Most of us tend to have a negative
view of complaints or making complaints, but then the juicer you bought
stops working after just three uses or the flowers you
ordered to celebrate a friend's birthday, never got delivered, or the
hotel you booked for your vacation. Didn't tell you that they're
under construction right now. When you're disappointed in
a product service or outcome, let's talk about how to complain
in English and get results. If you don't already know, I'm
Annemarie with Speak Confident English, everything I do here is designed to
help you get the confidence you want for your life and work in English. One way I do that is by sharing my
weekly Confident English lessons, where I highlight my confidence
and fluency building strategies, targeted grammar lessons, and in depth communication training, just like in this lesson
today, while you're here, make sure that you subscribe to my
Speak Confident English channel. So you never miss one of these lessons. Now let's get back to the art of making
complaints in English and getting the results that you want. In other words, how do you set aside those negative
feelings about making a complaint and instead learn how to complain
in a way that leads to a positive outcome for everyone. The truth is most companies and
service providers want you to be happy with their service or product.
And if you complain effectively, it helps them to improve their
customer service. Going forward. In this lesson today, we're going to walk through six
steps that allow you to make a complaint in English effectively. And along the way I'll share with
you key phrases and vocabulary you can use to help you
do that. Step. Number one, get your emotions out before you complain. The most successful complaints
are communicated in a confident and calm manner. This is true. Whether you're writing the complaint in
an email or you're making the complaint on the phone or face to
face to do this effectively, it's important to vent all your
negative emotions in advance to vent means to give free
expression to strong emotions. And you can do this by
writing out all those angry, frustrated, irritated feelings that you have
before you actually make the complaint, get all those negative feelings
out on paper, release them, and then move on to step. Number two, be clear about the result you want
from making the complaint in English. As you prepare to make your complaint
or to go through the steps I'm going to share with you next. It's important to start with being
clear about the result that you want to get. For example,
are you seeking a refund, a discount, an apology, or a replacement of something that
you've bought a good question to ask yourself is what will make you
feel better about this situation? It's important to identify what your
goal is so that you can make that goal or the result that you
want clear in the complaint. Now I'm sure I don't need to say this, but I will just in case when you
are identifying the result that you want, it's important, that result is proportional to
the problem that you experienced. For example, a realistic result of complaining
about a terrible experience at a restaurant might be the
request of a refund or a credit for having another meal
at the restaurant in the future. For example, if you've had a terrible night at a
new restaurant in your neighborhood, you might say my family and I were looking
forward to visiting your restaurant this evening. And of course I understand
your restaurant has just opened. You're still adjusting. However, we've
had a number of negative responses, including receiving the wrong food order, then waiting an additional 60 minutes
for the order to be corrected. And then when our food
finally arrived, it was cold. We'd like to give your restaurant a second
chance in the future, but to do that, we'd like to request a
refund on our dinner tonight. I want you to keep this example.
I've just shared with you in mind, as we continue through the next steps
of how to make it a complaint in English and get the results you want. Step number three is be prepared
to back up your complaint here. I'm using the phrasal verb
to back up. And in this context, it means to provide support, to provide evidence to something as
you prepare to make your complaint, you'll want to be sure to have
any purchase receipts or other documents such as an
invoice or clear examples of poor service, a defective product, or a disappointing outcome. In the example I provided with the
disappointing experience at a restaurant, the evidence was referenced
by reminding the server or the restaurant manager of
the wrong food order. The 60 minute wait for the
food order to be corrected and the food arriving cold. Now, I just mentioned the
person I'm complaining to. It might be the server or
the restaurant manager. And that leads me to step number four, make sure you complain to the
right person to ensure a quick positive outcome. You want to make your complaint to
the person who has the authority to solve the problem at a
restaurant. For example, a server may or may not be able
to make the decision of whether or not to charge you for a meal, even
though you've had a bad experience. So you may need to go to someone higher
up or to someone with more authority. Now, if you're not sure who is
the right person to speak to, here are some questions you can use in
English to help you identify the right person. Number one, who
do I need to talk to, to resolve this situation? Number two, I'm not at all satisfied with
this situation, who do I speak to, to resolve this issue? Number three, who is the right person for me to speak
to about my dissatisfaction and number four, who on your team has the
authority to resolve this problem? Once you're clear about the result
you want, the evidence you need, and you're sure that you're
speaking to the right person, it's time for step number
five, be clear, succinct, and polite in your
complaint. In other words, get to the heart of the issue quickly
and focus on the most important details while you do that,
maintain polite language. This doesn't mean that you have to
apologize for making the complaint in English. And it doesn't mean that you have to
feel badly about making the complaint, but it does mean that you should
continue using words such as please thank you and modals in English, which contribute to the overall
level of politeness doing this helps to create Goodwill
or the desire to help you solve the problem. Let's take
a look at three real life, examples of clear,
succinct, polite complaints, and some must have phrases you can
use in English as well for situation. Number one, let's imagine a mix
up with your hotel reservation. When you go to make your complaint, you might say there's a
problem with our room. I reserved the junior suite. As you
can see here from my reservation. However, the room we were
provided is a double room. How can this be amended? We'd like to have a junior suite
as we reserved and paid for. Now, let's talk about why this
complaint works. First. We're getting to the heart
of the matter immediately, rather than apologizing
with I'm sorry for, but we go directly to the issue.
There's a problem with the room. Following that a document is provided
to show what the original reservation was. The question, how can this be amended
maintains polite language rather than making a demand.
For example, saying, fix this, we're asking a polite question
with the modal can. And finally, with this complaint, it's
clear what the customer wants. They want the suite that
they originally reserved. And now let's go onto our second example. Imagine that a coworker or an
employee has submitted something late. When you're ready to complain
about this, you could say, I expected this to be submitted
on time. What went wrong? And how can we avoid this problem
in the future in this complaint, it's clear what result
was expected and what result is expected in the future. And we're maintaining
polite communication. We're using a polite question
to help identify what went wrong and working toward a solution to
avoid this problem in the future. And now for our third example
of a clear, succinct complaint, let's imagine that you've just gone to
the hair salon and you've gotten a bad haircut. When it's time to
complain. You might say, I'm not satisfied with
the haircut I've received. Not only is it not flattering, but I can also see that one
side is longer than the other. At the very least, I'd like to have
this fixed for no extra charge, just as we've outlined
in all the steps. So far, we focus immediately
on the problem at hand, we also provide clear evidence or
support for our dissatisfaction, and we indicate what we want from
making the complaint in English from start to finish. We're also
using polite, assertive language. For example, in making a
request for the outcome. At the very least, I'd like
we're using the modal word. Once again, modals automatically increase the
level of politeness in our language. Now that we've gone through those first
five steps of how to make a complaint in English, let's finish
with step number six. And I actually consider this a bonus
step because it isn't necessary, but it will help you
effectively make a complaint. Use this sandwich method for goodwill. Perhaps you've heard of using the sandwich
method when giving critical feedback in English, this same method can
be used when making a complaint. What this means is to start with
something positive. For example, how long you've been a customer of this
company or something you like about the company doing this shows that
you're being measured in your complaint. In other words,
you're approaching it in
a thoughtful, careful way. Then after your positive statement, you go directly to your complaint. That includes the relevant details
and your request for how to fix it. What is it that you want? And finally end on an
encouraging note. For example, I'm certain you can
resolve this issue for me, or I would like to
continue being a customer. And I'm hopeful that you can find
a resolution following this method helps to establish Goodwill. This is
a word I've used a couple of times. Now Goodwill means a friendly, helpful, or cooperative attitude. And of
course, when you're making a complaint, you want the person you're
complaining to, to want to help you. You want them to be cooperative and
to find the best solution for you following this method helps
you achieve that goal. You saw this sandwich method demonstrated. And the example I shared earlier of having
a negative experience at a restaurant and making a complaint about it, let's revisit that to look at how
the sandwich method was used. First, I started with something positive, my family and I were looking forward to
visiting your restaurant this evening. And of course I understand your
restaurant just opened and you're still adjusting. Then I moved on to making the
complaint in English with my examples. Here's what I said. However, we've had a number of negative
experiences this evening, including receiving the wrong food order, then waiting 60 minutes
for it to be corrected. And then when we finally
received our food, it was cold. Then after I made that complaint, I ended on an encouraging
note with the result that I wanted as well. We'd like to give your
restaurant a second chance in the future, but to do that, we'd like to request
a refund for our dinner tonight. Now that you have these six steps for
how to make a complaint in English successfully and get the results
you want, let's practice. Think for a moment about a situation
you had recently that made you want to complain. Perhaps it was a late
delivery, a disappointing experience, or an order mix up. How would you use the strategies and
phrases you've learned today to complain in English and get the
results that you want, write it down and then share it with me. You can share your example complaint
in the comment section below, and while you're there, make sure to review examples from
other students in the Speak Confident Englishcommunity. This will help you think about how
you can adapt what you've learned and use these phrases in the future to
effectively make complaints in English. No matter what you're complaining about. If you found this lesson
useful to you today, I would love to know you can let me
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Confident Englishlessons. Thank you so much for joining me today. And I look forward to
seeing you next time.