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Can complain
The 'can't complain' attitude has always been an integral
part of British culture. However, with Britain's ąuality of
customer service getting worse, people are now starting to
complain morę than ever before.
At first glance, it seems like a simple case: we buy a phone
and, after some time, one of its parts gets broken. We take the
I phone back to the phone centrę and ask to have it repaired under
I warranty. As we ąuickly discover, however, the issue may be morę
I complex than we initially thought. First, the company may insist
I that it is not one of their phones that we bought, and even if they
I do eventually agree, they can refuse to send it to the repair centrę
I because of 'data protection'. So, we are left with the broken phone
1 and no right to complain anymore. This is exactly what happened
to 39 year-old Kirsten Hey from Edinburgh, who was literally
1 reduced to tears by one o^ the UK's phone companies.
I Kirsten's case is one of a great many examples of Britain's poor
I customer service. According to the results of a survey carried
I out in 2006 by the Institute of Customer Service, sixty per cent
1 of respondents said that they would be willing to complain about
I bad service they experienced, which is ten per cent morę than five I
I years earlier. What's morę, if the survey was repeated today, that
I figurę would be even higher.
i What has happened? Why are the British morę willing to complain
• these days, even though we have had a long tradition of accepting
1 the most uncomfortable situations as long as this lets us avoid
complaining in public?
One of the reasons is the rise in people's expectations. Given the
enormous selection of goods and services, we have become morę
choosy than ever before. Also, the consumerist society we live in
promotes the idea of a happy, fuli life: if we don't feel happy, there
must be something wrong and someone to complain to about this.
But it is also companies themselves which are responsible. Too
often, we don't receive the services we were promised. Appliances
stop working, packages don't arrive or turn up broken. Whafs
worse, nobody seems to care. When we phone up to complain, we
are forced to spend hours waiting ...
Cali centres, which began to appear in Britain in the 1970s, were
thought up as an efficient and cost-effective way to deal with
customer complaints. Unfortunately, cutting costs is often taken
to extremes: customer service agents often receive poor training
and poor salaries and are ordered to follow precise »cripts that
supposedly list all possible customer ąuestions. What's worse,
agents are aware that the faster they can complete a cali, the morę
efficient they are considered to be, whether the customer is really
helped or not.
What should be done, then, to limit the alarming number of
complaints?
It seems that unless companies end their obsession with reducing
costs and don't see the link between customer service and profit,
we can't expect much of an improvement. Luckily, there are some
companies out there which have already realised the importance of
customer satisfaction. Let's hope this trend continues.
6,1, When one of the parts in our phone get
broken, we
A. should never ask the shop to repair it for us
B. can be surę the shop will always help us.
C. may be surprised by the complaints
procedurę.
D. should always send the phone to the
repair centrę ourselves.
6.2, The British
A, have never complained before.
EL complained morę in the past then they
do now.
C complain morę now than they did in th<
past.
D. complained as much in the past as they
do now.
6.3, According to the article, British customers
A, expect fewer goods and services than
before.
8. don't have happy lives.
C, complain about the consumer society
they live in.
D, will no longer accept something they
aren't happy with.
6.4, Customer service agents in cali centres
A, know what to do to be seen as morę
efficient.
8. aren't allowed to use scripts.
C. never help customers.
D. are always poorly trained.
6.5. Companies can improve their customer
service by
A. making morę profits.
B. changing their way ofthinking.
C. employing fewer customer service agents.
D. reducing costs even morę.
6.6. In the article, the author
A. heavily criticises British customers.
B. encourages companies to cut costs.
C, encourages customers to complain even
morę.
D, presents the change of attitude of British
customers to complaining.
6.1 C
6.2 C
6.3 D
6.4 A
6.5 B
6.6 D
6.1
C- may be surprised by the complaints
procedurę.
6.2
C- complain morę now than they did in th<
past.
6.3
D. will no longer accept something they
aren't happy with.
6.4
A.know what to do to be seen as morę
efficient.
6.5
B. changing their way ofthinking.
6.6
D. presents the change of attitude of British
customers to complaining.