You're listening to Business English Pod, the Business English podcast for professionals on the move. Hello and welcome back to Business English Pod. for today's lesson the second in a two-part series on quality control in this lesson we'll focus on quality control for customer service before we get started a quick reminder
that a PDF transcript for this lesson, along with hundreds of others, is available on the BEP website. Premium members can also access extra resources for every lesson to take a free trial. just head over to www.businessenglishpod.com For companies that sell products, quality control is critical. Not just for ensuring consistency, safety, and reliability, but for meeting customers' expectations. When customers buy from your company, they're thinking about more than just the product itself.
They're thinking about how well you serve them. Customer service involves a huge range of activities. Pretty much any time a customer interacts with a person or a system in your company, it's customer service. and you need to think about everything from how easy it is to use the website to the tone your employees use on the phone. When we talk about customer service and the quality of customer service,
There are many special expressions we use. Many of these are combinations of words that we call collocations. You might often learn individual vocabulary words, but we don't always think or speak in individual words. We speak in chunks of language. These chunks are called collocations. In fact, customer service itself is a collocation. These two words go together to create a new idea.
In today's dialogue, we'll continue a conversation between Emma and Paolo. Emma is a consultant that helps companies with quality control. And Paolo runs a company that makes and services solar panels. As they discuss the work that Emma will do for Paolo's company, they use many English collocations. We'll explain those collocations later in the debrief. As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions. 1. What two goals does Paolo have regarding customer service quality? 2.
What does Paolo's company do after every install or service call? 3. What has Paolo's company not done yet in a documented way? Okay, now let's talk about the service side of things. You mentioned that had been ignored a bit. Can you give me a sense of the goals here? What are you hoping to achieve? Yeah, good question. I mean, overall, obviously we want to meet customer expectations. That's one side of it. But also enhance customer satisfaction overall. Makes sense.
And for us, what we can do is help identify areas of improvement. Then you can take those recommendations away and do the work, right? Yes, as part of our commitment to continuous improvement. Wonderful. Now, have you documented best practices when it comes to service and installation before? Best practices? Not exactly. I mean...
We do a customer service evaluation after every install and every service call just to get some direct feedback. Then we talk about that with the service team. But is that a set of best practices? Probably not. That's a start at least. And with that, you're trying to gauge satisfaction? Yeah. And there are questions about different aspects of the customer experience. It's probably not the best evaluation.
And it's hard to get uptake, but... Okay, so a bit of an ad hoc approach. You haven't exactly set service standards at this point, right? No. Not in a documented way. So we'll probably start by actually defining quality. Figuring out what that means to you, but also drawing from industry standards. Yeah. That sounds great. And we'll set you up with a more robust approach to measuring performance when it comes to service. Brilliant. This is exactly what we need.
Now let's go through the dialogue again and look at the language and collocations Emma and Paolo used in their conversation. In the previous lesson, they discussed manufacturing quality. Now they're switching to the topic of service. Okay, now let's talk about the service side of things. You mentioned that had been ignored a bit. Can you give me a sense of the goals here?
What are you hoping to achieve? Yeah, good question. I mean, overall, obviously we want to meet customer expectations. Emma wants to get a sense or a general understanding. of Paolo's goals when it comes to customer service. From there, she'll be able to figure out how to help him. One of the things that Paolo wants to achieve is to meet customer expectations. You're familiar with the verb meet.
meaning to encounter a new person. But we also meet expectations, which are the ideas or assumptions we have about what will happen. You can also meet a deadline, meet a goal, meet demand. as well as meet expectations. Let's run through some more ways of using this collocation to meet customer expectations. Service training helps ensure our employees meet customer expectations.
We adjust our services based on feedback to meet customer expectations for quality. Meeting customer expectations is one of Paulo's goals. but he has another one as well. That's one side of it, but also enhance customer satisfaction overall. Paolo's second goal is to enhance customer satisfaction.
This goes beyond simply meeting expectations, which we might consider a minimum definition of success. Customer satisfaction is about their overall happiness with the product and how you take care of them. When we improve customer satisfaction, we often say we enhance it. Let's try more examples of enhancing customer satisfaction. To enhance customer satisfaction, we've made improvements to the website.
If Paolo has two major goals when it comes to customer service, what will Emma do to support those goals? Makes sense. And for us, what we can do is help identify areas of improvement. Then you can take those recommendations away and do the work, right? Emma will come in and study how the company operates. As she does that she will be able to find or identify areas of improvement. Areas of improvement are simply parts of a system that could be better.
An area of improvement could be something like handling inquiries from customers or website interactions. Since one important step in improving anything is to identify areas of improvement, Let's try some more ways of using this collocation. Conducting surveys helps us identify areas of improvement in our services. Our team reviews customer complaints to identify areas of improvement for our processes. Now let's get back to the dialogue.
as Paolo emphasizes his commitment or dedication to an important idea in quality management. Yes, as part of our commitment to continuous improvement. As we've already learned, Emma's job will be to identify areas of improvement. But this process in finding things to improve and then improving them shouldn't really just happen once in a while. As Paolo mentions,
They are interested in continuous improvement. Continuous improvement is basically an approach where you are always looking for possible changes in processes, products, and personnel. And companies that talk about continuous improvement normally have systems and processes to make sure that it's always happening. Let's practice some more ways of using this collocation, continuous improvement. Being open to change is essential for achieving continuous improvement in our operations.
Next, Emma has an important question. when it comes to service quality control. Wonderful. Now, have you documented best practices when it comes to service and installation before? First of all... it's important to know what best practices are. This refers simply to the ways of doing something or processes and methods that are considered the best. These best practices might be determined by an industry regulator.
or they might be set by yourself just for your company. When we create our own best practices and write them down, then we document these best practices. As you can see, The word document isn't just a noun or a thing. It means to officially write something down. How else can we talk about documenting best practices? Let's run through some more examples. Our best practices ensure consistency and efficiency in our operations.
We created a manual to document best practices for new employees. So has Paolo's company documented best practices in customer service? Let's listen. Best practices? Not exactly. I mean, we do a customer service evaluation after every install and every service call, just to get some direct feedback. Then we talk about that with the service team. But is that a set of best practices? Probably not. While Paolo hasn't documented best practices,
they do have some approaches to assessing their service. For one thing, after every install or installation of a solar panel and service call or service interaction, they do a customer service evaluation. An evaluation is a formal process of measuring or assessing how good something is. So a customer service evaluation is a process of assessing how well we are serving our customers.
Let's practice a couple more examples of this collocation. Regular customer service evaluations help us understand areas where we can improve. We ask all our clients to complete a short customer service evaluation Now when we do a customer service evaluation Often we are asking our customers a set of questions. We might ask them in person or over the phone, or we might ask them in an online survey. Either way,
These surveys give us direct feedback, as Paolo calls it. Direct feedback comes from customers themselves in response to our questions. So this doesn't include things we hear from others or second-hand information. Getting direct feedback can allow you to learn very specifically about different aspects of your customer service. Let's try some more ways of using this collocation.
We ask customers to give direct feedback on their experiences through our website. Direct feedback from clients helps us understand their needs. Now let's get back to the dialogue, as Emma has a question about the purpose of Paolo's customer service evaluation. That's a start at least. And with that, you're trying to gauge satisfaction?
When Emma says their efforts are a start, she means that it's a good initial attempt or first step in doing something. Her question is about the purpose of Paolo's evaluation. She asks if it's to gauge satisfaction. To gauge something is one aspect of evaluation. Gauging something means measuring it. In fact, gauge as a noun means an instrument that measures things, like a thermometer or the fuel gauge in your car.
Because gauging satisfaction of customers is a big part of quality control, let's practice this collocation with a few more examples. Our annual client survey helps to gauge satisfaction levels among our customers. We use feedback forms to gauge satisfaction. and figure out how to do better. How does Paolo respond to Emma's question about gauging satisfaction? Let's listen. Yeah.
and there are questions about different aspects of the customer experience. It's probably not the best evaluation, and it's hard to get uptake, but... are about the customer experience. You may know that experience is just the things that happen to you in a place or time or process. A customer experience is simply the customer's feelings, thoughts and perceptions.
as they interact with you. What are some other ways we can use this collocation when talking about quality control? Let's run through a few more examples. Creating a positive customer experience is crucial for encouraging repeat business. Next, Emma has another question about their approach to customer service. Okay. So, a bit of an ad hoc approach. You haven't exactly set service standards at this point, right? Emma calls their approach ad hoc or just done when needed.
The opposite of ad hoc would be a strategic or systematic approach, and part of that might be what she calls setting service standards. In our last lesson, we heard about industry standards. which are the accepted and expected ways of doing something set by government or regulators. When it comes to service, a lot of companies set or create their own standards. This verb said,
is used in many other collocations, like set goals, set limits, or set an example. Setting service standards is an important part of ensuring service quality. So let's run through some more ways to talk about setting standards. Our company sets service standards to ensure quality across all customer interactions. We establish clear service standards to guide our technical support staff. So, has Paolo's company actually set service standards?
Let's find out. No, not in a documented way. So we'll probably start by actually defining quality, figuring out what that means to you. but also drawing from industry standards. As Emma learns about Paolo's company's current approach, she can figure out what her work involves as a consultant.
Part of it will include helping them define quality. Defining something means stating exactly and precisely what it means. When we define quality, we're describing what quality means to us very specifically. Let's try some more ways of using this collocation to define quality It's hard to ensure quality if we don't first define quality in our own terms We define quality as delivering products and services that consistently meet or exceed customer expectations.
There's one more big aspect of the work that Emma mentions she will undertake. Let's listen. And we'll set you up with a more robust approach to measuring performance. when it comes to service. Robust is a word that describes something strong, healthy and capable. And Emma uses this word to describe the kind of system she will set up for measuring performance.
We've been learning various verbs related to evaluating something. And this verb measure is very similar to one other we learned, to gauge. When we measure performance, we are gauging how well something is doing. or performing. In this case, it means measuring how effective their systems for customer service are. Let's try some more ways of using this collocation to measure performance. As this is a central activity,
any quality improvement process. We use a range of indicators to measure our performance as a company. We measure performance in all aspects of our work. Let's finish off by hearing how Paolo responds to Emma's proposal. Brilliant. This is exactly what we need. Paolo thinks Emma's support is brilliant, or excellent. He sounds happy with what they've discussed, and he seems excited to improve the quality of their customer service.
Now it's your turn to practice some of the collocations we've looked at in this lesson. In a moment, you'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with a beep. Repeat the whole sentence, including the missing word. Remember... A collocation is two or more words that we commonly use together, so pay close attention to the words before the beep. For example, if you hear, We're proud of our commitment to continuous.
You can say, We're proud of our commitment to continuous improvement. After each response, we'll provide the correct answer. Ready? Let's give it a go. Our feedback form helps us gauge customer... Answer. Our feedback form helps us gauge customer satisfaction. A complete process review allowed us to identify areas of... Answer. A complete process review... allowed us to identify areas of improvement. Answer We won't succeed as a business if we can't meet customer expectations.
All employees are expected to meet the service standards we've... Answer. All employees are expected... to meet the service standards we've set. of their employees answer every company must find ways to measure the performance of their employees That's all for this lesson on collocations related to quality control for customer service. We've covered lots of useful expressions for discussing how to assess or evaluate the quality of customer experiences.
and whether we're meeting their expectations. For more practice, Premium members can access the online quizzes and PDF transcripts for this and other lessons on the BEP website. Not a member yet? Then just head over to www.businessenglishpod.com and sign up for a free trial to preview some of the extra resources available to members. Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.