< How to tell people bad news on the phone

Dealing with difficult telephone situations

Business English

Wie reagieren Sie auf alltägliche Situationen am Telefon? Prüfen Sie mit dieser Aufgabe, ob Ihre Reaktion immer angemessen und professionell ist.

Can you impress international business callers with your telephone English? Test how efficient you sound on the phone with this exercise.

How do you react in these situations?	what do you say?
1) The phone rings and the caller says: “I’d like to speak to (name of your boss) please.”
2) You are talking to someone on the phone, suddenly you can’t hear them properly.
3) Someone calls for your boss but she is in a meeting.
4) You want to check if you have understood some information properly.
5) You want to make sure that the other person has understood you properly.
6) You need to check something and want the person to stay on the line.
7) You are not sure if the person said 40 or 14.

3 points for each correct sentence. Total points possible: 21. Your points ___

Best regards

Your

Jean Lennox

Answers: 1) If you could give me your name and let me know what you’re calling about I’ll see if he’s available. 2) I’m sorry it’s a bad line. Shall I call you back? 3) I’m sorry but she’s tied up at the moment. 4) Can I read that back to you to see if I got it right? 5) Could you read that back to me? 6) Could you bear with me a second? I just need to check that. 7) Was that forty (four zero) or fourteen (one four?)

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