Great customer service can make or break a business, but what exactly makes someone a great customer service representative? In this B1 effective customer service lesson, students will explore key skills needed to handle real-life interactions. If you’ve ever been stuck on hold or had a frustrating call with a support agent, you know how important clear communication is. This lesson will get your B1 students thinking about what makes great service and how they can communicate effectively in these situations.
I put together this lesson while exploring common real-life interactions that students might encounter in English. Customer service calls are something most of us deal with at some point, whether we’re disputing a bill, tracking a package, or dealing with a faulty product. This lesson consists of listening and speaking activities that will help students handle these situations with confidence.
Just scroll down to grab the presentation and worksheet for this class.
Warmer: What Makes Good Customer Service?
Start by asking students to brainstorm what makes good customer service. What are the traits of a great customer service representative? Give them a list of adjectives and individually have them sort them into good or bad traits. Words like polite, patient, professional, friendly, and helpful are clear positives, while defensive and talkative could spark some debate! Once everyone is ready, have put students into pairs and have them compare their lists, while justifying their choices.
Listening: A Customer Service Call
Next, play an audio recording of a conversation between a customer and a service representative. I found this conversation on ThoughtCo. titled How to Speak to A customer Service Representative. Unfortunately, this scenario came without any audio. That’s when ElevenLabs came in handy. I’ve used this AI tool before in Cambridge PET – Speaking Part 3 (work). Even though it isn’t perfect, I think that its free version will do for shorter audios. I separated the Customer Service Representative from the Customer’s parts and generated two audios separately. Then using a free version of Audacity, I combined the two, making a one coherent dialogue. Have a listen and decide for yourself whether you find this tool useful and somewhat realistic.
This short dialogue is about a billing issue – a situation that many students will find familiar! Before playing the audio, give students a prediction task: Why do people usually call customer service? Then, as they listen, have them answer multiple-choice questions about the call. To take it a step further, listen again and have students fill in missing information like account numbers, addresses, and billing details. This trains them to listen carefully for specific details – an essential skill when dealing with customer service.
Vocabulary: Key Phrases for Customer Service
Then focus on useful expressions. Students match key phrases to different stages of a customer service call, as seen below.
- Opening a call politely: Hello, Big City Electricity, how may I help you today?
- Showing empathy: I’m sorry to hear that.
- Investigating a problem: Let me check that for you.
- Asking for customer details: Can I have your account number, please?
- Reassuring the customer: We’ll do our best to fix this as quickly as possible.
- Closing the conversation: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
These are practical phrases that will help students feel more comfortable if they ever need to make or receive such a call in English. To provide them with a little bit more practise, provide them with another example dialogue, this time talking about a delayed delivery, and ask them to fill in the gaps with the phrases mentioned before.
Role-Play: Handling a Customer Service Issue
Now comes the fun part – students get to put everything into practice! Divide them into pairs and give them role-play scenarios where one student is the customer and the other is the representative. Some possible situations include:
- Incorrect billing: charged the wrong amount, charged twice, etc.
- Service problem: internet not working, power outage, etc.
- Product issue: broken item, missing parts, refund request, etc.
Students select one situation that the related to the most. Encourage them to use the key phrases they learned earlier. After each role-play, switch roles and try a different scenario!
Wrap-Up Discussion
To finish the lesson, ask students to share their personal experiences with customer service. Have they ever had a really good or really bad experience? What made it memorable? This is a great way to get students speaking naturally while reflecting on what they’ve learned.
This lesson is packed with real-world language practice that students can use immediately. If you’re looking for a practical B1-level listening and speaking lesson on effective customer service, grab the materials below and give it a go!
Have you ever included customer service situations in your lessons? How did your students respond? Let me know in the comments!
