Things to consider:
- You can start your speech with a general statement on:
Do you receive a good service very often?
What is your definition of "good service"?
In what industries do you get a good service?
- If you can't think of a special time you received good service, think simple. You can tell a very simple story about a restaurant and waiters being kind, nice, helpful, polite, and chatty. This gives a good impression to people and is considered good service.
- A good service is not only in real life. These days it can be online, in a video game, or while online shopping. Whatever made you feel satisfied, and made you buy again from the same place, could be considered good service.
Part 2: Sample Answer
Ok, so in terms of good service, I have to say that I don’t have very high standards. All I usually want is to receive exactly what I’m paying for. For instance, I'd like to receive food, as it looks in the menu, or a product with its features, as advertised online. I’d say it’s usually hit-and-miss when it comes to ordering online, but I’ve had some good service, that surprised me a lot, in some restaurants. I will tell you about one of them.
I start by saying what is a good service for me.
So, last year (2020) I decided to celebrate my birthday at a restaurant. It was a place I’ve been to before, a Northern Chinese restaurant, in the city I live. I knew the food already, and this time I booked a private room and invited around 10 people – friends and family. We ordered everything as usual and the service was quite fast and convenient as I expected. But that was not the highlight of the night.
I introduce the restaurant my story happened.
As a normal custom, my wife had bought a cake and gave it to the waiters to keep cool in a fridge until the end of the dinner. At that time, they had to bring the cake and leave us to enjoy it. However, the restaurant owner was there and he heard there was a birthday. And so they decided to put the cake on a cart, light up many candles, come into our private room, turn off the lights, and sing Happy Birthday (in English and Chinese) to me. I was so shocked and surprised, I couldn't believe it in the first 2 minutes. No one had ever done this for me, and it was something I’ve only seen in movies, and so it really touched me.
I talk about the service and the surprise i received.
Well, I believe we remember exactly these kinds of gestures. Sometimes, as a business, it is not only about following orders from your customers but taking a chance and making their day. I’ll always keep this moment in my mind, and I’ll keep going to that restaurant, not only because of the food but now because of the memory, they created for me. It was a great time indeed.
I describe how i feel about receiving a good service.
Sentence starters and Linking words
Vocabulary related to the topic
Idioms and Phrases
Business Phrases
PART 3 QUESTIONS
In Part 3 we continue discussing the topic of customer service and receiving good services, looking at companies and customers.
Examiner: What do you think of the relationship between companies and customers?
Company Side
- Both sides have a responsibility to each other. On the company side, they are responsible to provide good quality products and services, they have to follow the law and safety regulations, they ought to make honest advertisements for their products and they must respect and satisfy their customers.
Customers' Side
- On this side, we as customers, have to respect the companies we buy from. Of course, this respect should be mutual, and if we don't get treated well, or get disrespected by the companies in some way, we are responsible to complain and even report the business to the authorities (Consumer Protection Bureau), if they've done something dangerous or irresponsible. We should demand good service.
ANSWER:
Examiner: As a customer, what kinds of services would you expect to receive from a company?
High Quality
- It doesn't matter if we are talking about potatoes or smartphones, we are expecting those to have high quality and to follow high standards for safety. Quality is a very important feature of a service, and most people are willing to pay more money, in order to get good quality services or products in the end.
Honesty and Integrity
- With online shopping so widely available these days, there are many cases of fraud, lies, deceiving advertisements, and exaggerated features of products or services. This is rampant in the video game industry and especially in the mobile game market for instance. As customers, we should demand these be banned and closed down, and we should reward and purchase from honest and respectful businesses instead.
ANSWER:
Examiner: What kinds of jobs involve coping with the public?
The Service Sector
- The service sector is every kind of small service available online and offline. These can be people who provide maintenance like car mechanics, repairs like repair workers, training as a gym coach, or consulting like a financial consultant. There are so many jobs in this sector of the economy, and they all deal with people on a daily basis.
The Tourism Industry
- This industry does everything related to travel and tourism. This means that they deal with thousands of people every day. For example, you have flight attendants taking care of passengers, hotel staff checking in and out guests in their hotels, tour guides helping people around popular tourist destinations, and many more.
ANSWER:
Quite a few, although they are quickly being replaced by machines and robots these days. I still remember how banks used to have tens of bank tellers, and now everything is automated online. McDonald's used to be full with cashiers, and now they are down to a few machines. Many service companies like internet providers or government departments used to have hundreds of customer service representatives on the phone every day, and now all you hear is a robot if they even pick up the phone. Jobs have been changing, however, there are still some that deal with people all the time like tour guides or hotel staff.
Examiner: Why should companies react quickly when customers have difficulties?
Getting New Clients
- Word of mouth is a very powerful way to bring new clients to a company. When people recommend each-other businesses, this means that they received good service, and they are so happy with it that they are willing to share with their friends and family and do this free advertising for the company. This is one reason for reacting quickly to customer complaints.
Customer Retention
- For a company, it is not only about making new clients. It is also about "retaining" or keeping their existing clients forever. There is a famous sentence from the industry going "A happy customer is a paying customer." This means that if companies make people happy with their service, those people will become loyal fans of the company and will keep buying the products or services of this company, perhaps forever.
ANSWER:
Well “A happy customer is a paying customer”. Companies are not just selling their product once and then never again. They want “customer retention”. This means that they want that random buyer to turn into a loyal fan of the company. Some of the top electronic companies have loyal fans that would fight for their name online with anyone who accuses their favorite company of anything. For instance, Apple and Samsung fanboys are notorious for that. What I’m trying to say is that, when you receive good service, you build a relationship with that company, and over time you become a loyal customer. Solving problems, no matter how small, should be a top priority for any company, to build up a good reputation and loyal customer base.