Business Services

Key terms and concepts

Term	Definition
Active listening	Listening carefully in order to understand what someone is saying so as to prevent any misunderstanding.
Appropriate questioning techniques	Asking a variety of questions to clarify the actual needs of the customer.
Body language	Gestures that signal to another person the way you are feeling.
Business Plan	A plan of where a business wants to go, its short and long term goals and objectives and how it plans to achieve them.
Clarify	To ask questions to make sure that you fully understand the meaning.
Client	A customer of a business.
Confirmation	Notification of an agreement eg sending a letter to confirm a verbal agreement.
Cultural diversity	The great range of countries from which people come, each having different customs and cultures.
Enquiry	A request for or question seeking information.
Goals	The plan of where a person or business wants to be in a certain period of time.
Guideline	A principle or criterion directing an action.
Interpersonal skills	The way a person relates to other people they work with.
Objectives	The aims of a plan.
Paraphrase	To reword a passage to express the meaning another way.
Policy	A guiding principle which directs a course of action adopted by an organisation.
Professional and courteous manner	The manner that is expected of employees when dealing with customers.
Sensitivity	The degree to which a person is affected by external stimuli.
Summarise	To write a brief account, leaving out unnecessary detail.