British Council-Customer service orientation

Transcript of the podcast

P = principle; S1= student 1 etc

P: Good morning, my secretary told me that you had some things to discuss with me, so how can I help

S1: Well firstly, thank you for seeing us, and we are sorry to trouble you, but we would like to complain about one of the members of staff in your courses office. She has been very rude when dealing with our queries about our exam results

S2: …and this is not the first time it has happened, it is not only exam results but there are other times too when I have not been happy with her attitude

P: Oh dear, I’m sorry to hear that. Can you be a bit more specific with what exactly has happened

S3: well my tutor told me I could collect my results until 2pm from the courses office, and on our classroom wall there is a big notice which says that the office is open everyday until 2. However when I got there yesterday at 1.45 the courses office assistant told me she was closing early. When I told her that I could not come back later, when the offices reopened at 4, she just replied “its not my problem”. I felt quite offended by her attitude, and this is not the first time she has replied in this rude manner

S2: and, when I went in with a query about my results, she started to argue with me that she hadn’t received our results, she was very direct, and then she went to answer the phone, and told me to come back another time

S3: yes that reminds me of the time when I had to wait for assistance for 10 minutes, because she was talking on the phone, to her friend! Talking about the weekend

S1: I’m sorry but that is not professional at all

P: Right, well thank you for voicing your concerns, I’m very sorry you have had these problems

S1: Its not only us who have had problems, other students have expressed their concerns too, about her rudeness. And that she has given out wrong results to wrong students. She just reads them from the list on the computer, but doesn’t check them. It happened to one of our classmates, who was expected to have top exam results, but he was told he had failed. When he went to query it with his tutor he discovered he had passed, but the person who was next to him on the list had failed

P: Well I am really surprised to hear that you have had such negative experiences

S2: I don’t think it projects a positive image for the college, especially as potential students could be put off by her negativity

P: well I am glad that you have brought this matter to my attention, and I suggest you leave it with me. I will have a word with the person concerned and her manager

S1: We hope you can resolve the problem. I think the least she can do is smile when she sees a student

S2: Yes and it really bothers me when she doesn’t put our needs first, if she is doing some work at her desk, she will not attend us until she has finished. We often have to wait for at least 5 minutes

P: I suggest you leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime if you have any other concerns, please come and see me again. This is obviously a matter I need to take seriously as, you yourselves have suggested, it can affect the image of our college, and our good reputation is very important to us

S3: Thanks, we hope it can be resolved soon

Answer key

C