A phone call from a customer

A phone call from a customer

Listen to the phone call from a customer to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Junko: Hello, Junko Mori speaking. How can I help you?

Andrea: Hi, Junko, it's Andrea here from Red Band. I'm calling about our latest order.

Junko: Everything arrived OK, right? We got the delivery confirmation at our end.

Andrea: Yes, everything's fine with the order. I'm calling about the invoice and the payment terms. I need a favour.

Junko: A favour? What do you need?

Andrea: This is a little, er ... difficult, but I need an extension on the payment terms. I know they're usually 30 days, but we're having some cash flow problems. You'd really be helping us out if you could extend it to 60 days.

Junko: I'm not sure if I can do that, Andrea. We've got regulations at our end, and also have to manage our own cash flow.

Andrea: I promise this won't become the norm, Junko. Actually, I also want to place another new order. The same size order as last time. It's for an important customer and they pay on delivery.

Junko: I see. So your cash flow problem will be solved after this new order is delivered.

Andrea: Exactly.

Junko: That sounds good. Hold on, Andrea. Let me see what I can do. Yes, I think we can make an exception this time.

Andrea: That's great, Junko. I appreciate your help.

Junko: And we appreciate your business, Andrea. It works both ways.

Andrea: Thanks again, Junko. Can you send me a quick email confirmation of the payment terms extension?

Junko: Sure, no problem. We're happy to help you.

Andrea: Great. And I'll email you the new order.

Junko: Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for it. Talk to you soon.

Andrea: You too. Goodbye.

Task 1

Task 2

Discussion

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Average: 4.4 (613 votes)

Submitted by Albert Marambio on Tue, 12/05/2020 - 03:59

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In my opinion I could do an excepction ,just if I have the same amount of money in case my customer does not comply with the extension.

Submitted by Rehaf on Mon, 11/05/2020 - 23:58

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wt we call this accent?

Hello Rehaf

As far as I can tell, Junko has a light Japanese accent and Andrea has a light Italian accent.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by AlejoPB on Mon, 11/05/2020 - 19:56

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Yes, on some occasions a had done an exception with an important client my last job. I think that is so important to help our clients and customer when we can do something, as long as that keeps the company's rules, is important to be flexible, due to anything could be happened in anytime.

Submitted by Bhre Satriavi on Sun, 10/05/2020 - 16:36

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i'm still get dificult when speaker was saying "30 days" it's sound err i dont i can't hear clearly

Submitted by mgalezzo on Fri, 08/05/2020 - 01:53

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I think that is very important to maintain a good client, for these reason I always do favors to whom need.

Submitted by senes19 on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 17:57

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Last year I worked an English course in Turkey as a receptionist. Sometimes we encountered same this situation. We can have flexible decision. Because important clients are raising up any company or not. If you interesting wit him very well, you will enforce.
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Submitted by rerre on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 01:42

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Would it be wrong to say "You'll really help us" instead of "You'll really be helping us"? I don't know the difference in this situation. Thank you