Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 932, Rebuilding Consumer Trust.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 932.
© transcript Emily Beynon After you do that, you can download the learning guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Karen and Brandon about getting people who buy from your company to trust you again.
Let's get started.
The scandal over our new product line really damaged our image and we need to rebuild consumer trust.
This is going to be an uphill battle.
Losing customers is easy.
Winning them back will be really hard.
I agree, but our stock is taking a beating and we need to do something now.
Part of the problem was that the rumors about the new product heightened expectations, and we just fell short of the mark.
We need to always remember that to under-promise and over-deliver.
Yes, that was a big part of the problem, but we also need to have more transparency.
We can't make major changes without first getting customer input and without notifying them well in advance.
Otherwise, our customers feel betrayed.
Alright, I think we have a place to begin.
Should I call a general meeting to talk specifics?
Sure, and while we're at it, we can work on employee morale, too.
Our dialogue begins with Karen saying to Brandon The scandal over our new product line really damaged our image and we need to rebuild consumer trust.
A scandal.
S-C-A-N-D-A-L is some activity or behavior that causes people to be surprised or shocked.
It's almost always considered a bad thing.
To have a scandal would be to have some sort of negative situation where someone has done something wrong or an organization has done something wrong.
That's a scandal.
There was an old expression, to give scandal.
To give scandal is to do something wrong and have other people find out about it and thereby encourage them to do something wrong.
Well, maybe it's okay to misbehave.
And then they do.
That's the idea of giving scandal.
Nobody worries about that anymore, apparently, especially here in Hollywood.
Karen is talking about a scandal at their company, the company where Karen and Brandon work.
The scandal relates to their new product line.
A product is something you sell, usually something physical.
The other kind of thing a company would sell would be a service.
They would do something for you.
This is a product line, meaning it's a whole group of related products.
We're not sure what the scandal is, but Karen says there was a scandal.
And this scandal has damaged or hurt the company's image.
Your image in this case means your reputation, how other people view you, or how other people see you, what other people think about you.
We need to rebuild consumer trust, Karen says.
To rebuild means to build again.
To rebuild recreate, especially after something has been damaged or hurt.
If you have an earthquake, like we have here in Los Angeles sometimes, and your house falls down, you will need to rebuild it.
You will need to put it up again.
Or you could move in instead with your mother-in-law who lives in another city.
Then you wouldn't have to rebuild your house, but you would have to live with your mother-in-law.
Your mother-in-law, of course, would be the mother of your husband or wife.
But here, we're not talking about rebuilding a house.
We're talking about rebuilding consumer trust.
Consumers are the people who buy your product or service, your customers.
Trust is the good feelings and positive beliefs that people have about your company and your products.
To rebuild consumer trust would be to get people to trust you again, to like your company again, to want to buy your products again.
Brandon says this is going to be an uphill battle.
Uphill, U-P-H-I-L-L, means to go from the bottom of a hill to the top.
Uphill is the direction that you are going.
The opposite of uphill would be downhill.
That would mean going from the top of the hill to the bottom.
We do that, for example, when we ski.
We call it downhill skiing, to ski from the top of the mountain or the hill to the bottom.
Here we're talking about uphill, which is the opposite of downhill.
A battle, B-A-T-T-L-E, is a fight.
So an uphill battle would be a very difficult task, something that would be very difficult to do.
Not only do you have to go up the hill, but you also have to fight to get up the hill.
Brandon says losing customers is easy.
Winning them back will be really hard.
It's easy to lose a customer.
You can just make them mad and they'll go away.
To get them to come back again is, however, much more difficult.
That is what Brandon is saying here.
To win someone back means to get them to come back, in this case to your company, to buy your products.
Karen says, I agree it will be difficult.
But our stock is taking a beating and we need to do something now.
The expression to take T-A-K-E a beating B-E-A-T-I-N-G means to be defeated or to be damaged or hurt or injured.
To take a beating would be to have a very negative experience in which you basically are losing whatever battle or whatever situation you are in.
The stock of the company is taking a beating, according to Karen.
The stock is the partial ownership that people have in your company.
Brandon says part of the problem was that the rumors about the new product heightened expectations and we just fell short of the mark.
Brandon is talking about rumors.
These are comments that people make in this case about a product either good or bad.
A rumor can be any sort of information that has not yet been confirmed, that is not yet official, but that people are talking about.
Rumors can be either good or bad.
It depends on the situation.
Here, the rumors were about the new product, and they heightened expectations.
To heighten expectations is to make someone believe that something will be really good, will be fantastic, will be better than they could have expected.
That's to heighten expectations.
To fall short of the mark M-A-R-K is not to meet those expectations, not to do as well as people thought you were going to do.
If you tell someone this is the best movie in the world, you're going to love it, that is heightening their expectations.
Now they're thinking, wow, this is really going to be good.
Then they go see the movie and For example, I don't know, Superman.
And they decide that it isn't a very good movie.
The movie falls short of the mark.
The movie does not impress you as much as you were expecting.
You don't like it as much as you thought you would.
That's what happened here, according to Branden.
He says we need to always remember to under promise and over deliver.
To under promise means not to promise very much.
To promise someone less, in fact, than what you are actually going to give them.
To over-deliver is the opposite idea.
To over-deliver is to give them more than what they were expecting.
When you under-promise and over-deliver, you tell your customer that you're not going to give them very much, so they don't have high expectations.
But then you give them more than what they expected, and that makes them even happier.
Karen agrees with Brandon.
She says, yes, that was a big part of the problem.
But we also need to have more transparency.
Transparency, T-R-A-N-S-P-A-R-E-N-C-Y refers to showing people how you are doing something or being honest with people, telling them exactly what is going on.
Karen says, Input would be information, opinions, feedback, in this case from your customers.
To notify someone means to inform them, to tell them something, to give them some news.
In advance means before something happens.
You can buy your tickets in advance for the movie.
You can go online and you can buy the ticket before you even go to the movie theater.
Karen says they should not make changes in their product without first talking to their customers, getting customer input and without notifying them or telling them well in advance, before the changes take place.
Otherwise, Karen says, our customers feel betrayed.
To feel betrayed, B-E-T-R-A-Y-E-D, means to feel someone has treated you unfairly.
Someone has done something wrong to you.
You feel hurt.
Betrayal is usually... connected with trust.
If you are dating someone and you find out that that person is also dating another person and didn't tell you that well, that would be an example of a betrayal.
You would feel betrayed.
You trusted that person and then they did something to hurt you.
Brandon then asks, should I call a general meeting to talk specifics?
To talk specifics means to talk about something in great detail, to talk about all the particular things, the individual things you are going to do to help solve a problem.
Karen says, sure, and while we're at it, we can work on employee morale, too.
While we're at it means while we are doing this other thing, we can also do something else.
For example, we're planning to clean our house on Saturday.
While we're at it, I also plan on cleaning the garage.
We're going to do two things here, one thing and then another thing.
While we're at it means to do two things at the same time, or in the process of doing one thing, you're also going to do something else.
Karen is talking about improving the Employee morale.
Morale.
M-O-R-A-L-E is how people feel about something, especially how excited or motivated they are to accomplish some task.
Employee morale would be how your employees feel.
Do they like what they're doing?
Are they excited about what they're doing?
Do they want to do what they are doing?
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native speed.
The scandal over our new product line really damaged our image and we need to rebuild consumer trust.
This is going to be an uphill battle.
Losing customers is easy.
Winning them back will be really hard.
I agree, but our stock is taking a beating and we need to do something now.
Part of the problem was that the rumors about our new product heightened expectations, and we just fell short of the mark.
We need to always remember to under-promise and over-deliver.
Yes, that was a big part of the problem, but we also need to have more transparency.
We can't make major changes without first getting customer input and without notifying them well in advance.
Otherwise, our customers feel betrayed.
All right, I think we have a place to begin.
Should I call a general meeting to talk specifics?
Sure.
And while we're at it, we can work on employee morale, too.
Her scripts never fall short of the mark.
I speak, of course, of our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening. back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
