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

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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

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

Do you ever do favours or make exceptions for important clients?

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Language level

B1 Intermediate

I do not have any clients. But if i could help i'll do it with minimum of precautious.

Do you ever do favours or make exceptions for important clients? Yes, sometimes I did favors for my Important clients, but that depends on the case and calculate how much it would bring for the company benefits and our target goals.

Do favours and make exceptions for important clients in a normal and standard practice between parts of a contract, I think. Together everyone accomplishes more! The contractual parts should interact by solving problems.

To my mind is a model and coherence phone dialogue between a customer and a supplier. Both - the customer and the supplier - are focused on the objective problem and solve them in just a few minutes. Really, brevity is the sister of talent. And both are effective at their workplaces.

Hello, My motto in life is to do good every day. It is not easy. In some days i tried hard to respect my engagement. I remember that in the past i helped financially a very good friend. It was a big value for me. Our friendship was in danger to loose because he did't respect the commitment. He returned the loan with 18 month delay. At that moment i had some problems paying for my daughter's study. i finally got the money and everything is OK!

How can I download the podcast?

Hello Sumayah_137

On a computer, right-click on top of the audio player and then choose 'Save Audio As'. Some phones or tablets probably won't let you easily download the audio, so I'd recommend using a computer if possible.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

On phone you can download firefox or some other browser that allows you to save audio by long pressing the audio player.

YES make exception for important customers that take what they need only from you company ever , and for store owners whom take a lot item , that's found in the who'll the world