How to Call Customer Support in English

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

Have you ever had to call customer  support and hated it? Let's talk about it.  

This past Christmas, I bought my mom this  photo scanner for Christmas. She could save  

all of our old childhood photographs, but  there is a problem. It makes a really strange  

sound. I've been delaying calling customer support  for so many months. I feel so bad that I've put it  

off for so long, but I have decided to take you  on the journey with me. I want to help you feel  

confident calling customer support, or  maybe you work at a customer support center  

and you need to have the right expressions and the  right phrases to do your job accurately and well. 

So today, I want to help you  call customer support in English.  

You are going to be listening to me call customer  support for this photo scanner, and I will be  

explaining some common expressions that you hear  the support guy say. And that hear me say. I hope  

you can feel empowered to use these expressions  yourself. And like always, I have created a free  

PDF worksheet with all of today's expressions,  phrases, ideas, and tips so that you never  

forget what you've learned. You can click on  the link in the description to the free PDF  

worksheet for today's lesson. Plus at the end of  the worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge  

question. Make sure that you click on the link  and download it today, and let's get started. 

When I call customer support, I'm going to attempt  to quickly describe the problem that I'm having,  

which is the scanner is making a strange noise.  And then the customer support person is going to  

help me figure out what the problem is. This  is called troubleshooting, troubleshooting.  

So we might say, "Hey, let me help you  troubleshoot." Or, "Let's trouble shoot a few  

things." So they might not know exactly what the  problem is immediately, but they could say let's  

troubleshoot a few things. We're going to try  this, then we'll try this. Then we'll try this.  

Overall, we're trying to come up with the  answer, the solution, let's troubleshoot. 

Okay. Are you ready to see some troubleshooting?  You'll seem me give the support number a call  

and we'll just see what happens from there. Let's  watch. All right. Let's call and see how long I  

have to be on hold. Speaker 2: 

Thank you for calling Plustek Technology, the  leader in imaging and surveillance solutions.  

Your call may be monitored or  recorded for training purposes.  

If you know your party's extension,  please dial it now. For technical support,  

please press one. Vanessa: 

All right, let's take a quick pause. There are  five phrases that I want to talk to you about  

in that short clip. Yes. I know five  phrases, but a lot happens at the  

beginning of this conversation. First,  I used a wonderful expression, to be on  

hold. To be on hold. I'm not holding  something, it just means I'm waiting.  

So if you work in customer support, this is a  great phrase you can use. You might be super busy,  

but you have to pick up the phone. So you  might pick up the phone and say, "I'm sorry,  

can I put you on hold?" Or, "Excuse me, can I  put you on hold please? Can I put you on hold?" 

And the other person really doesn't  have a choice. They have to say a yes,  

but it's just a polite thing to say, "Excuse me,  I'm going to put you on hold for just a minute and  

I'll be right there." And you can put them on  hold. That means they have to wait, but you'll  

come back to them. Another common phrase that  you will hear when you call customer support is,  

"Thank you for calling." The name of the company.  "Thank you for calling the computer doctor. Thank  

you for calling Microsoft. Thank you for calling."  Extremely polite. Before a real person picks up  

the phone, while you're still listening to the  automated message, you'll probably hear this. 

"Your call may be monitored or recorded  for training purposes." And this is pretty  

self explanatory. Maybe they will use your  customer support phone call to help train  

other people about how to do customer support  well, or maybe how to do it not so well.  

In my opinion, this might be just a legal thing,  that if they record the phone call, then the  

customer can't file a lawsuit or do something  like this. This is my gut feeling about it,  

but who knows, maybe they're using the phone call  just like we are using the phone call for training  

purposes. Another common phrase in customer  support in the automated message is, "If you  

know your party's extension, please dial it now." Your party's extension. Are you going to a party?  

I never knew that calling customer support was  like a party. No, unfortunately it's not like a  

party. That just means the people you're trying  to reach. Sometimes when we use the word party,  

we're talking about a group of people. There's  a party of people here, a party of people here.  

You often hear this in restaurants. They might  say, "Smith, party of four. When your table is  

ready." If your last name is Smith, they might  say, "Smith party of four." And if you're waiting  

outside the restaurant, you'll say, "Oh,  Smith, that's my name. Four there's four of us. 

They're talking about our party. Our group of  people. If you don't know your party's extension,  

listen for the options that the automated message  gives you. Sometimes this can be quite frustrating  

because you think one of them is for you and then  you listen for others and then you forget that  

number and you have to listen to it all over  again. These things can be quite frustrating,  

but thankfully, the support number that I called  was very straightforward. They said for technical  

support, please press one. Oh, I needed technical  support, that's great. That must be the majority  

of people who call them. They need technical  support, but you could hear other things like,  

"For sales, please press two." Sometimes you also hear a language  

option given, "For English, please press one.  For Spanish, please press two." You might be  

given some language options as well. All right,  let's go on to the next set of my support call  

and see what happens. Customer Support: 

Thank you for calling Plustek  Support how can I help you? 

Vanessa: Hi, I'm calling about a device that I bought  

back in November and I bought it as a Christmas  present. So, the person I bought it for just  

started to use it now and it's making a strange  noise. So I thought I'd call to see if you guys  

had any tips about what I should do. You just  heard me attempting to summarize my problem  

in just a few sentences. I felt a little bit  nervous and yeah, I've been delaying this call  

for a while, so I wasn't sure what they were  going to say, but I did it, and I'm helping  

you at the same time. Win-win. All right. At the  beginning of this, you heard the support guy say,  

"How can I help you?" What a beautiful question. First of all, he picked up the phone so quickly.  

That's amazing. I was expecting to be on hold for  a while, and then he said, "How can I help you?"  

This is so polite. So if you work for customer  support, please use this phrase, "Thank you for  

calling Plustek Support. How can I help you?" So  lovely. For me, I got right to the point. I said,  

"I'm calling about." Blank. I tried to give a  quick summary of what happened. I kind of went a  

little bit around about, but when you want to tell  customer support about a problem that you have,  

be direct, I'm calling about a problem with  my phone. I'm calling about a problem with  

the printer, it's making a strange sound, great. Straightforward, to the problem, and it can help  

you to troubleshoot faster. Okay, let's go on to  the next section and listen into our conversation. 

Customer Support: Oh, what kind of scanner is it? 

Vanessa: It's the photo scanner. It's the Plustek  

photo scanner Z300, I think is the name. Customer Support: 

Okay. Did you already download the driver?  Is ePhoto already installed on the computer? 

Vanessa: Yes. So I've already scanned a couple pictures and  

tried to test out a couple things. I looked at  the Amazon reviews videos to see if the videos  

that other people showed had the same sound, and I  didn't hear it in those videos. So that's why I'm  

calling you guys eyes. You heard the  customer support ask me some basic questions.  

"What kind of scanner do you have? Have  you already downloaded the drivers?"  

These types of basic questions. I used a great  phrasal verb that I want to introduce to you.  

This is the phrasal verb that I used. To test  out. I said, "I already scanned a couple pictures  

and tried to test out a couple things." So I didn't want to just call customer  

support right away. In fact, I waited a little too  long I think, but I tried to look at the reviews,  

see if other people had tips, see if this is  a common thing that happens. Maybe it's not  

even a problem, it's just in an annoying  sound. I tried to test out various things  

before calling customer support, and he could have  used this phrasal verb too. He could have said,  

"All right, there's a couple things that I  want to test out. All right, here are some  

things that we should test out while we're still  on the phone." And it's a simple way of saying,  

let's try these things. Okay, let's go to the next  section of my call, and learn some new phrases. 

Customer Support: Just to confirm,  

are you using a 24 volt power adapter? Vanessa: 

I believe so. That's what it came with. Customer Support: 

Let's double check. You can unplug  it from the wall and check next to  

output. Vanessa: 

Okay. Let's see. It says output 24 volt. Yes. Customer Support: 

That should be the correct one. Vanessa: 

Okay. In this section you heard three phrases.  The first one is, just to confirm, and this is  

often used when you assume something  but you're not completely sure.  

So at the beginning of our conversation, he used  this to make sure that we were on the same page.  

Let's say that you call customer support about  your computer. The first thing they might say is,  

"Just to confirm, is your computer plugged into  a power source?" Well, this is essential. If  

your computer is plugged in, then everyone can get  started. Or you could use this if you're at work,  

and you're not sure when your business meeting is. Maybe you think it's at two o'clock, but you're  

not sure, you might ask your coworker just  to confirm, our meeting's at two o'clock  

right? This is a great phrase to check,  to make sure that you're on the same page.  

And when he asked me, are you using a 24 volt  power adapter? Well, I wasn't exactly sure, but I  

imagined that I probably was using the right cord  because I used what came in the box. So I said,  

"I believe so." This is a great phrase  to use when you're pretty certain,  

but you're not completely sure. So if there's a  little bit of doubt, you can say, "I believe so." 

And then I checked and yes, this was the right  type of adapter, but he just wanted to make  

sure. So he could have just said, "Well, look on  the adapter and see what it says." But you know  

what? That's a little direct, instead he said,  "Let's double check." Let's double check. This  

is very polite. It's not assuming that I'm dumb  or that I just put any old cord in the wall. No,  

he's just saying, "Let's double check. Let's do  this together." It felt very affirming that I've  

tried, that I'm trying to do my best and he's here  to help me. Let's double check. Let's go through  

it together. Let's double check. Beautiful phrase. All right, let's go to the next section. I want  

you to listen for the first phrase that he uses  in this section, and then we're going to be doing  

some troubleshooting, but we're going to go back  and focus on that first phrase that you are about  

to hear. Let's listen. Customer Support: 

Let's go ahead and hear  it. Try putting in a photo. 

Vanessa: Okay. All right. I just put a photo over there.  

Okay. That was it. Customer Support: 

It does sound a bit unusual.  Are you scanning at 300 or  

600 DPI? Vanessa: 

I first started at 300 and then I did 600 to see  if that made it any different and it was the same. 

Customer Support: Okay. Did you install the software via  

the disc or the software online? Vanessa: 

I did the software online. At the beginning  of this section, you heard him say,  

"Let's go ahead." Let's go ahead and hear that  strange sound you're talking about. Let's go  

ahead and hear it. Try to put it in a photo.  Well, we often use this phrase, let's go ahead  

and ... when you are troubleshooting and trying  to solve and figure out a solution. So we might  

present multiple ideas, multiple solutions. We're  not sure which one is going to work, but you can  

present them with this phrase. Let's go ahead and  try this first, let's go ahead and do this next.  

Let's go ahead and try these things and see what  works. This is a great polite phrase to use. Okay.  

Let's go on to our next section. Listen carefully. Customer Support: 

That should be correct. I'd like to try to  give you a different version. If it still makes  

those noises, then it's most likely a physical  error and it's still covered under warranty. 

Vanessa: Oh, okay. That's great. I wasn't sure because  

I bought it back in November. What that would be. Customer Support: 

Oh, no worries. It should be a year. Vanessa: 

Oh, okay. Customer Support: 

Let me get your email and I can  send you a different version  

to try. Vanessa: 

In this section, you heard three useful phrases.  The first one is, "I'd like to try." "I'd like to  

try and give you a different version." This is one  of the possible solutions that he's offering. He  

doesn't know if this is going to be the one that  solves the problem, but it's one of the options.  

I'd like to try this and then we can try this. I'd  like to try this. I'd like to try that. The next  

phrase is a two part phrase, because maybe your  first solution, isn't the one that works. So you  

want to give another idea. You might say, if it  still makes a strange noise, then it's most likely  

a physical error. So here the two parts are, if  it's still the problem, then it's most likely. 

And then that's kind of your final  last conclusion, the thing that well,  

maybe causes the most hassle, which means I  need to return the entire device to the company,  

and that's a hassle, but that's the final option.  So we have this wonderful two part phrase. Let's  

take a look at a sample where you could use  this. If your computer still won't turn on,  

then it's most likely a hard drive error and  you'll have to bring it in for repairs. I'm sorry,  

but the last phrase is good news.  It is covered under warranty. Yes.  

So this means that you can return it for free.  You might need to pay for shipping, but overall,  

you don't need to pay for a new divide. This is huge. Especially when you purchase  

something online, you don't always know what the  warranty policy is, especially with electronics,  

but he said it's covered under warranty.  Beautiful. So you can ask this too.  

Do you know if it's still covered under warranty?  How long is the warranty for this scanner?  

This is a great question to ask because you  want to know, am I going to have to pay some  

big bucks to get this back to the company and  then to get another one? What is the warranty?  

It's important to know. All right, let's go on  to the final section where you're going to learn  

the two final phrases that are useful from  today's call center call, let's listen. 

Customer Support: You're on the Windows machine, right? 

Vanessa: Yes. That's right. 

Customer Support: Great. I'm going to send you a  

different version. If it's still encountering the  same issue, just call me back or you can email me  

and we'll get started on the RMA process. Vanessa: 

Okay. Thank you so much. I'm really glad to  hear that there's still a warranty just in  

case it doesn't work out, I felt bad  it took us so long to call you guys. 

Customer Support: Oh, no problem, happy to help.  

We'll get it straightened out. Vanessa: 

Okay. Thanks so much. I'll look for that email. Customer Support: 

Great. Thank you so much. Vanessa: 

Thanks. Bye. In this final section, we're going  to talk about three phrases. The first one is,  

in case it doesn't work out. This phrasal  verb to work out means to find the solution,  

to find the answer to the problem. So he's  suggesting that I download a new driver  

and I said, "Okay, I'll try that." But in case it  doesn't work out, I can always use the warranty. I  

can return it to the company and get a new one for  free. I was really worried about that, but I used  

this great phrase in case that doesn't work out, I  can use the warranty. Great. Just like every great  

call center employee should say, or just a nice  person. He said, "Oh no problem. Happy to help." 

Whenever you help someone, maybe you make an  English lesson for them, you can tell them,  

"I'm happy to help you." Or if your friend is  moving and you come and help them to pack up  

some boxes and they say, "Thank you so much for  helping me." You could say, "I'm happy to help."  

You're not just doing it because you have a duty.  You feel obligated. No, you are happy to help.  

How kind, what a beautiful phrase. And the final  phrase that I want to share with you today is,  

we'll get it straightened out. We'll get it  straightened out. We can imagine a tangled mess  

of yarn, of string. Oh, it's just so messed up. Oh, but when you straighten it out, all of a  

sudden it's easy to use again. Whoa, this is what  he is offering to me. Don't worry, we'll get it  

straightened out. Especially because my problem  was not completely solved in just this one phone  

call. I still need to download the drivers and  make sure that it's working fine. So he said,  

"We'll get it straightened out." This has the  feeling of taking care of me. You're taking  

care of the customer, even though we didn't solve  it right now, you go download the driver, give it  

your best bet, and don't worry, we will be here  to support you. We'll get it straightened out. 

The confidence, no matter what, we will find a  solution. We'll get it straightened out, I'll be  

here for you. It's very assuring. What a great  thing for a customer support center guy to say.  

I think it's pretty fair to say that this  guy has excellent customer service skills.  

Let's try to break down exactly what he did really  well, so that if you work for customer support,  

you can do that as well. Let's take a look  at these four things that he did. Number one,  

he responded quickly. He picked up the phone  immediately. I wasn't even on hold for long at  

all. Now I know this is sometimes not your fault. You have a lot of phone calls to get to,  

and there's a lot of things going on. But  even if you have to have a customer on hold,  

you can still say something very kind like,  "Excuse me, can you please go on hold for a  

moment? I'll be right with you." Very polite,  very clear, lovely. Because number two, is be  

polite and friendly. Yes, it's your job. Yes the  customer is probably complaining about something,  

but you can still be polite and friendly,  using all of the phrases from today's lesson,  

you can arm yourself with polite words to say. Tip  number three is to try to figure out the problem. 

Now this is not talking about the solution, this  is the problem. It's important to understand the  

problem that your customer is having. And a  good way to do this is to repeat it back, "Oh,  

the machine is making a really loud sound. Oh your  computer isn't turning on after it was doing." So  

you are repeating the problem back. You're trying  to figure out exactly what the problem is that the  

customer is sharing with you. Number four of  course is to try to find a helpful solution,  

a helpful solution. Sometimes you can find a  helpful solution quickly, sometimes you need  

to follow up in an email later, but you can  always use that phrase and say, "We'll get it  

straightened out. Don't worry, I'm here to help." All right. I hope you enjoy today's lesson and it  

was useful to you. The next time you have to call  customer support or you work for customer support,  

I hope it was useful to you. Don't forget to  download today's free PDF worksheet. There  

is a link in the description. Don't  forget any of today's phrases, ideas,  

sample sentences. And you can answer Vanessa's  challenge question at the bottom of the worksheet.  

There's a link in the description so you can  download it today. Now I have a question for  

you. Do you like to call customer support? Maybe  you're one of those rare people that enjoys it. 

Let me know in the comments. I hope today's  lesson was useful to you and I will see you again  

next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube  channel. Bye. The next step is to download  

the free PDF worksheet for this lesson. With  this free PDF, you will master today's lesson  

and never forget what you have learned. You  can be a confident English speaker. Don't  

forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.