Dealing with Complaints: Business English Activities & Worksheets

Business English Dealing with Complaints Activity - Vocabulary, Reading, Listening and Speaking: Gap-fill, Ordering, Role-play, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this dealing with complaints activity, students practice language for dealing with customer complaints and role-play complaint dialogues. First, students complete sentences that deal with complaints using words from a box. In pairs, students then put a complaint dialogue between a customer and a customer service representative in the correct order by reading the sentences to each other and numbering them accordingly. After that, pairs read a customer complaint scenario and role-play a complaint dialogue between a customer and a customer service representative. Finally, pairs role-play their dialogues to the class. show less

Business English Dealing with Complaints Worksheet - Reading and Writing Exercises: Gap-fill, Error Correction, Ordering - Speaking Activity: Role-Play - Pair Work Here is a useful customer complaints worksheet to help students learn how to deal with customer complaints. First, in pairs, students discuss questions about dealing with customer complaints. Students then complete a text about three steps to dealing with customer complaints with words from a box. Next, students match the numbered words from the text to their definitions. After that, students underline and correct errors in sentences that may be said by either a customer or a customer service agent. Students then move on to put a telephone complaint dialogue in the correct order. Finally, in pairs, students role-play a scenario between a customer and a customer service agent, taking turns playing each role and using the language and steps for handling complaints. Afterwards, pairs perform their role-plays to the class. After each presentation, students give feedback on how well each pair addressed the three steps for dealing with customer complaints. show less

Business English Dealing with Complaints Activity - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions, Controlled and Freer Practice In this free 'Find Someone Who' activity on dealing with complaints, students ask and answer questions about customer service language and complaint‑handling phrases. To begin, students review the 'Can you...?' questions they need to ask in the activity, e.g. 'Can you greet a customer and offer help politely?' Students then go around the class, asking their classmates 'Can you...?' questions about the complaint‑handling skills. When a student finds someone who answers 'yes' to a question, they note the person's name and their example phrase. If a classmate answers 'no', the student asks a different question or repeats the question with other classmates until one of them says 'yes'. This process continues until the students have completed each item on the worksheet with a different name and answer, one classmate per item. Afterwards, students give feedback to the class on the example phrases they collected, e.g. best apology lines, good closing lines, etc.show less

Business English Dealing with Complaints Activity - Speaking: Role-Play, Asking and Answering Questions, Form Completion, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this complaints‑handling activity, students practice collecting and confirming customer details on a call, clarifying the issue, reading back key information, and outlining next steps and time frames. Pairs begin by role-playing the first case with Student A acting as the customer, and Student B as the customer service representative. The representative asks the customer for the details of the complaint using polite questions and completes a form. At the end of the call, the representative reads back the key details to confirm the information. The representative then states the steps they will take to resolve the issue, gives a general time frame, and closes politely. Afterwards, students switch roles and repeat the process for the second case. When the pairs have finished, they review their completed forms together to check for any missed details. Finally, some pairs role‑play their dialogues to the class. show less