ü 思路拓展
Word of mouth (=information you get by someone telling you) is one of the best ways of getting business. If existing customers feel valued, they can do good word of mouth advertising. Then potential customers might be lured and secured.
If existing customers feel valued, they can put forward advice and criticism which will definitely boost the positive development of companies.
If existing customers feel valued, they will be loyal to the company and make purchases of every updated product.
ü 话语连接
Every company needs to strengthen their customer base to make a continuous profit. Therefore, it is vital to make customers feel valued.
First, those existing customers can do good word of mouth advertising.
Second, valued customers can put forward advice and criticism which is conducive to the positive development of the company.
Most importantly, valued customers can be loyal to the company and make purchases of every updated product from the company.
That’s what I believe the importance of making customers feel valued.
ü 实践操作
Every company needs to strengthen their customer base and expand it to make a continuous profit. Therefore, it is vital to make customers feel valued. First, existing customers can do good word of mouth advertising. Word of mouth is one of the best ways of getting business because companies can lure more potential customers. Second, valued customers can put forward advice and criticism which is conducive to the positive development of the company. Most importantly, valued customers can be loyal to the company and make purchases of every updated product of the company. That’s what I believe the importance of making customers feel valued.
Businesspassagereading
VI. Business Passage Reading.
Corporations face brain-drain hurdle
Large firms fear losing quality staff amid soaring demand for experienced labour
Denise Tsang
Retaining talent is one of the most challenging issues facing major corporations on the mainland despite the country’s abundant supply of labour, a conference heard yesterday. (retention)
Top officials at the Bank of East Asia, accounting firm Ernst& Young and Oracle Systems said they had invested heavily to keep staff amid soaring demand for experienced labour across the border.
The officials were addressing the Human Capital Management in Greater China conference, hosted by the South China Morning Post at the Island Shangri-La hotel.
They said competition for professionals was heating up as multinational corporations raced to capitalize on the mainland’s deregulation in sectors such as information technology, telecommunications, banking and professional services under its World Trade Organization commitments.
“We believe China has a tremendous pool of resources, but to build that up is a challenge because we need a group of strong professional managers,” said Arics Poon, managing director of Oracle systems’ operations in southern China and Hong Kong.
Oracle, a software and system solutions firm with about 700 staff mostly in Beijing and Shanghai, adopted strategies to foster staff loyalty, such as offering them training opportunities at Oracle offices overseas.
“Rotation of jobs will give them international exposure and experience,” Mr Poon said.
Staff turnover at Oracle was relatively low, he said, citing the departure of three employees of 33 hired two years ago at a recruitment fair that drew 6000 applications.
Ernst & Young chairman and chief executive Anthony Wu Ting-yuk said that from the financial perspective, retaining a worker was cheaper than recruiting one.
The firm believed that offering an employee-friendly working environment was the key to staff loyalty.
Maintaining the solidarity of employees was particularly crucial to the future development of Ernst & Young, Mr Wu said.
“A boom in enterprises and financial markets means accounting firms are very competitive in hiring auditors. We are short of staff everywhere,” he said.
The firm said last November that it planned to recruit 1,200 accountants in Hong Kong and the mainland this year to cope with a rising number of initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions.
It boosted its workforce to more than 3,000 on the mainland after employing 700 graduates last year, Mr Wu said.
“We realize that keeping staff happy will make clients happy, which will bring in business,” he said.
“We manage to strike a balance on our staff workload and work life. For example, we offer a better working environment by setting up offices in Dalian and Wuhan last year as some staff members have to travel to remote areas.”
David Li Kwok-po, chairman and chief executive of the Bank of East Asian, believe regular dialogue between management and staff would reinforce loyalty to the bank.
“We also give managers authority on some decision making, which will give them more responsibilities and motivation,” he said.
“As many foreign banks are expanding in China, we expect our staff will be poached.”
Vocabulary
heat verb [transitive] to make something become warm or hot
ￚsynonym warm up
Heat the milk until it boils.
heat up phrasal verb
1 to become warm or hot, or to make something become warm or hot
The stove takes a while to heat up.
heat something ↔ up
I heated up the remains of last night’s supper.
2 if a situation heats up, it becomes dangerous or full of problems
pool noun
▶GAME◀
[uncountable]a game in which you use a stick to hit numbered balls into holes around a table, which is often played in bars
shoot/play pool We went to the pub and played pool.
▶GROUP OF PEOPLE◀
[countable] a group of people who are available to work or to do an activity when they are needed
pool of
a pool of talented applicants to choose from
The region has a large and talented labour pool.
▶SHARED MONEY/THINGS◀
[countable usually singular] a number of things or an amount of money that is shared by a group of people
Both partners put money into a common pool.
strike a balance (between something)
to give the correct amount of importance or attention to two separate things
He was finding it difficult to strike a balance between his family and his work.
It isn’t always easy to strike the right balance.
poach verb
▶COOK◀ [transitive]
a) to cook an egg in or over gently boiling water, without its shell
poached eggs on toast
b) to gently cook food, especially fish, in a small amount of boiling water, milk etc
Poach the salmon in white wine and water.
▶ANIMALS◀
[intransitive and transitive] to illegally catch or shoot animals, birds, or fish, especially on private land without permission
Deer have been poached here for years.
▶PEOPLE◀
[transitive] to persuade someone who belongs to another organization, team etc to leave it and join yours, especially in a secret or dishonest way
That company’s always poaching our staff.
poach from
Several of their reporters were poached from other papers.
▶STEAL IDEAS◀
[transitive] to take and use someone else’s ideas unfairly or illegally
poach from
characters poached from Shakespeare
5 poach on somebody’s territory/preserve
British English to do something that is someone else’s responsibility, especially when they do not want you to do it
Homework
VII. Homework
l You recently attended a one-day training course. You were disappointed with many aspects of the event, and have decided to write a letter of complaint to the company that ran it.
l Write your letter to the company, including the following information:
n which course you attended
n what was unsatisfactory
n what you had hoped to gain from the course
n what you expect to happen now.
l Write 200-250 words on the separate answer paper provided.
