.
MODULE 3 BUSINESS TOPIC 3.1 Communication at work
VOCABULARY Mean of communication 1 What does this quotation mean to you?
‘Think like a wise man but communication in the language of the people.’
W.B. Yeats, poet (1865-1939)
2 Delete the verb that does NOT go with each type of business communication.
0 an email send /draft /post 1 a phone call do/make /receive 2 a press release put up /issue/put out 3 an advertising campaign launch/run /make 4 a presentation give /make/ tell 5 a meeting or seminar hold /attend /carry out 6 a report produce/run/publish 7 a notice put out/put up/ display 8 a memo to all concerned publish/send out/circulate 9 information on the Internet post/make/put
3 For which of the following would you feel most confident using your English? And least confident? Discuss with your partner. a presentation a meeting a phone call a report an email 4 Discuss these quotations with your partner.
.
? Have you had good experiences of dealing with companies
through call centres?
? Do you shop on the Internet? WHY? /WHYNOT?
? With which products or services is face-to-face contact helpful?
With which is it unnecessary?
5 Read the five extracts from the magazine Management Now
on page27 and then match each of the eight statements (1-8) with one of the extracts. You will need to use some of the texts more than one.
0 You can gather a lot of customer data with modern computer systems. A
1 One future trend will be more direct contact between companies and their customers._____ 2 Business
hasn’t
really
changed,
only
the
media
of
communication._____
3 Companies need to think about which channel is most appropriate to their customers ’needs._______
4 Customers are frequently frustrated by not being put though quickly to the person they need to speak to._____
5 There is less human interaction nowadays, but this isn’t necessarily bad for the customer.________
MANAGEMENT NOW. APRIL ISSUE Better communication?
‘THE MORE ELABORATE OUR MEANS of communication, the less we communication.ˊThese were the words of Joseph Priestly over 200 years ago .But if that was true then ,what would he make of communications technology today?
.
Natalie Fitzgerald asked five people working in the field what they thought.
A Bill Osmond, data analyst
I think he’s got a good point. Powerful IT systems give companies enormous amounts of information on customer behavior, but it’s what they can do this data that matters. A good example in recent years was Centrica, the British utility company. It acquired a big portfolio of different companies and then spent huge amounts of money on an IT system designed to cross-sell its various products and services-financial services, telephone contracts, energy supply and so on _to the customers in its different businesses. But they never managed to do it, because their IT people were unable to merge all the customer databases or to make them talk to each other
B SARAH BRIDGESTONE, former call centre manager
Absolutely. Call centres can more often act as a barrier than a help. Talk the example of a well-known mobile phone operator. When a customer calls, he’s given a list of options to choose from: dial I for bill enquiries, 2 to upgrade his handset, 3 if he has a technical problem, 4 if he’s thinking of leaving the company. From each of these he’s taken through another list of options. If he still can’t find what he is looking for, he’s invited to ‘stay on the line until an operator becomes available’. This can take up to ten minutes, by which time he is now seriously thinking of going back to option 4 and cancelling his contract. It really seems counter-productive. C DOUG COOK, bank manager
There is no doubt that modern communication channels have depersonalized a lot of customer contact. Banks have been doing this for years, trying to commoditise the service that they offer so that they can rationalize it and make it cheaper to deliver Most transactions- bank deposits, cash withdrawals, issuing of statements-have been
.
automated whether at a cash machine, over the phone or online. This has saved companies and the customer money. But cost-cutting is by no means the only driver- it’s a trend also driver by customer demand for a quick and flexible service. D FARHANA PATEL, online retailer
It’s just about convenience. Whether I text you a message or tell you the same message face-to-face, it’s still a message. The growth of Internet shopping compared to that of high street shopping shows very clearly that customers want cheaper and more accessible services. Sellers like the convenience too of course. eBay started out as a market place for individuals but, increasingly, companies have used it to sell products direct to consumers. In face it’s not very different from a traditional market place. There is still a community of buyers and sellers who talk to each other and do business just the same as if they were dealing face-to-face.
E BRIAN MACWHINNEY, management consultant
Businesses are often too quick to embrace new technology in order to save money or gain a competitive advantage. But applying the same solution to all types of business is never a good idea. There are cultural factors to consider. Using a call centre in India to handle enquiries about train times on railways in Europe is a bad idea because it isn’t suited to customers’ expectations. On the other hand, a European customer of a computer company doesn’t really mind if his technical problem is solved by a call centre operator in India or Ireland or Alaska, because it doesn’t require any cultural knowledge. Good communication is about finding the right channel. In time, I expect we’ll see a return to more face-to-face contact with customers and more local services.
SPEAKING 1 Which of the following do you find useful? When do you use it? Why?
.
mobile phone email SMS MSN Blackberry
2 Decide the best ways to communication the following messages. What? To whom? How? Send a formal letter 0 An apology for A customer forgetting to send some information 1 The company’s An employee who is gratitude appreciation 2 A change of The general public brand identity 3 The appointment All the employees of a new managing director 4 A new website Your customers the company has created 5 The company’s The media and the work to help the general public environment 6 Vacant posts for Young recruits trainee salesmen and women 7 A discount(for a Your customers limited period) on a product line and about to retire
整合剑桥商务英语(高级)第三版3
