Hi, students.
Hope you're well.
In today's business English lesson,
we're going to talk about conflict resolution at work.
How do we find a way of calming down a situation
and stopping people being angry at work?
We're going to specifically focus
on one example, which is dealing with an angry customer
or client.
How can we resolve the problem so that everybody is happy?
A lot of the phrases will be learning today
will also be useful to use in other types of conflict
with colleagues or impersonal relationships.
But we're going to specifically focus on that one example
so that it's easier to see how we
can deal with this practically in that situation.
So we'll begin by talking about all the things
that you need to do to create that atmosphere that
can release all the anger in the situation.
First of all, you're going to have
to listen to your angry customer or client.
You need to make sure that you understand the problem
that they experienced.
So don't interrupt them.
Let them tell you what happened.
Don't contradict them.
Don't tell them they were wrong.
Simply listen.
That's all you need to do.
The next point is you have to acknowledge
that something happened and your customer had a bad experience.
You don't have to agree with them that everything that
happened was correct or true.
But you need to acknowledge that something happened.
So, again, this is why you don't tell them that they're wrong
or start giving all the evidence why that's not the case
or why your other customers don't experience that.
You have to acknowledge that from their point of view
there's a problem.
Next is a very brave step.
Only a few brave souls dare to tread this far.
The next step is to apologize if you can.
A lot of times people try to we could say worm
their way out, which is an idiom, of apologizing in a work
environment.
This is because if they admit they did something wrong,
they don't want to get blame on them from higher up.
But if you really want to resolve
the conflict in a satisfactory way,
apologize because that's usually what the customer wants.
And the last step is promise to do better in future.
This one is only relevant if you're
going to have an ongoing relationship with that customer
or client.
If the situation has been really, really bad,
that customer is not going to come back to you, in which case
saying that you're going to do better for future customers
isn't going to please the upset person.
It might even put fuel on the fire, make them more angry,
because if you've had some bad treatment by a company,
you don't care what happens to all the people after you
usually.
So only promise to do better if you're
going to have an ongoing relationship work-wise.
Now let's talk about what the person
you're arguing with needs in order for you
to resolve the conflict.
First, they need to calm down.
If they are very emotional or frustrated because
of this problem, you're not going
to be able to solve it while everybody is upset.
So this is why you have to speak in a calm manner
and try not to add fuel to the fire.
So don't ask them to calm down.
Don't ask them to stop shouting or whatever
because this is likely to make them more angry than they
already are.
Your angry customer needs to feel heard.
Just listen.
This is another way of saying listen to them.
But this has an emotional aspect to it.
When you feel heard by someone, it's more than just listening.
It's like, yes, this person understands my frustration.
This person understands what I have been through.
Next, your customers probably want
to going to want you to take action.
Fix the problem.
What went wrong?
And finally, the angry customer wants someone
to take responsibility for what happened.
This is accountability.
This could be as simple as saying, yes, I made a mistake.
I'm really sorry about that.
Or if it wasn't a personal mistake
for you to speak on behalf of the company,
or the broken software, or whatever
it was that caused the problem, and say that was the reason.
So when all of these things happen,
the customer is able to let go of their anger
and hopefully the two of you can meet halfway
and resolve the problem.
Next, we're going to look at useful phrases
that you can use in your conversations
with angry customers or colleagues or clients
to resolve problems at work.
The first phrase is, I'm going to take care of this
personally.
Your angry customer is really going
to want to hear this because this means that you're
going to deal with the problem.
You're going to be responsible for fixing it.
If you do it personally, then even better because now
somebody cares and is going to fix the problem.
Next, when there is room for improvement.
This is a softer way of saying, yes, we made a mistake.
For example, you could say to your customer,
I've listened to everything you've said
and I can see there is room for improvement.
This is a way of acknowledging the mistake but without saying
in a really, really obvious way, oh, we messed up
there, which may be too strong.
You don't want to take that much responsibility for the mistake.
So we can use words in softer ways that still allow
the customer to feel heard.
When there's room for improvement.
This is like saying, yes, we could have done better there.
Perhaps you don't know what it is
your customer wants you to do about the problem that already
happened.
So you can ask them a question.
You can say, how can I go about solving this for you?
When you go about something, this means begin the process.
Start.
And if you notice here in this kind of situation
we're using a lot of phrasal verbs
because phrasal verbs soften the message.
And it's the way that native speakers usually communicate.
So we're saying here, how can I go about
solving this for you, the problem, instead of saying,
how can I start solving this for you?
That doesn't sound right.
And it's a two-way process.
This is an open question.
And from there, you might see the way through and out
of the problem.
Next, we've got, I've listened to everything you've said
and fully taken it on board.
This sentence does two things.
It shows that you listened to the person's problem.
And it also shows them that you're
acknowledging their situation, their frustration, whatever
it was that happened to them.
Because when you take something on board--
another phrasal verb here--
you take in that information.
And when we've got fully, you've fully taken it on board.
This is a way of saying, I've heard everything
that you've said.
And this is a very powerful, calming sentence
to use with an angry customer.
Next, we're moving more onto apologizing to the customer.
This is a brave sentence.
Not everybody's going to feel that they
can use this powerful word sorry when dealing with a customer.
I'm sorry that we let you down.
We if you're talking on behalf of a company.
Even more powerful if you say, I'm sorry that I let you down.
People don't like admitting the mistake a lot of the time
because it can get them into trouble.
However, if you're a one-person business,
sometimes you have to use these powerful words like sorry
because you can't afford to make all of your customers angry.
When you let someone down, this is a phrasal verb
for disappoint them.
A more formal way of apologizing that you
might hear fairly often is to say, apologies
for the inconvenience.
Or I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused.
A lot of the time when customers are frustrated,
it's because their time has been wasted,
or they've had to make too many phone calls.
It's taken too long to sort this out.
So they want the frustration acknowledged.
And our last useful sentence here
is, let me put things right.
This is an action sentence.
I'm going to do something about this.
I'm going to fix this for you.
So you could use any of these sentences
here or adapt them to the situation you're in, perhaps
if you're not dealing with an angry customer.
And all of these phrases here will
go towards resolving the conflict so you
can stop being in those angry, stressful situations
and move towards peace and having a good day in your work.
Thank you for watching this lesson.
If you like videos like this, I've got more of them
on my channel to help you improve your business English.
And I also have a business English vocabulary course,
which you should definitely check out.
And other than that, come back to my channel another time,
and I'll see you then.
Thank you for watching.
Bye.