- •Е.В. Дводненко
- •Table of Contents
- •Введение
- •Section I. English for telephoning Useful vocabulary for successful telephoning in English
- •Text I. Business Telephoning Etiquette
- •The Business Etiquette of Transferring a Call
- •Appropriate greetings and endings
- •Gathering information
- •Listening skills
- •Suggesting and verifying a course of action
- •Taking notes
- •Dealing with difficult callers
- •Things to avoid when on the phone
- •Practice: Connecting
- •Messages
- •Wrong number
- •Appointments
- •Ordering
- •Text II. Business Telephoning Language
- •Practice:
- •Section II. English for meetings Useful vocabulary for successful meetings in English
- •Text I. Business Meetings Organization
- •Practice: agenda setting
- •Interruptions
- •Agreeing and disagreeing
- •Any other business (aob)
- •Text II. Business Meetings Language Etiquette
- •Practice:
- •Section III. English for negotiations Useful vocabulary for successful negotiations in English
- •Text I. The Art of Negotiations
- •Practice tricky conversations
- •Resolving difficulties
- •Asking for a pay rise
- •Difficult clients
- •Text II. Giving your personal viewpoint
- •Practice:
- •Section IV. English for presentations Useful vocabulary for successful presentations in English
- •Text I. Business Presentations & Public Speaking
- •Practice: Opening
- •Questions
- •Section V. English for business correspondence Useful vocabulary for writing business letters
- •Text I. Business Letter Etiquette
- •Practice
- •Text II. Notes on business correspondence Business Letter Contents
- •1St Check: Look at the text as a whole
- •2Nd Check: Check your text for detail
- •Marlene Leach
- •Layout of Envelopes
- •Practice
- •4. Match the beginnings and endings below and identify which letter a) is a letter of complaint, b) offers an apology, c) is an application for a job.
- •Text III. 20 Tips of Business Writing
- •Text IV. Resumes and Covering Letters
- •Summary
- •11 Tips of Success
- •Additional reading cross cultural business communication
- •Text I. What is Culture?
- •Text III. International Business Etiquette
- •Text IV. Intercultural Communication Tips
- •Text V. Cross Cultural Marketing Blunders
- •Text VI. More Results of Poor Cross Cultural Awareness
- •Text VII. Stereotypes: An Intercultural No-No
- •Involve
- •Text VIII. Business Meeting Etiquette
- •Informal Meetings
- •Text IX. Cross cultural negotiation
- •Text X. Techniques for Resolving Cross-Cultural Disputes
- •Techniques:
- •Text XI. The Business Lunch and Cultural Differences
- •Text XII. Business Card Etiquette
- •Text XIII. Cross Cultural Gift Giving Etiquette
- •Text XIV. Cross Cultural Presentations
- •Text XV. Intercultural Factors When Making International Presentations
- •Text XVI. Cross Cultural Advertising
- •Text XVII. Hurdles to Cross Cultural Business Communication
- •Text XVIII. Cultural Communication across Languages
- •Text XIX. Ten Strategies for Success Abroad
- •Text XX. Cultural Sensitivity in Business
- •Список литературы Основная
- •Дополнительная
- •Интернет-ресурсы
Appropriate greetings and endings
Appropriate greetings and endings to calls help build a good rapport and avoid misunderstandings and wasting time. The three elements of an appropriate greeting are:
identifying your company
giving your name and job title/department
asking how you can help the caller.
When you close the call you should:
make sure that the caller has no more queries
thank the caller
let the caller put down the receiver first so they don't feel you have cut them off.
Gathering information
A telephone call is a purposeful activity. Your caller will have some objective in mind and you will need to elicit this objective as quickly and as clearly as possible. In a simple information-seeking call, all you need to do is ask for the caller's name, address, telephone and fax numbers. However, in more complex situations, you need to develop your questioning techniques so that you obtain the salient facts. Let's assume your caller has a complaint about a product your company has sold them. You need to:
ascertain the nature of the problem
verify that the product is one of yours and that warranty cover still applies
discover how the caller has been using the product and what steps they have taken to rectify the problem.
Listening skills
Another skill in receiving telephone calls is the ability to listen properly. Passive listening is simply allowing the caller to talk and not taking any action to ensure we have the right message. By actively listening we mean first indicating to the caller that we are listening by interrupting in an encouraging manner—interruptions could be 'yes', 'I see', 'Okay', ‘right,’ ‘I know what you mean’, or they could be prompts to encourage the caller to say more: 'is that true?', 'are you sure?', etc. And secondly we mean asking questions or using prompts to ensure that the caller gives precise information so that the message we receive is accurate. This can be done by the use of wh- questions: What color?/how many?/when will you arrive?/where shall we meet? and by techniques such as echoing and reformulating.
Suggesting and verifying a course of action
Once you have an accurate picture of the situation, you are in a position to propose a course of action to your caller. You should:
outline the proposal and check that it is acceptable to the caller
confirm that they understand what is to be done.
Here is an example of a call where active listening skills are used and a course of action is agreed:
A: Good morning, John Sharp speaking.
B: John, hello. Tony Mills from Mega deals here. I've got a problem with that last order…
A: A problem, did you say?
B: Yes, well the order was incomplete. We ordered 600 but when we checked the consignment, it was obvious that we hadn't got them all.
A: So how many were you short?
B: Well, they came in boxes of 50 and we only had 8 boxes so we're missing 200. The thing is, it wouldn't normally be a hassle but you see…
A: When do you need the remainder?
B: By Monday; we must have them by Monday.
A: Immediately after the weekend, you say?
B: Well, we could just stretch to Tuesday but no later because…
A: Okay, leave it with me. I'll get on to dispatch and make sure you get another 200 by Tuesday at the latest.
B: Thank you, I’ll call you back if there’s a further problem.