You're listening to Business English Pod, the Business English podcast for professionals on the move.
Hello, and welcome back to Business English Pod.
My name's Edwin, and I'll be your host for today's lesson on handling a tech support call.
Whether or not the words solving problems appear in your job description, there's a good chance.
It's something you do every day.
And some days it seems like that's all we do.
So it's important that we learn to do it well.
In today's lesson, we'll look at a tech support situation.
But the techniques that we'll learn can be applied to any situation.
We'll cover language for retracing a problem to the beginning and confirming what has already been done.
We'll also look at eliminating possible causes and suggesting alternative ones.
And finally, we'll learn how to confirm the settings on someone's computer or other device.
In the dialogue, we'll rejoin Stacy and Nick.
Stacey's a lawyer in New York who's been having trouble uploading documents to her company's server in the UK, where Nick works in tech support.
Nick's been trying to help Stacey solve her problem.
As you listen, try to answer the following questions.
1.
Why does Nick use the question, right, repeatedly near the beginning of the call?
2.
Why does Nick ask Stacey whether she's made changes to her operating system?
3.
Nick suggests another possible cause.
What is it related to?
Hello, tech support.
This is Nick.
How can I help you?
Oh, hey.
Me again, Nick.
Oh, hi Stacey.
I thought I might hear back from you.
Yeah, this is really crazy.
I thought we'd fixed it this time, but I've tried uploading more docs and it's the same darn problem.
OK, no worries.
Let's move back to the beginning.
The PDFs look OK on your desktop, right?
Yeah, they look perfectly normal.
But when you upload them, they don't display properly.
But when I uploaded one, it looked just fine, right?
That's right.
But you changed my settings, so it should be okay.
Yes, but I think we're dealing with something else here.
It might be an issue with your computer, or connection or something else.
Have you made any changes in the past couple of weeks to your operating system?
No, I haven't changed a thing.
Okay, good.
Now, it could be an issue with the software you're using.
Have you made any changes to your FTP program?
I don't think so.
Whoa, wait a second.
Yeah, I have.
I'm using a new one.
Francis here recommended a different one because we were having troubles before.
Right.
So now, can you click in the File menu on Preferences and then open Settings?
I want to make sure everything's OK there.
OK.
Done.
Now, click on the tab that says Transfers, and then click File Types.
Could you just tell me what it is set to?
It says ASCII.
Oh, there we go.
It's set to ASCII.
So, here's what I want you to do.
Now, let's go through the dialogue again and look at how Nick deals with this tech support call.
Nick begins the call in a fairly standard way.
He identifies his department, tech support, and himself before asking how he can help.
Stacey's response, me again, tells us that Nick has tried helping Stacey before.
In fact, Nick isn't surprised to hear back from Stacey because their last call ended a little too quickly.
Let's listen as Stacey begins to talk about her problem.
Yeah, this is really crazy.
I thought we'd fixed it this time, but I've tried uploading more docs and it's the same darn problem.
OK, no worries.
Let's move back to the beginning.
The PDFs look OK on your desktop, right?
Stacey sounds rather frustrated because she thought they'd fixed the situation previously.
But, as she says, it's the same darn problem.
Darn is a mild way of showing frustration widely used in the US.
Nick is immediately supportive, using the expression, no worries, to mean no problem.
Remember, Stacy and Nick have tried solving the problem of uploading documents to the server before.
But whatever they tried didn't work.
This is why Nick suggests moving back to the beginning.
At this point, Nick wants to retrace the problem. he's going to review exactly what the issue is.
And he starts by confirming that the PDFs look okay on Stacy's computer.
Notice that he uses the tag question right to do this.
We can't always fix things on the first try, so we often have to retrace a problem to the beginning, just as Nick has done.
Let's practice some different ways we can do this.
Okay, let's start again and figure out how this happened.
I'd like to back up for a minute and go through this again.
Could we just go back to the start and walk through the issue from the beginning?
I think we need to retrace our steps here and find out where the problem occurred.
Now, let's hear how Nick and Stacy continue.
Yeah, they look perfectly normal.
But when you upload them, they don't display properly.
But when I uploaded one, it looked just fine, right?
Stacy confirms that the documents look perfectly normal on her computer.
So Nick continues his review of the problem, stating that the documents don't display properly when Stacy uploads them.
Next, Nick wants to confirm past activities or what they tried before in their attempts to solve the problem.
Again he uses the word write after making a statement, this time about the fact that the documents looked fine when he uploaded them.
Walking through the problem in this way will help them find a solution.
And in walking through a problem, we often confirm past activities.
Let's run through some other ways of doing this.
Notice the use of tag questions in a couple of these examples of confirming past activities.
So, you pressed the button but nothing happened, is that right?
Just to be sure, you loaded the machine, then you did the safety check?
Okay, now you connected the power supply and turned the unit on, right?
So, first you chose Install, and then you waited for the app to download.
Now, let's get back to the dialog.
That's right, but you changed my settings, so it should be okay.
Yes, but I think we're dealing with something else here.
It might be an issue with your computer or connection or something else.
Have you made any changes in the past couple of weeks to your operating system?
Stacey's that's right shows that she's following Nick step by step through the problem.
But now she comes to the point where she thought the problem was solved.
She thought it was a settings issue and seems to still believe that it should be okay.
But clearly, it's not.
So that's what Nick suggests when he says they're dealing with, or trying to solve, something else.
Now that they've reviewed the problem, Nick has to find the real cause.
And one way of doing that is through a process of elimination.
He starts by saying it might be an issue with Stacy's computer or connection.
To find out whether this is true, he asks Stacy whether she's made any changes to her system.
By going through possible causes and asking about them, Nick can eliminate incorrect causes.
Let's try some more examples of asking questions to eliminate possible causes of a problem.
For starters, did you check the battery supply?
There's nothing blocking the intake valve, is there?
So the router is transmitting properly to other devices, right?
Have you checked that your data roaming is set to OFF?
So, has Stacey made any changes to her system?
No, I haven't changed a thing.
Okay, good.
Now, it could be an issue with the software you're using.
Have you made any changes to your FTP program?
Nick says, good, to show that they've just eliminated one possible cause.
Then he moves on to suggest alternative causes.
This time he uses the word could instead of might, saying it could be an issue with the software.
And once again, Nick asks Stacey whether she's made any changes this time to her FTP program, which is a program that allows us to transfer files to a server.
What are some other ways we can suggest alternative causes?
Let's go through some more.
As we do, you may notice the language of possibility in words such as could, might, and so on.
There could be a jam in the machine that is giving you that error message.
In that case, the device might not recognize your SIM card.
So, has Stacy made any software changes?
I don't think so.
Whoa, wait a second.
Yeah, I have.
I'm using a new one.
Francis here recommended a different one because we were having troubles before.
It turns out that Stacey has made changes to her software.
She's using a new program because the last one caused some problems.
So to find out if this is the real problem, Nick needs to confirm the settings in that software are correct.
Listen to how he does this.
Right.
So now, can you click in the File menu on Preferences and then open Settings?
I want to make sure everything's OK there.
OK.
Done.
Now, click on the tab that says Transfers and then click File Types.
Could you just tell me what it is set to?
Remember, Nick and Stacy are talking on the phone.
So for Nick to confirm her settings, he has to direct her to the correct place.
He takes her step by step through the settings, asking her to click in certain menus and open certain options.
And he tells her basically why he wants her to do this.
He wants to make sure everything is okay.
When Nick has directed Stacy to the right place in the settings, he asks her what the file type is set to.
And he does this politely, as we always should in this kind of situation, with the words.
Could you just tell me?
A lot of tech problems are related to settings.
And on the phone, we need to guide someone to the right place to check these settings.
Let's practice a few more ways of doing this.
Could you just check that the printer is set to color?
Look at the button at the top and make sure you slide it to VGA.
Please click on File and then Properties and tell me what it says in the Format field.
Now, is the dial on the front turned all the way to the left?
Now, what exactly does Stacy see in the file type setting that Nick has guided her to?
It says A-S-C-I-I.
Oh, there we go.
It's set to ASCII.
So, here's what I want you to do.
Stacy spells out what she sees.
And Nick responds with, there we go, an expression of success.
It sounds like he's found out what was causing the problem.
Of course they still need to solve that problem, but we'll have to wait for the next lesson to learn about that.
Now, let's practice some of the language we learned in today's lesson.
We're going to start with a role play practice.
You'll play the part of a tech support agent.
You'll be helping a customer who can't log into her website.
You'll have to begin by retracing the problem and then confirming the user has entered the correct information.
Then you'll need to eliminate the possible causes and suggest that it might be a browser issue.
Finally, you'll ask the caller to check her browser settings.
At each step, you'll hear a prompt spoken by the caller.
Then, I'll give you some suggestions for the language you can use to respond.
We'll guide you through each step in the practice and play an example answer for each response.
Ready?
Let's give it a go. but I still don't understand why I can't log into my site.
To start with, tell the caller that you want to go back to the beginning of the problem.
Well, let's just go back to the beginning of the problem.
Okay, so I started at the login page.
Now, confirm that the user entered her username and password correctly.
And just to be sure, you entered your username and password correctly?
Yeah, I did that.
Then hit Login.
But it won't launch.
Now, check whether the user has changed her password recently.
I see.
And have you changed your password recently?
No.
I've used the same password all along.
Next, suggest that the problem might be with the caller's browser.
Okay, well, then the problem might be something to do with your browser.
Okay then, what should I do?
Now, confirm the browser settings by telling the caller to look in the Options tab.
First, I'd just like you to look at the Options tab of your browser.
Now, let's practice useful vocabulary and idioms.
You'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with a beep.
Repeat the whole sentence, including the missing word.
For example, if you hear... Firstly, could you tell me what operating...
Firstly, could you tell me what operating system you're using?
After each response, we'll play the correct answer.
Let's begin.
A technical problem.
Answer.
Please give us a call any time you're dealing with a technical problem.
If you... twice on the file name, it should open for you.
Answer.
If you click twice on the file name, it should open for you.
You can find the design options in the called formatting.
Answer.
You can find the design options in the menu called formatting.
Could you just wait a... I need to check your account.
Answer.
Could you just wait a second?
I need to check your account.
We've reached the end of this lesson, the second in our three-part series about handling text.
Support calls
We've learned how to retrace a problem to the beginning and to confirm past activities.
We've also learned how to eliminate possible causes and suggest alternative ones.
And finally, we've learned how to confirm someone's settings.
Be sure to tune in for the next episode, when we'll hear Nick walk Stacey through the steps necessary to solve her problem.
Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.
