something.
You could say... well, actually I would encourage you: Don't let your friends
push you into doing something that is not wise.
Or don't let your friends push you into making bad decisions for your life.
Of course it's easy to listen to your friends and to want to please them.
But sometimes they might push you into doing something you shouldn't do.
That is true.
They might also try to take advantage of you, or other people might try to take
advantage of you.
And that is a phrase that we had learned before in one of our POINT OF VIEW
lessons.
A girl's friend Veronica seemed to be taking advantage of her and telling
secrets.
Well, we want to make sure that you do not get taken advantage of and that you
do not get pushed into doing anything you don't want to do.
But that does not seem to be the case for poor Ben.
That's right.
Well, Uncle Bob, he says: Give me an example.
He wants an example of how customers are pushing him to do something he doesn't
want to do.
Well, what does Ben say here?
Oh, are we going to switch?
I can be Ben now.
Sure.
Oh, great.
OK, well.
OK.
When I give one of my customers a price quote for a job, he'll agree to the
price.
Well, so far so good.
Of course in a business deal, you want to negotiate a price.
And so here we want to talk about a word "quote" - the word "quote." We're
talking about a price quote for a job.
That means Ben is offering a price, this quote.
Yes. So a quote is how much someone is going to pay.
And they use the word "price" to make sure that we understand that it is about
money and not about what someone says...
because other times you can use this word "quote" to refer to words that a
person has said.
There are many famous quotes out there that people like to quote.
But here, prices.
So he'll agree to the price.
But then when we're about to sign the contract, he'll say something like
"Technical support is part of this package, right?".
Hmm, very interesting.
So it seems like the price quote is already said and everything is negotiated,
but then at the very last minute, the customer wants something extra.
So he'll say something like this.
Maybe he doesn't say these words.
Maybe he doesn't say "Technical support is part of this package." He says
something like that.
And Uncle Bob has a question.
So what do you do?
Very good question.
Well, we're going to find out more about this conversation.
We're going to see what... what Ben does after the break.
But for now, let's learn more with Michelle in the Language Lab.