📘 Part 3: Customers and services

This episode's vocabulary

High-quality (adj.) - very good; of high quality.

Efficient (adj.) - working or operating quickly and effectively in an organized way.

Committed (adj.) - loyal and willing to give your time and energy to something that you believe in.

Let alone (phrase) - used after a negative statement to emphasize how unlikely a situation is because something much more likely has never happened.

-facing (suffix) -  turned towards the stated direction.

Spokesperson (noun) -a person who is chosen to speak officially for a group or organization.

Boil down (phrasal verb) - to reduce information, usually so that it contains only its most important parts.

Jump the gun (idiom) - to do something too soon, especially without thinking carefully about it.

To resolve (verb) - to solve or end a problem or difficulty.

On offer - available to be bought or used.

Incidental (adj.) - less important than the thing something is connected with or part of.

To seek (verb) - to try to find or get something, especially something that is not a physical object.

To evaluate (verb) - to judge or calculate the quality, importance, amount, or value of something.

All and sundry - everyone.

To channel (verb) - to direct something into a particular place or situation.

Act on sth (phrasal verb) -  to do something because you have been advised or told to do it.

Query (noun) - a question, often expressing doubt about something or looking for an answer from an authority.

To shift (verb) - to (cause something or someone to) move or change from one position or direction to another, especially slightly.

Inhuman (adj.) - not human.

Vote with your feet (idiom) - to show your opinion by leaving an organization or by no longer supporting, using, or buying something.

Miss out (phrasal verb) - to fail to use an opportunity to enjoy or get an advantage from something.

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Questions and Answers

M: What kinds of services would you expect to receive from a company?

R: The good kind? Seriously though, I think everyone wants something high-quality, as efficient as possible and as cheap as it can be. So if we think about customer service, that means it should work well. It should be fast, and it should be low cost in terms of time committed to the issue. Of course, it's quite hard to find this combination of things, let alone deliver them.

M: What kinds of jobs involve coping with the public?

R: I imagine most service jobs since they're usually public-facing and of course, they're spokespeople for various companies. So I suppose you could boil it down to anything that involves doing a lot of talking.

M: Should companies react quickly when customers have difficulties?

R: Well, that does seem like the obvious answer, doesn't it? However, sometimes a slower response might be better to avoid jumping the gun. Sometimes problems can resolve themselves, or a good solution for all parties might require more thought. So it's important to be calm in this respect.

M: When does good service play an important role?

R: Well, I would argue that it always does. However, if we have to narrow it down, then when the service is a key part of the product on offer and isn't incidental. By this I mean, sometimes service is something that supports the delivery of the product, like the person who greets you at the reception desk in the company, you can survive bad service there. But if the service is teaching, for example, and the teacher is bad, then the entire product is basically ruined.

M: How can companies improve customer service?

R: How does one improve anything, you seek feedback and set up systems to properly evaluate it. That doesn't mean listening to all and sundry talk about your company, you find ways to channel feedback by asking the right questions and considering it carefully before acting on it.

M: Can robots sometimes provide better customer service than people?

R: Imagine if it's a straightforward query, then you don't need a person, though most of that has probably been shifted online. So people do it through banking apps, for example, or apps in general. Usually, when people call a number they want to speak to a human. If we expand this idea to shops and cashiers, I would also rather deal with a person. I think most people would. It's all a bit inhuman, otherwise, that loss of a sense of connection.

M: Are customers expectations too high?

R: Well, with regards to what? Getting good service? If we mean that, then no. I mean, good manners and professionalism cost nothing. You can also train people to handle failure too. So I don't think the expectations are too high in that respect, but it depends on what you mean.

M: What do people do when they get bad service?

R: I think the easy answer would be to say they complain, but many people don't. Or so am I to believe. You actually just vote with their feet and they go somewhere else. That's what I've done, whenever I've had a terrible experience.

M: What do you think people should do?

R: Well, I don't see why they have to pick one choice. You could leave negative feedback and move somewhere else. Or you could leave negative feedback and hope that things improve.

M: Why do some people choose to be silent when they receive bad service?

R: There are lots of reasons. It could be they're afraid, maybe it's not part of their culture, it's too much effort. There's a whole range of issues that might prevent people from giving negative feedback. It's a shame though since companies might be missing out on a lot of that important advice.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

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