Learn how to say communicate with guests who are not proficient English speakers, from a conversation between a hotel staff member and a guest
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hi everybody! Brandon here! |
| Becky: And I’m Becky. Handling a Customer Complaint in English, Part 3 |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to handle a customer complaint. This is the third lesson of four on the topic, and it deals with negotiating with a customer who is unhappy with their room. |
| Becky: This conversation takes place between a hotel staff member and a guest. |
| Brandon: The speakers are in a professional relationship, so they’ll be using formal English. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Customer: Hello, I would like to register a complaint. I requested a non-smoking room, but you put me in a smoking room. I can’t stay there. I’m allergic to smoke. |
| Staff: I apologize for the inconvenience. Could you please let me know your room number, and I will switch you to a non smoking room. |
| Customer: I'm sorry, that is not good enough. All of my stuff smells like smoke now, my sinuses are acting up... |
| Staff: I'm sorry sir. Unfortunately there is not much we can do in this situation, our corporate office has outlined specific actions to take in this situation, and I am afraid they are not very flexible on this point. Here is the corporate customer service number. Please feel free to give them a call and share your complaint. |
| Customer: REALLY?! That is ridiculous! |
| Staff: I am sorry you feel that way, I would be more than happy to offer you a voucher for our dry cleaning service so that you can have the smoke smell removed from your clothes. Would that resolve the issue? |
| Customer: Oh... That is really nice of you. Thank you. |
| Staff: No problem sir, thank you for your patience. |
| Becky: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Customer: Hello, I would like to register a complaint. I requested a non smoking room, but you put me in a smoking room. I can’t stay there. I’m allergic to smoke. |
| Staff: I apologize for the inconvenience. Could you please let me know your room number, and I will switch you to a non smoking room. |
| Customer: I'm sorry, that is not good enough. All of my stuff smells like smoke now, my sinuses are acting up... |
| Staff: I'm sorry sir. Unfortunately there is not much we can do in this situation, our corporate office has outlined specific actions to take in this situation, and I am afraid they are not very flexible on this point. Here is the corporate customer service number. Please feel free to give them a call and share your complaint. |
| Customer: REALLY?! That is ridiculous! |
| Staff: I am sorry you feel that way, I would be more than happy to offer you a voucher for our dry cleaning service so that you can have the smoke smell removed from your clothes. Would that resolve the issue? |
| Customer: Oh... That is really nice of you. Thank you. |
| Staff: No problem sir, thank you for your patience. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Most hotels are equipped with many different tools to assist guests who have health-related issues. |
| Becky: That’s right. For example, many travelers have special sensitivities to particular foods. So, hotels have special menus and are even able to prepare a guest’s food in a particular way if requested. |
| Brandon: Exactly. There are several other common health-related issues including allergies, such as hay fever or sensitivity to pollen. Hotels usually have special air filters to reduce allergens in the air. |
| Becky: There are also more severe allergies such as peanut allergies or seafood allergies. In these cases, hotels carefully label all of their foods and have ingredient lists for everything they prepare for guests to eat. |
| Brandon: There are also people with other physical and mental conditions, such as down syndrome and autism, and there are hotel protocols for when these guests visit. |
| Becky: Okay, now let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Brandon: allergic [natural native speed] |
| Becky: sensitive to, has sensitivity to allergens |
| Brandon: allergic [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Brandon: allergic [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Brandon: acting up [natural native speed] |
| Becky: becoming active, causing problems |
| Brandon: acting up [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Brandon: acting up [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Brandon: sinuses [natural native speed] |
| Becky: area around the nasal cavity |
| Brandon: sinuses [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Brandon: sinuses [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Brandon: corporate office [natural native speed] |
| Becky: central administration of a corporation |
| Brandon: corporate office [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Brandon: corporate office [natural native speed] |
| : And Last: |
| Brandon: outline [natural native speed] |
| Becky: give directions for |
| Brandon: outline [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Brandon: outline [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Firstly, we’ll look at the phrase "I’m allergic” vs. “I have allergies." |
| Brandon: On the surface, these phrases mean basically the same thing. However, there is a difference in the connotation. Usually, when someone says "I’m allergic" to something, that allergy is serious. |
| Becky: For example, it’s very common to hear someone say “I’m allergic to peanuts." |
| Brandon: In the dialogue, the guest said “I am allergic to smoke” because, to them, their sensitivity to smoke was very serious. |
| Becky: It’s highly doubtful that this allergy would require any kind of medical treatment, but your guest feels it’s important. So you should pay attention to this. |
| Brandon “I have allergies” is a set phrase that means you have non serious allergic reactions to particular things, like pollen or dust for example. |
| Becky: The next phrase we’ll look at is "acting up." This phrase is casual and often heard in spoken conversation, but not seen very often in written English. |
| brandon: That’s right. The phrase "acting up" means "causing problems" or "making things difficult." For example, in the dialogue we had "My sinuses are acting up." A similar example would be something like "My children are acting up." Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn more about how to handle unhappy guests. |
| Becky: In the dialogue we heard the phrase "Could you please let me know your room number, and I will switch you to a non smoking room." |
| Brandon: When a conflict needs to be resolved in a hotel, you can start by explaining to the guest that the hotel has certain “standards of procedure” that must be followed. |
| Becky: You can do this by saying something like, "In this situation, we do…" and then insert the procedure. |
| Brandon: But there are cases where the standards of procedure will not be sufficient. |
| Becky: In the situation from the dialogue, step one was to try to resolve the room issue. In the dialogue, the staff member offered to move the guest to a new, non-smoking room. |
| Brandon: To this the guest responded "I’m sorry, that’s not good enough." However, the guest did not refuse the new room. They just said that it wasn’t enough, they wanted more. |
| Becky: Exactly. So our next step is when the staff member in the dialogue shifted to the standards of procedure. This is where they were talking about the corporate office not being flexible, and suggesting that the guest should call them. |
| Brandon: Exactly. Now, typically, guests don’t like this kind of answer. Which is why they responded with "Really? That is ridiculous!" |
| Becky: But the staff member did this anyway because it let the guest know that there are some things that are prohibited, and it also showed that there are some things that are beyond the authority of a particular staff member. |
| Brandon: That’s right. Which brings us to step three, which is where the staff member continued to try to resolve the situation. |
| Becky: Now, the guest had stated that firstly - the room was wrong, and secondly - his clothes smelled like smoke. This was the second problem that the staff member tried to solve. |
| Brandon: In other words, the staff member suggested a new room to correct the problem with being given a smoking room and the dry-cleaning voucher to correct the smoke smell in the clothing. |
Outro |
|---|
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening! |
| Becky: And we’ll see ya next time! Bye! |
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