The Customer Is Not Always Right
Grammar: collocations in the language of customer experience
A Business English English lesson exploring business.
What's in this lesson
A Business English ESL lesson on business, practising collocations in the language of customer experience. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary and discussion questions.
From the reading: The Customer Is Not Always Right
In 2018, United Airlines lost roughly 255 million dollars in market value in a single day after a video of a passenger being forcibly removed from an overbooked flight went viral. The footage reached 100 million viewers within 48 hours. United's initial response — a corporate statement that apologised for having to "re-accommodate" customers — made the situation dramatically worse. The phrase became a global punchline, and the airline's chief executive, Oscar Munoz, was forced to issue a second, more genuine apology days later. The incident was a textbook case of what happens when a company treats service recovery as a communications problem rather than a human one.
Vocabulary
- approved
- loyalty
- sincere
- worsen
- authorise
- build
- damage
- lose
- make
Discussion questions
- Have you ever received service so good it changed your opinion of a brand?
- Should companies always give customers what they want?
- What is the worst customer service experience you can imagine?
The Customer Is Not Always Right
Grammar: collocations in the language of customer experience
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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