Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about making complaints, apologizing, and providing solutions. For this lesson, I'm going to focus on making complaints and apologizing, and so on, in customer service situations. In these cases, I'm focusing on restaurants, bar, café, and hotel-related situations. Let's get started.
First, I want to look at how to make complaints. I've chosen some patterns you can use to make a variety of different complaints in a few different situations. Let's begin with these two. The first way to make a complaint is, "My," plus machine, "isn't working." So, in this complaint pattern, we use some kind of machine. This can be like an electronic device. It can be something that doesn't use electricity, but that is like a machine. It's something that has many parts that we need to work together. So, we use "isn't working" when we're talking about a problem with a machine. So, for example, "My smartphone isn't working," or "My refrigerator isn't working," "My air conditioner isn't working." Some kind of machine isn't working. This isn't is "is not," and "working" means functioning. But, we do not say "functioning." "Functioning" sounds way too formal, it is not a conversational word. Instead, we say, "My machine isn't working." You might also hear, "My machine isn't working properly," or "My machine isn't working correctly." So, that shows there's some kind of problem. This is a common way to make a complaint about some type of machine. "My computer isn't working."
Then, this next one is similar. It is the object is broken, or you could say my, or his, or her to be specific about whose object. But, in this pattern, we can use any object that includes machines. So when we say "is broken," it just means this thing is not functioning correctly, or there's some problem with it. I cannot use this object in this condition. There's some problem. So, we can use "machines" in this pattern. "The smartphone is broken," or "My smartphone is broken," "My computer is broken," that has the same meaning here. But, in this pattern, we can use things that are not machines. Like, "My chair is broken," or "My hairbrush is broken," or "This pot in my kitchen is broken." So, you can use "is broken" to refer to many different objects, many different things in many situations. This pattern is used for machines, for like electronic devices. So, these two are very, very useful for explaining when something is not functioning correctly.
Okay. On to the next one. This one is good in a restaurant, or bar, or café. We use this expression when the wait staff brings you something and it is not the thing you ordered. So, you ordered item A, they bring you item B. You say, "This isn't what I ordered." This isn't what I ordered, or "I didn't order this." So, usually, you'll say, "This isn't what I ordered… I ordered A, this is B. So, "I ordered," past tense, A. This is B. So, we start with "This isn't what I ordered," or "Sorry. I don't think this is what I ordered," to make it a little softer. "This isn't what I ordered," or "I didn't order this."
Okay. On to the next one. The next one is kind of useful in hotels and other accommodation-related situations. It depends a little bit -- the final sentence, depends on the singular or the plural form of the item in question. So, when we want to use this pattern, it's because we are missing something in the room, in our hotel room, that we expect to be there -- that should be there. Or, there is something in the room that should not be there. So, that's why there's this "no" or "no" in parentheses. Let's first take a look at what we do in this pattern when we have an object that we use in the plural form. So, for example, "There are no towels in my room." "There are no towels in my room." So, in a hotel room, maybe I expect there will be towels in my hotel room so I can take a shower or a bath. But, there are no towels in my room. I want to make a complaint, I use this pattern to do it. Because "towels," plural, needs to take this "are," "there are no towels," pattern. If, however, I want to maybe say the single. I want to use the singular form of something. Maybe if I expect there should be a refrigerator in my room, but there's not, I could say, "There is no refrigerator in my room." "There is no refrigerator in my room." Or, "There's no air conditioner in my room. I expected it, but it's not here." So, we use this singular pattern with "is." So, "is" matches with a singular object.
Then, let's compare this to something that is in the room that we do not want in the room. For example, "There are flies in my room." "There are flies in my room." Maybe there are hundreds of flies, or bees, or something. There are flies in my room. So, again, we use the plural flies, or bees, or whatever kind of insect, and we use "are" to match this plural item. "There are flies in my room," or "There are bees in my room." Then, if we need to talk about a single item, we need to use this pattern. But, we also need to use an article, "a" or "an," before the object if it is a countable noun. So, for more about countable and uncountable nouns, please check the countable nouns and uncountable nouns videos on our YouTube channel, or on our website.
So, for example, if there's an animal in your room, "There is a squirrel in my room." So, I don't expect a squirrel to be in my room. I'm shocked! "There is a squirrel in my room." So, I use "a" because my single -- my singular noun "squirrel" begins with S. So, "a squirrel in my room." Or, maybe in a crazy situation, "There is an elephant in my room." So, I use "an" in that case because "elephant" begins with an E sound, that /e/ sound. "There is an elephant in my room." So, we use this pattern to express something that is in the room that we do not want there, and we use the negative pattern to talk about something we expect to be in the room, but that is not there.
Okay. Let's go to the last complaint. This one is good in restaurant, and bar, and cafe situations. "I'm allergic to this." "I'm allergic to this." Or, you can change this to the item. "I'm allergic to bread," or "I'm allergic to nuts." You can change this to be specific. "I'm allergic to," means I have an allergy to. "I have an allergy to," something. We use "I'm," I am, "I'm allergic to…" We use the preposition "to" in this case. Okay.
So, we have some basic complaints we can use in customer service situations. Now, let's see how we apologize. So, if you are staff, or if you need to understand clearly -- which everybody does, the response from the staff, let's take a look at these expressions. When you're apologizing, please be careful about using the expression, "I'm sorry." So, "I'm sorry" expresses a very basic feeling, "I am sorry." However, please note we use this expression when we personally made a mistake. So, we use this a lot in like friendships, and when we're talking to our family members. So, "I made a mistake. I'm sorry." Like, "I forgot to buy milk. I'm sorry." It was my mistake. In customer service situations then, sometimes it's not your mistake. It's someone else's mistake, or it's a company mistake, it's something -- just the situation was not correct somehow. So, if you say, "I'm sorry," it sounds like maybe you are the person to blame. So, here are some better ways to apologize for something. Here, "I'm terribly sorry about the mistake." So, this is a professional way to apologize if you, indeed, if you were the person that made the mistake. For example, the customer says, "This isn't what I ordered." And, you check and you're like, "Oh no! I made a mistake." You can say, "I'm terribly sorry about the mistake." "Terribly" means "so." But, this is a more formal way to express an apology. "I'm terribly sorry about the mistake," or "I'm terribly sorry for the mistake." You can use either here, no difference in meaning. Or, "I'm terribly sorry about that," as well. So, in some cases, you don't want to say the mistake, just "I'm terribly sorry about that." There was some kind of strange situation. So, this sounds like a more professional way of saying "I'm sorry." "I'm terribly sorry about the mistake," if you did something. Or "that," if the situation is not so good somehow.
On to this next one. "We apologize for the inconvenience." We apologize for the inconvenience. Please note that we're beginning this expression with "we." Here, "I," -- sounds like "me," just me, one person. "We" is something we use when we're apologizing or when we're talking for a group, or you're talking for your company or for your organization. So, this is very common in emails, "We apologize for the inconvenience." "For the inconvenience" means, "We apologize for causing you a problematic situation," or "This is not a convenient situation for you. We're sorry for that," that's what this means. We apologize for the inconvenience. You might say that in response to something like this. Like, "There are no towels in my room." The staff at the hotel might say, "Oh! We apologize for the inconvenience." So, that's how they might begin to fix the problem. "We apologize for the inconvenience." You might also see this in road construction situations. There are signs on the road that say, "We apologize for the inconvenience." Like, "We're doing road construction at this time."
Okay. This one is useful. The next one is useful when you hear bad news. Sometimes, in customer service situations, an upset customer will share something that's not related to you. But, they want to just express some unhappy feeling or whatever. You can also use this with friends and family too when there's a bad situation, but you are not related to the situation. So, like for example, someone lost their job, or they lost like their wallet, or their car keys, or something. You can respond with, "I'm so sorry to hear that." Or, to make less of an emphasized statement, "I'm sorry to hear that." So, "I'm so sorry to hear that." This part is important, "to hear that." "I'm so sorry," again means I made a mistake. "I'm so sorry" means I made a mistake. "I'm so sorry to hear that," means I feel sad or I feel sorry for you when I hear that information. "I'm so sorry to hear that." So, use this when you hear bad news, bad news.
Okay. Last one here is a very formal apology for a very big mistake. "We deeply apologize for the error." "We deeply apologize for the error." So, maybe in this case, like there are already people in my room! You might walk into a hotel room, and someone else is in your hotel room. And you say, "Oh my gosh! There are already people in my room. There are people in my hotel room." They might say, "We deeply apologize for the error." So, this is similar to "We apologize for," something. "We deeply apologize," that means very, very much. "We deeply apologize for the error," or "for the mistake," you might hear, too. In this case, "error" and "mistake" mean the same thing. "Error" sounds a little bit more formal. "We deeply apologize for the error."
Okay. Finally, then, let's talk about giving solutions. So, how does staff -- how do people in the situation try to fix the problem -- make the customer happy? You'll notice all of these begin with "we'll" or "I'll," we will or I will. We use "we'll" in all of these because the speaker is making a decision in the conversation. So, this is new information. The staff is getting a complaint from the customer. The staff's responsibility is to make a decision in that moment to help the customer. So, we don't use "going to," generally, in response to these. We use "we'll." For example, "I'll arrange for someone to fix it right away." So, for example, "My air conditioner isn't working." You might say, "We apologize for the inconvenience. I'll arrange for someone to fix it right away." So, in this case, yes I've mixed "we" and "I" in example sentences. But, you might hear "I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. I'll arrange for someone to fix it right away." So, that sounds more like a little bit of personal responsibility. Or, to make it more of like a company feeling, "We apologize for the inconvenience. We'll arrange for someone to fix it right away." So, "arrange for someone" means we're going to call someone, some person -- like some repair person, to come to where you are to fix the problem. "We'll arrange for someone to fix it right away."
Another solution-related sentence, "We'll get a replacement for you immediately." We'll get a replacement for you immediately. So, for example, "The chair in my room is broken." They might say, "Oh! I'm terribly sorry about that," or "We're terribly sorry about that. We'll get a replacement for you immediately." So, to "get a replacement" means to acquire, to obtain a replacement of that item. So, you might hear "We'll get a new chair," or "We'll get a replacement chair for you immediately." But, "replacement" just means replacement of that thing you mentioned. "Immediately" here, and "right away" in this one, in this case, they mean roughly the same thing. "Immediately" sounds a little faster, and like with a little more urgency. Like, maybe it's an emergency situation. "We'll get a replacement for you immediately." "Right away" sounds like polite, yes. And, it's going to happen quickly. It doesn't sound so like urgent, doesn't sound like emergency-level, like "immediately" does though.
Okay. Next expression, "We'll prepare the correct dish," or "the correct drink right away." So, this is in response to this, "This isn't what I ordered." "Oh, I'm terribly sorry about the mistake. We'll prepare the correct dish right away," "We'll prepare the correct drink right away." So, that's how you explain that the thing the customer originally ordered is going to come soon. Again, "We'll prepare the correct dish," or drink. Probably, "we'll" is best in this situation. Because in most cases, the person taking customer orders is not the person also cooking food, or making drinks. So, "we'll" sounds like, "Our staff will prepare this now."
Okay. Next one, "We'll send some to you right away," or "We'll send one to you right away." This is in response to a complaint like this. As we talked about before, singular and plural are important to consider here. Same thing with the answer. For example, "There are no towels in my room." "Oh! We're very sorry to hear that. We're very sorry for the inconvenience. We'll send some to you right away." We'll send some towels," or "We'll send a few towels." So, you need to consider "Is this a singular thing or a plural thing?" Towels is plural. So, "some" is a nice choice. Or, "We'll send a few." So, not just one. If, however, it's one. If, however, it's one item, like "There's no refrigerator in my room." They'll say, "We'll send one to you right away." We'll send one to you right away. If you say "some," it sounds like you're going to get more than one refrigerator. "We'll send you some refrigerators right away," plural. So, just one refrigerator. Please keep this in mind when you're answering this question.
Finally, "I'll take this away." I'll take this away. This is in response to, "I'm allergic to this." So, I received a dish. I'm allergic to this. They might say, "Oh, we deeply apologize for the error. I'll take this away," or "I'm very sorry about the mistake. I'll take this away." That means, "I will remove this dish from your table," or from the place you are sitting. "I'll," again, "take this away." So, these are some sample solutions. Again, please consider using "we'll." All of these use "we'll" because we're making a decision in the moment of speaking.
So, I hope that this lesson was helpful for you both in making complaints and in understanding and providing apologies and solutions. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye.

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