Business English: Customer Service - Face To Face

Today's post will be on using English for face-to-face customer service. We'll cover general, everyday language for greeting customers/clients, explaining services/goods, saying "no", inviting repeat business.

Business English: Receiving Complaints

Last week, we looked at making complaints. Today's post is all about the opposite: receiving complaints. In this post, we'll go over the language tools and expressions to help you deal with a complaint. 

Business English: Making Complaints

Unhappy with a service or product? Do you have a customer or compliant complaint? Today's post will be about how to make complaints, both politely and strongly.

I'll Have The Steak, Please: Restaurant English

One of the best things about overseas travel is trying new and different restaurants. Today's post is on restaurant English. We'll cover:

• how order food and drinks
• how to ask questions about the menu
• how to make special requests
• tipping

Business English: Small Talk With Business Visitors

In September we discussed "the art of conversation" in social situations. Today, we will look at small talk in international business. 

Using a second language at work can be stressful, but, remember the first rule: 

relax

Business people who travel abroad know that their hosts will be using a second language. So, focus more on making your guest and/or comfortable, and having a short but  lively conversation before "getting down to business".

Even if you are not the person the business visitor is meeting that day, you can create a good impression of your company if you  help the guest get to the meeting place and make them feel relaxed. 

Business English: A Great Textbook for Telephoning In English

As always, there are many textbooks using the phone (smartphone, home phone, etc) in English. In my fifteen years of ESL teaching, "Telephoning in English" is the best for ESL learners who work in an international business.

There's a lot of non-native English speakers, so ESL learners get to listen to accented English. In business, you may often speak to people from Germany, Italy, France, and other non-English speaking countries. Telephoning In English will help you get used to different accents.

Telephoning In English is not easy. The speakers talk more naturally (fast), and, again, have strong accents. This is good because that's what you will hear in real business situations.

 Telephoning In English covers taking messages, asking about late deliveries, and more. There's even a unit on ordering a pizza. So, you can practice different types of business telephone conversations.

Study Tip: If you're in an English speaking country, a good way to practice your telephone English skills is to order a pizza. The words you will need are very common (pepperoni is  pepperoni in most countries), and it's excellent practice.

You can order Telephoning In English here.