Gerund - BE 4 Unit 10: Customer Service

The gerund is the –ing form of the verb used as a noun, either as the subject or object of the verb.

Selling is all about persuasion.

Getting through to the right person is not always easy.

My idea of relaxation is going to a fitness center.

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Gerunds follow prepositions.

We are committed to giving the highest quality.

We depend on having fast communications.

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They are often used to begin an item in a list.

Good leaders are skilled at:

Fixing goals

Motivating people

Producing creative ideas

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Gerunds can be made negative, used in the passive and used with past verb forms.

It is wonderful not having to get up early for work.

Being kidnapped is not a pleasant experience.

He mentioned having met our main competitor.

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Many verbs are followed by a gerund (e.g. admit, avoid, consider, deny, dislike, involve, mention, recommend, risk, suggest).

He denied fiddling his expenses.

I dislike having to eat at my desk.

She suggests raising the price.

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Some verbs are followed by either a gerund or an infinitive. The choice of one or the other usually leads to a change in meaning.

Increased production may mean taking on extra staff at the weekend. (=involve)

I didn’t mean to cause any offence. (=intend to) - pelanggaran

He remembered to buy his wife a present. (= He didn’t forget)

He remembers buying his wife a present. (=He has a clear recollection of this).

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The gerund is formed by adding – ing to the base form of the verb.

She is talking to a client.

However, some gerunds require  minor spelling changes.

For verbs ending in –e, take away the e before adding –ing.

He is making some coffee.

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For verbs ending in consonant+vowel+consonant, double the final consonant and add –ing.

Is anyone sitting here?

But do not double the final consonant if it is an unstressed syllable: developing, marketing.

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Gerund - Book

I regret telling you … I told you and I wish I hadn’t.

I regret to tell you … I am sorry about the bad news I am about to tell you.

We stopped producing the alpha model. – we stopped the production of the alpha model.

We stopped to produce the alpha model. – we stopped the production of something else in order to produce the alpha model.

I tried speaking to customer services. – it didn’t resolve the problem.

I tried to speak to customer service. – I couldn’t get through to any there.

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Prepositions and gerunds BE 4 Unit 10 : Customer Service

Is your company committed to giving the highest quality?

Business is not about cutting costs. A more important question is how to provide excellent customer service.

Many companies could do with some advice on improving customer service.

Instead of investing in expensive equipment, perhaps we could send our staff on an customer service training course.

Of course, good customer service is not an alternative to selling quality products.

Any company has to be interested in getting feedback from its customers.

Most of our employees are very good at dealing with complaints.

We look forward to studying your report on customer service.

Delays in answering phone calls make a bad impression on customers.

The main reason for investing in staff training was that we were getting an increasing number of customer complaints.

Customer Service gerund - BE 4 Unit 10 : Customer Service

Providing customer satisfaction has become an essential marketing tool, particularly in areas where competition is fierce. 

It is well known that satisfied customers will stimulate new business by telling up to 12other people, whereas those treated badly will tell up to 20 people.

There are many ways of ensuring that your customers are  satisfied, such as:

Replacing a faulty product immediately.

Always returning phone calls, even when they are complaints.

Under-promising and over-delivering (e.g. saying that a repair will carried out within 5 hours, but getting it done within two).

Offering your customers comfortable seating and free parking.

And occasionally throwing in an unexpected present, such as a gift voucher to regular customers.

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Gerund

I regret to tell you that we are cancelling our contract immediately.

Luckily, he remembered to tell us all to arrive a little early, so we had time to discuss the revised budget before the meeting started.

We stopped trying breaking into the US market last year because of the recession.

She started her presentation at 2 o’clock and didn’t stop talking until after 6 o’clock.

Working overtime is something we all have to do sometimes.

We need to focus on dealing with our cashflow problem.

When I tried speaking to Alph about the problem, he listened politely, but he didn’t do anything about it.

He asked me telling you that he is going to be late to the meeting.

He admitted stealing company information from the database.

I forgot sending an e-mail to my client to cancel our meeting, so she wasn’t very pleased.

She is not good at making presentations. I think she should go on a course to improve her skills.

Writing report is the most boring part of my job.

Have you considered applying for promotion.

She tried to send the details from her smart phone, but she couldn’t get a signal. So he had to email them instead.