BEC Vantage Masterclass

Unit 12 Extra activities

Activity 1: Word square

Find six vocabulary items connected with customer service in the word square
below. Each item consists of two words that commonly go together, e.g.
mystery shopper. The first word in each pair is always read across and the
second word is read down.

F Y K Q V T W E R T Y L B F H
W Y G R E F U N D M R O S K J
S B C L J A N G U V O Y R T N
P A R G L O B I M Z S A L E S
O W T H Q G U N U R A L F W B
L A B R Y T R E P E A T N I X
I T Z Y B K P E M T L Y E F U
C U S T O M E R V U N O B O S
Y A J I L R T M P R O D U C T
F G E B X Y D B A N E U S T A
T L I F K D O H W S Z B I N F
O R B I N C O G A L D R N O F
A N S F O M S E R V I C E P R
W L I C D N S H U M I N S M Y
A D J U V O M I C A D I S H L

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Unit 12 Teacher’s notes and key

Activity 1: Word square

Key

Word pairs: refund policy

sales staff
repeat business
customer loyalty
product returns
service engineer

F Y K Q V T W E R T Y L B F H
W Y G R E F U N D M R O S K J
S B C L J A N G U V O Y R T N
P A R G L O B I M Z S A L E S
O W T H Q G U N U R A L F W B
L A B R Y T R E P E A T N I X
I T Z Y B K P E M T L Y E F U
C U S T O M E R V U N O B O S
Y A J I L R T M P R O D U C T
F G E B X Y D B A N E U S T A
T L I F K D O H W S Z B I N F
O R B I N C O G A L D R N O F
A N S F O M S E R V I C E P R
W L I C D N S H U M I N S M Y
A D J U V O M I C A D I S H L

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Unit 12 Extra activites

Activity 2: Dilemma
✂

Problem
You work in the customer service department of a company which produces
personal care products. The company recently launched a new version of its
Sensicare hand cream, marketing it as ‘New Formula Sensicare – even kinder to
your hands’. Customer feedback on the new cream has been excellent. However,
one day you receive a letter from a woman saying that she has used Sensicare
for five years, but since the new formula was introduced, she has developed red
spots on her hands.
What do you do?
1 Nothing – the company did thorough tests before the new product was
launched and you know it is safe. You have had letters like this before from
customers who are trying to get something for nothing from the company.
2 Send her a letter in which you point out that nobody else has complained, and
that the spots could have another cause. Enclose a cheque giving her a refund
for the cost of the pot of cream she bought.
3 Send her a letter in which you say there is a very slight possibility that she is
allergic to something in the new formula hand cream, but the company did
thorough tests before launching it and you are sure the product is generally
safe. Enclose ten free pots of the old formula cream that you still have in stock.
4 Send her a letter in which you thank her for letting you know about a possible
problem with the new product and enclose ten free pots of the old formula
cream. You immediately ask the product development team to do more tests.

Card 1
Three months have passed since the complaint. In this period you have received
eight more letters from people complaining about red spots after using New
Formula Sensicare for several weeks.
What do you do now?
A Nothing – you have sold over fifty thousand pots of cream since the launch
and had only nine complaints.
B Keep the product on the market but arrange more tests quickly.
C Stop production of the new formula cream, but produce and sell the old
formula under the new name.

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Card 2/3
Three months have passed since the complaint. In this period you have received
eight more letters from people complaining about red spots after using New
Formula Sensicare for several weeks.
What do you do now?
P The same as you did with the first complaint.
Q Keep the product on the market but arrange more tests quickly.
R Stop production of the new formula cream, but produce and sell the old
formula under the new name.

Card 4/B/Q
The results of the new tests you have done show that one of the chemicals in
New Formula Sensicare can cause red spots in 0.025% of the population, i.e. in
25 out of every 100,000 people.
What do you do now?
X Inform the public about the findings of the new tests. Re-launch the old
formula cream with the new name Classic Sensicare and stop production of
New Formula Sensicare.
Y Inform the public about the findings of the new tests. Re-launch the old
formula cream with the new name Classic Sensicare. Keep New Formula
Sensicare on the market, and put a warning about the chemical that can cause
spots on the packet.
Z Re-launch the old formula cream with the new name Classic Sensicare and
stop production of New Formula Sensicare cream, without informing the public
or your sales outlets about your reasons for doing so.

Card P/R
Five months have passed since the first woman wrote to you. You have received
no more complaints. However, one day you get a letter from a charity which
helps people who have an unusual allergy. It seems that two of the people who
complained to you about New Formula Sensicare also wrote to this charity. The
charity paid a laboratory to do a chemical analysis of a pot of New Formula
Sensicare. This showed that the cream contains a chemical which 0.025% of the
population (i.e. 25 out of every 100,000 people) are allergic to. They plan to
publish these results but are writing to you first to hear your reaction.
Do you think you should have taken a different decision before?
What can you do now?

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Card A/C
Five months have passed since the first woman wrote to you. You have received
no more complaints. However, one day you open your morning newspaper and
find an article about your company. The disgruntled customer who wrote to you
five months ago paid a laboratory to do a chemical analysis of her pot of New
Formula Sensicare. This showed that the cream contains a chemical which
0.025% of the population (i.e. 25 out of every 100,000 people) are allergic to.
The woman has passed the test results to the newspaper and told them that she
wrote to your company, but didn’t get a reply.
What decision should you have taken before?
What else could you have done?
What can you do now?

Card X
Congratulations! The public responds well to your company’s openness and the
market share for your whole range of products increases slightly. Sales of Classic
Sensicare decline for some months, but then return to the level they were at
before New Formula Sensicare was launched. However, the company has lost a
lot of money in developing, producing and marketing New Formula Sensicare.
What should the company have done before launching the new formula?
Could you have done anything else to solve the problem?

Card Y
Congratulations! The public responds well to your company’s openness and the
market share for your whole range of products increases slightly. Total sales of
the two Sensicare creams decline for some months, but then return to the level
they were at before New Formula Sensicare was launched.
Are there any other ways you could have solved the problem?

Card Z
You receive more than twenty letters from customers saying they preferred New
Formula Sensicare and are disappointed that it is not on sale any more.
Do you think you should have taken a different decision before?
What can you do now?

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Unit 12 Teacher’s notes and key

Activity 2: Dilemma
Preparation

Print out and cut out:

• two copies of the problem for each group of three to four students.
• one copy of each of the game cards for each group.
How the activity works
• Divide the class into groups of three to four students. Give each group one or
two copies of the problem card to read. Offer help with vocabulary if needed.
• Explain that the students must choose one of the options offered on the card
after discussing each of them. (They will have an opportunity to give their
own solutions to the problem at the end of the activity.) Encourage the use of
first and second conditional forms for discussing the options on the card.
• When a group has decided on a course of action, they tell you, privately,
which option they have chosen. You give them the card that contains the
number of the option they chose, e.g. if they chose option 4, you give them
card 4/B/Q.
• Continue in the same way for subsequent cards.
• When they reach cards A/C, P/R, X, Y or Z the students are invited to give
their own ideas about what can be done now (if they have reached a crisis)
and what other ways the problem could have been solved. Encourage the
use of the third conditional and past modals for talking about alternative
solutions. If the groups all reach one of these cards at about the same time,
the speculative questions about what else could/should/would have been
done could be discussed with the whole class.

Solutions
The students will end up with one of the following cards:
X This is a good solution. However, this policy of openness does not
always pay off for companies, and needs skilful handling.
Y This is the best solution. However, this policy of openness does not
always pay off for companies, and needs skilful handling.
A/C If a group ends up with this card, and is still producing the new formula
cream, they will have to find a solution that limits the damage or potential
damage to the company’s reputation from ignoring the complaints about
the product. If they are now selling the old formula cream under the new
name, they could offer to send it for tests, then claim that the pot that
was analysed by the independent laboratory was contaminated after it
was sold. This strategy might work, but would be very risky.
P/R As for card A/C.
Z If a group ends up with this card, they could claim that market research
showed that Classic Sensicare was more popular. Alternatively, they could
inform only the customers who ask about New Formula Sensicare that
there is a very slight risk of it causing allergies, and they have withdrawn
the product until they can do more tests.

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