Cancelling/Rescheduling Flights - 13 Days Call Center Training Module

OBJECTIVES

1. To practice expressions used in cancelling or rescheduling flights 2. To reinforce proper paraphrasing

3. To produce the / t / and / d / consonant sounds

4. To master the forms and functions of the present verb tense

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PREPARE TO SPEAK

A. Dialogue

A: IMI Travel and Tours. Good morning. This is ________. May I help you?

B: This is Tania. I have made some changes in my itinerary.

A: Can I have your access code?

B: I don’t have it.

A: Did you forget, Ma’am?

B: Can’t you just look it up by my name?

A: Ok, Ma’am. First, I have to find your reservation. Could you give me your flight number?

B: T 732

A: Thanks. Please hold on a minute. I’m locating your record now. I’m almost there.

Here we go; I’ve got it. Ma’am, you’re traveling from South Carolina to Boston.

B: Yes. But I want to cancel my flight to Boston. Instead book me a ticket, business class, to Denver, Colorado, I need to be in Denver by 6:00PM tomorrow. And please cancel my hotel reservation and find me a 5-star hotel in Denver.

A: Okay, so you are going to Denver tomorrow, instead of Boston.

B: That’s right. How much will that cost me?

A: Just a moment, ma’am. Let me see what’s available. Hmmmm…I’m accessing the flight schedule now. Here, we have a flight from South Carolina to Denver

departing tomorrow at 2:00PM and arriving at 4:00PM. It cost $525.

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B: Isn’t that rather expensive?

A: No, Ma’am. Would you like to book this flight? We have only two seats left.

B: All right. Book me then.

A: About the hotel, do you have any preference?

B: Yes, a suite at Paradise Hotel.

A: I’ve got the rate for the suite, ma’am. It’s $300 a day. Would you like me to reserve this?

B: Yes, and thank you.

A: You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can help you with?

B: That’s all. Have a nice day.

B. Pronunciation

Directions: Go over the text again. List down some of the words that represent critical sounds in the text. Write your answers in the box.

/ t / Sounds / d/ sound

C. Practice Producing the following:

/ t / / d/

Asked Believed

Detour Bread

Duty Dame

Gate Den

Hot Gold

Suit Greedy

Take Mad

Tame Made

Taught Played

test ready

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D. Pronunciation Exercises

1. The Team Leader asked the senior agents to help the new ones prepare for the presentation.

2. Are all the participants ready?

3. Let me give you the shortest detour.

4. The trainer was so convincing that the trainees undoubtedly believed her.

5. Only a few of the customers played at the casino.

6. Don’t you think Asians are generally tame?

7. Who taught you those amazing tricks?

8. Do we have to pass the test to be promoted?

9. Would you like some garlic or cheese bread?

10. The children made the biggest sand castle.

E. Phrasing Exercises

Read the following paragraph aloud and observe proper phrasing.

Tact and Talent

Talent is something, but tact is everything. Talent is serious, sober, grave, and respectable; tact is all that and more too. It is not a sixth sense, nut is the life of the all five, it is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is the interpreter of all riddles, the surmounted of all difficulties, the remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all places, and at all times, it is useful in solitude for it shows a man his way into the world; it is useful in society, for it shows him his way through the world.

-W.P Sargill

The Americans believe that if men are left free in the planning and conduct of their lives they will win ore cusses in the professions, the trades, and the industries than they will if their lives are regulated for them by some superior power, even if that power be more intelligent and better informed than they. Blind obedience and implicit submission to the will of another do not commend themselves to characteristics of Americans. The discipline in which they believe is the voluntary co-operation of several or many persons in the orderly and effective pursuit of common ends. Yet Americans are capable of intense collective action when they see that such action is necessary to efficiency or to the security of the community as a whole. Thus they submit willingly to any restrictions on individual liberty which can be shown to be necessary to the preservation of the public health, and they are capable of the most effective co-operation at need in business, sports, and war.

-Charles W. Elliot

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COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS

A. Exercise: Practice reading the dialogue in Prepare to Speak with a partner. Pay attention to the common expression used to ask for and get more information.

B. Techniques: Use the following expressions in canceling or rescheduling:

“So you are going to _____________ instead of _______________.”

“Would you like to book this flight?”

“Do you have any preference?”

“Would you like me to reserve this now?”

C. More Practice: Can you add to this list?

Canceling/Rescheduling

D. Vocabulary and Idioms

Exercise 1: Go over the dialogue again. Can you identify some of the idiomatic

expressions used? Do you know what they mean? List down the idioms you found in the text and explain how you understand each.

Idioms Used in the Dialogue Possible Meaning

Exercise 2: Complete the dialogue below with the appropriate vocabulary and idiomatic expressions from the box:

Fix you Spinning Make out

Downer Strain Catch your health

Tower of Babel Lost my composure Keep your cool A: Guess what, I had a variety of callers, and my head is ___________!

B: __________ first, and then we’ll talk about it.

A: I had a ___________, sort ot. Oh my, English with different accents! I had to ________ my ears trying to catch what the client was saying. Good, I was quick enough to adjust to their context so I was able to _____________ something from what they were saying.

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B: Good girl!

A: At other times, I had to restate what the client said to check if I understood well.

I also asked them questions just to make sure I got them right.

B: Great!

A: Thank goodness, I didn’t panic, but I almost __________________.

B: Trust yourself; you can _______________.

A: Excuse me, I think I need a glass of very cold orange juice. I need a ___________.

My adrenaline is still up!

B: Let me ________________ a drink then.

GRAMMAR

Verb tenses

Use of tense in Present Time. The simple present is used to show present action or condition.

Present action : Here she comes.

Present condition : The clients are waiting.

Regularly occurring : My favorite customer calls every other day.

Regulary occurring

Condition : The agents are always ready.

Constant action : The International Dateline indicates the time difference between East and West

Constant condition : The Philippines is in the Far East

Now, the present progressive indicates actions that are in progress at the time of speaking.

Uses of the present progressive tenses.

Continuing action : He is talking to the client.

Continuing condition : The agent is being trained.

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Exercise: Use the following words or groups of words in sentences following the suggestion in the parenthesis.

1. travel regularly (regularly occurring action)

_______________________________________________________________________

2. trainers are (present condition)

_______________________________________________________________________

3. Hawaii is (constant condition)

_______________________________________________________________________

4. company is (continuing condition)

_______________________________________________________________________

5. arrive (present condition)

_______________________________________________________________________

6. is never (regularly occurring condition)

_______________________________________________________________________

7. receive (continuing action)

_______________________________________________________________________

8. produce (constant action)

_______________________________________________________________________

9. call (regularly occurring action)

_______________________________________________________________________

10. talk (present action)

_______________________________________________________________________

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A. Simulation: Prepare a 3-minute role-play on the following situations:

1. A famous playwright calls to cancel his flight from New York to Hawaii next week and wants the same flight rescheduled on the last week of the month. Give him a list of available flights and let him decide which one to take.

2. A lady calls cancelling her early morning flight from Maine to Los Angeles and requests that it be rescheduled the next day any time.

3. A bachelor calls to cancel his flight and reschedules it to late in the evening of the same day. He is flying from Alaska to Alabama. He didn’t specify his time preference.

B. Peer evaluation:

Note, you must refer to the grid questions BELOW to do this activity.