UNIT 8 book

UNIT 8 DEALING WITH PROBLEMS

8.1 What seems to be the problem?
A. Look at these pictures:
- What do you think has happened? THEY ARE HAVING BUISNESS PROBLEMS.
- What are the people going to say? THEY SEEM TO BE MAD, AND OTHERS IN A HURRY.
- What would you do in each situation? I WOULD
C. Discuss these questions with your partners.GET AN AGENDA AND TRY TO BE MORE CAREFULL WITH MY ACTIONS.
- What problems have you had in your work or work experience that led to complaints or apologies? SINCE MY JOB IS ALL ABOUT DEALING WITH CUSTOMERS, AND SOLVING PROBLEMS WHENE THEY HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN BIG, I AM USED TO HAVING PEOPLE SCREAM AND GET REALLY UPSET,MOST OF THE TIME ITS ONLY A MATTER OF BEING PATIENT AND MAKING THE CLIENT FEEL PAMPERED.
- What is the worst mistake you’ve made in your work or work experience? WHENE I STARTED, I WOULD GIVE THE WRONG INFORMATION,AND SINCE I WORK WITH CONTRACTS I MADE A MISTAKE WITH ONE OF THE VOUCHERS...SO I HAD T PAY THE AMOUNT ON THE CONTRACT. What happened? How could you have avoided it? NOW I KNOW IT IS BETTER TO DO THINGS CAREFULLY THAN QUICK

8.2 We all make mistakes – sometimes!
A. You work in the buying department at Zenith Internacional. You have just got back from holiday. While you were away Max, the 19-year-old son of your director, was in charge of your office…

This is a note you left for Max before you went away:
Max, while I’m away please place an order for 45 x 100 metre reels of 40mm MCL88 cable from Uniflex SpA in LaSpezia, Italy. All the details are in the files.
This is a repeat order – just copy the previous one and charge the dates.

and this is a note that Max has left to you:
MCL 88 cable ordered as you instructed. You’ll be pleased to know that the price has gone down since your last order! And Uniplex seem to have moved from La Spezia to Pisa.
Their new address is:
Uniplex srl, viale Dell’Industria 131,
56100 Pisa
Best wishes,
Max
P.S. Hope you had a good holiday!

ð What do you think may have happened? What should you do?
PROBABLY THE ORDER NEVER SHOWED UP BECAUSE THE INFORMATION WAS WRONG.I WOULD CALL THE COMPANY AND APOLAGIZE, AND SEE IF I CAN MAKE UP TO THEM SOMEHOW.

D. Draft a fax or e-mail to Uniplex and other to UNIFLEX, which you could have sent instead of phoning or visiting them.

From: Zenith International 01/02/11
To: Uniplex srl

Re: Apologize

In the past week i placed an order for 45 x 100 metre reels of 400mm MCL88 cable.Unfortunatly the order was placed for the wrong adress. We are very sorry about the mistake, please let me know how i can make it up to you, it is of our concern to mantain a good relation with your company.
We offer our most sincere apology.
Honestly,
Jessyka Real.



8.3 Complaining and apologizing

B. Complete each sentence. Then decide what to write in your reply to each as if it were your fault in each case.

- We are concerned that the order we placed by letter on 8 June may have got lost in the post. Could you please make sure that the letter has arrived?
- The order has not yet arrived at our warehouse, even though we received advice of shipping from you ten days ago. Would you please check you had the right adress,or give us a few more days?
- According to your scale of charges the price of a single room with bath is $55 including tax. However, on checking my account later I discovered that I was charged $69.50 per night. Will you please explain why this is so?and if its a mistake could you please correct it?

- Our order was for 80 boxes containing 144 items each. Each box we have opened so far contains only 100 items. Will you please make sure i get the missing items sent to the same adress?
D. Look at this information and decide what other excuses you can add to the list below.

If things have gone wrong, the person you’re talking to will want to know the reasons.
He or she may assume that someone (or everyone) in your firm is to blame and that they’ve been:
Inefficient
Disqualificated
Slow
Careless
incapability

If you don’t want to accept responsibility or blame another person, you could offer an excuse. For example:
Company policies
A computer mistake
We are short on staff


8.4 Friday afternoon: Delivery problems

Decide what you are going to do:
- What will you tell Mr. Robinson? I would be pacient and understanding, since it is the first ocasion.
- Will you telephone Ocean View, fax, e-mail or send them a letter? I would send an email and then call to confirm they have gotten my mail.
- What will you say or write? I would let him know i understand his possition, but that i cant have it happen again.

C. Discuss these questions:
- How do you prefer to deal with problems: face-to-face, by phone or in writing? Why? Defenetly Face-to-face because I feel it is the only way of having a clear discussion of the issue.
- Is it better to take the blame, or to blame someone else for your mistake? It is better to be honest, whoever was to blame should take responsability for their acts, customers dont always have the right idea,but as a sales agent you have to know how to deal with this type of customers.
- Is it always best to tell the truth when someone is at fault? Why/Why not?
It depend on the situation.


8.5 Only the best is good enough…

Which do you agree with and which do you disagree with?
-“Customers will pay top prices for a high quality product.” I Agree
- “Customers generally prefer a low cost product.” I disagree
- “Nobody’s perfect – we all make mistakes sometimes.” i Agree
- “In every firm there are some people who aren’t interested in improving the quality of the products.” I Agree
- “You can’t rely on workers to produce high quality goods unless someone supervises their work all the time.” I Agree
- “A company can’t influence its suppliers’ manufacturing methods.” I Disagree
- “It’s easy for big companies to force small suppliers to obey their rules” I Disagree

C. Discuss these questions:
- What are your reactions to each of the documents? I would be very greatfull and surpriced.
- What other kinds of goods or services could such documents be used with? In any company for any service it would be a very pleasent surprice.
- Would customers in your country like to receive documents like these? Yes, they would be delighted.
- What are the advantages of ensuring customer satisfaction and encouraging customer loyality? The customer creates a bond with the company
- What other methods can be used to promote customer satisfaction and loyality?
Rewards

8.6 Monday morning: After-sales problems

Discuss these questions:
- How do you, as a customer, deal with bad service or after-sales service? I am defenetly a very pacient person, but i will ask to spaek with a manneger or supervisor to let him know about the problem.