1 Complete the conversation with the following phrases.

I have another idea. Do you mean

I disagree with Ben. That's right.

That's a good idea. What do you think

Yes, but

Anna: So, who's the best person for the job? ______________________, Ben?

Ben: Lea Smith is very good. She has a lot of experience.

Charlene: ______________________ about this. Malcolm Jones may be younger, but he has a lot of experience.

Ben: ______________________ Lea can start work next week. Malcolm can start only next month.

Dan: Can I come in here? ______________________ We can give them both a job as a sort of test for six months.

Ella: ______________________ keep them both for six months and then give one of them the permanent job?

Dan: ______________________

Anna: ______________________ I hadn't thought of that.

2 Colleagues at Newcorp are discussing their new supplier Partco. Put the conversation in the correct order.

__ I have an idea. Let’s tell them we’ll order more products if they can make the delivery more reliable.

__ I think Partco’s products are very cheap.

__ What do you think about Partco, Manuel?

__ Is everybody ready?

__ Yes, but they never deliver on time.

__ That’s a good idea.

__ Can I say something here? I agree with Linda – deliveries from Partco are always late.

Match the different part of the meeting with the expression from above.

1. Naomi interrupts and agrees with Linda.

2. Manuel gives his opinion.

3. Manuel makes a suggestion.

4. Linda disagrees with Manuel.

5. The chair, Chris, starts the meeting.

6. The chair asks for Manuel’s opinion.

7. Chris responds.

Practice

Work in groups of four to practise giving opinions, making interruptions, and asking for clarification.

You are a member of the customer care management team at the subsidiary of a British insurance company in your country. You are meeting with three other managers to discuss possible changes in the way you offer customer care.

The company has a call center with sixty-five agents. Twenty-five of these agents spend time making calls to potential customers. The other forty answer calls from potential and exisiting customers.

Partner A

The company has been looking at web-based customer care for several years.

You think that call center agents should no longer answer calls from customers. Instead, there should be a customer care website where new customers can find answers to their questions.

Your reasons for thinking this are:

1. An effective website is not cheap, but you would save money on staff and training. This money could be used for designing and developing the website.

2. Call center agents sometimes give customers inaccurate information and are sometimes not very polite. A website would let you control the qaulity of your company’s customer care.

Partner B

The company has been looking at web-based customer care for several years. Some peole are saying that call center agents should no longer answer calls from customers. Instead, they think there should be a customer care website where new customers can buy insurance and existing customers can find answers to their questions.

You disagree strongly with this idea. You think that:

1. The company wouldn’t save any money. A customer care website would be very expensive and the company will lose money as customers who do not want to do business on the Internet will go to other insurers.

2. Quality of service problems should be solved by providing more training for call centre agents. A “frequently asked questions” page on the website will not help customers with individual questions. Also, people will not want to buy insurance products without first speaking to a call centre agent.

Partner C

The company has been looking at web-based customer care for several years.

Some peole are saying that call center agents should no longer answer calls from customers. Instead, they think there should be a customer care website where new customers can buy insurance and existing customers can find answers to their questions.

Your job is to chair the meeting. You are uncertain where you stand on the issue. Listen carefully to your colleagues’ arguments and ask them to clarify what they are saying. By the end of the meeting, decide together what to do.

Partner D

The company has been looking at web-based customer care for several years.

Some peole are saying that call center agents should no longer answer calls from customers. Instead, they think there should be a customer care website where new customers can buy insurance and existing customers can find answers to their questions.

You disagree strongly with this idea. You think that:

1. Making and maintaining a site will cost as much as the call centre agents.

2. A website is essential for good customer care. However, customers want human contact as well, so call center agents are important too.

Unit 4 Agreeing action and closing

Action points

The person who takes the minutes also writes down action points – tasks that individual participants must peform before the next meeting.

Minutes

Date: 1 March

Chair: Monica

Venue: Room 3

Present: Nadia, Olivier, Pierre, Quentin

	Action	By
Apologies and minutes Ralph and Susan sent their apologies. N read the minutes of the last meeting and everyone agreed that they were accurate. O agreed to take the minutes for this meeting
Car parking There was a lot of discussion about building a bigger car park. N, O and P were for this, but M and Q were against. It was decided to ask employees if they will support ideas to reduce car use, like leaving their car at home one day a week. There was a difference of opinion between N and Q about this.	Nadia	15 March
Staff restaurant Q said that we must find exact costs of the restaurant today, compared to costs of possible outside suppliers. Q to research the costs and report back by email before the next meeting. We decided to set a target of a ten per cent reduction in costs for the company.	Quentin	10 March
3) Staff holidays We discussed what happened last yearwhen too many people were away in August and customers complained. We decided that staff must take two weeks in winter and two weeks in summer. We voted on this and the vote was unanimous.

Closing the meeting

The chair closes the meeting. He/She sums up the main ideas (repeats the main ideas) and recaps the action points (goes over them again).

Ending a meeting	Let’s finish here. I think that’s everything. I think that brings us to an end. We must stop here.
Confirming decisions and actions	So, to sum up what we’ve decided… Right. I’m going to… Can I sum up? We’ve decided to… Let’s go over the main points… To recap the action points, Nadya is going to…
Thanking someone for a meeting	Thank you all for coming in today. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for your hard work. I think we’ve come up with a lot of good ideas.
Saying goodbye	I look forward to seeing you all again soon. See you at the next meeting.