[Vocabulary] I just need some advise

Status
Not open for further replies.

Tyrosse

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Spanish
Home Country
Mexico
Current Location
Mexico
Hi everyone
Brief explanation I work for Spanish customer care and sometimes I need to speak eighter to an English representative or to and English customer.
I was wondering if there is a natural way I can treat customers and representatives.
For example sometimes I have a hard time trying to figure out how to ask for something nicely as following.
Hold on a second - I use this sentence when I put eighter a customer or a representative on hold.
Thanks for waiting - I use it when i come back.

I also had a hard time trying to explain a representative that we needed to port in a phone number from another company and I said:
Hi, my name is ______ I'm from customer client and I have a customer on line who wants to port in his phone number from another company instead of using a provisional line which is XXX-XXXX could you please help me? As soon as I finished I realized that the other representative was confused because I wasn't clear enough.

I think that the main problem here is that I have not read a lot and yeah I need to start looking for synonyms :)
Also I just want to know how to say for example "Let me transfer the customer over" in a more acceptable way.
I just want my sentences to sound natural, any suggestions are really appreciated.

Thanks in advance ;-) I'm going to sleep right now, I will be back as soon as possible.
 
Last edited:

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Hi everyone
Brief explanation I work for Spanish customer care and sometimes I need to speak either to an English representative or to and English customer.
I was wondering if there is a natural way I can treat customers and representatives.
For example sometimes I have a hard time trying to figure out how to ask for something nicely as following.
Hold on a second - I use this sentence when I put either a customer or a representative on hold.
Thanks for waiting - I use it when i come back.

I also had a hard time trying to explain a representative that we needed to port in a phone number from another company and I said:
Hi, my name is ______ I'm from customer client and I have a customer on line who wants to port in his phone number from another company instead of using a provisional line which is XXX-XXXX could you please help me? As soon as I finished I realized that the other representative was confused because I wasn't clear enough.

I think that the main problem here is that I have not read a lot and yeah I need to start looking for synonyms :)
Also I just want to know how to say for example "Let me transfer the customer over" in a more acceptable way.
I just want my sentences to sound natural, any suggestions are really appreciated.

Thanks in advance ;-) I'm going to sleep right now, I will be back as soon as possible.

"Hold on a second" sounds a little too informal to me. There is a difference between sounding natural and sounding a little too informal. When people phone customer services (in the UK at least) they expect to be treated professionally and be spoken to in a friendly manner but still fairly formally.

Instead of "Hold on a second", I would use "Just a moment please" or "I am just going to put you on hold for a moment".

"Thanks for waiting" or "Thank you for holding" are fine.

With your second question, I think the main reason they may not understand is the same reason I don't - what does "I need to port in a customer's number" mean? It's not a phrase/phrasal verb I've ever heard and I can't work out what it might mean even from the context of your post.

You should say "I have a customer on the line..." - that makes it clear it's the telephone. If you say "I have a customer on line" it sounds like "online", meaning "on the internet".

I don't think there's anything wrong with "Let me transfer the customer [over]" if you're talking to another department within customer services or within your company. You would say to the customer "I'm going to transfer you to [name/department] now. Thanks for your call" or something similar.

Also, review your spelling of "either" (it's not "eighter").
 

Tyrosse

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Spanish
Home Country
Mexico
Current Location
Mexico
Thank you very much I have written what you've said on last reply, just to remember it when I'm not at the computer.

I'm trying to explain what I meant.

To port in a number from another company means to me that some one will bring their own telephone number from another company and they've got a provisional line. It makes sentence to me because the department which pulls out the number from the competition it's called Port In Activation Center and I thought that to "Port In" was actually a verb like "We do this" Center. Say I got a new phone with the number 123-4567 which is not actually my phone number, its just provisional. When the device arrives I activate the phone and its ready to go, but I can transfer my old phone number into my new device. This happens when you move out from another mobile company into the new one. I don't know if I was clear enough.
May I use the sentence "I'm just going to put you on hold for a moment, is that OK with you"?
Also while I'm editing my post a new question has just came up to me. Do you think its OK if I say to a representative "Hi, my name is _______ and I have a customer on the line who has this issue: _______ And I was wondering if you could help me with that"
We normally address a customer by their last name and a representative by their first. Which sentence would be better "My name" or "This is José"
When spelling I noticed that a representatives say "C as an cat?", am I right?
May I say, "I will confirm the number you just provided me since the beginning to see if I'm right, Is your (phone or credit card) number "XXXX"?

Thank you.
 
Last edited:

JohnParis

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Member Type
Retired Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
France
"When the device arrives I activate the phone and its ready to go, but I can transfer my old phone number into my new device. This happens when you move out to another mobile company. I don't know if I was clear enough."

Could "port" come from "Import?"

Also Tyrosse, in your title: it's advice (not advise)

John
 

Tyrosse

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Spanish
Home Country
Mexico
Current Location
Mexico
My bad I forgot how to spell advice, thank you.

To answer your question, now that i think of it. Yes, it could be "to import". I have also done a research by my own just to clarify this and I came up with the following:

-To carry a number from another company
-Portability
-To get/bring over
-Either to take/pull out
-To take along with him?
-To wear old/last/or even their actual phone number, its just an idea :lol:
-The number which they want to activate/use with "the company"

I would say in Spanish "Quiere hacer una portabilidad/portar el número" which is something like "Wants to port a number"
I would also say something like "I have understood all of your concerns about "x", "y" and "z". And I'm glad to assist you today, actually I'm working on that right now.
Thanks for your patience
 
Last edited:

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
"When the device arrives I activate the phone and its ready to go, but I can transfer my old phone number into my new device. This happens when you move out to another mobile company. I don't know if I was clear enough."

Could "port" come from "Import?"

Also Tyrosse, in your title: it's advice (not advise)

John

It's "port" meaning to move from one system to another. Probably taken from computer programmers. If I wrote some software that works fine, but it runs on a PC, I would need to "port" it to software for an Apple if I wanted it to work on that platform.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top