Part 1: Cleaning services conversation
PART 1 – Questions 1–10
Questions 1–4
Complete the form below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
HOMECARE CLEANING AGENCY
House Details
Customer referred by: friend
Location: in the 1 ________
Type of cleaning: regular
Rooms:
- two 2 ________ bedrooms
- (third bedroom used as 3 ________)
- kitchen/diner
- 4 ________
- family room
- two bathrooms
Questions 5–7
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
5. Which extra service does the agency agree to provide?
A. changing the bed linen
B. washing the windows
C. cleaning the fridge
6. What will be cleaned more thoroughly every three months?
A. the children’s room
B. the carpet
C. the bathroom
7. The woman would like the cleaners to
A. do the washing.
B. iron the clothes.
C. put the clothes away.
Questions 8–10
Complete the form below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
HOMECARE CLEANING AGENCY
Customer Details
- Name: Rose Kelly
- Address: 48 8 ________ Road, Mount Eden
- Day of job: 9 ________
- Time: 9.30 am
- Cost per hour: $25
- Maximum length of job: 10 ________
Keys
- Southeast
- double
- an office
- lounge
- A
- B
- B
- AMYES
- Thursday
- 3 hours
Transcript
Section 1 You will hear a telephone conversation between a customer and a representative of an agency that arranges cleaning services for people’s houses.
Representative: Good morning, Home Care Cleaning Agency.
Customer: Oh, hello. I’d like to arrange to have some cleaning done, please.
Representative: Certainly. Have you used our services before?
Customer: No, I haven’t. But a friend of mine has often used your company and suggested I phone you.
Representative: That’s great. I’ll just take some details from you and then you can let me know exactly what you would like done, okay? First of all, what area are you in?
Customer: I’m in the South West.
Representative: Okay, and are
you interested in having a regular cleaner or is this a one-off clean?
Customer: No, I’d like to arrange to have someone come in once a week.
Representative: Right. Now let’s just get a bit of information about the house. How many bedrooms does it have?
Customer: Three.
Representative: Are they all double bedrooms?
Customer: Well, one of the bedrooms is quite small, so it’s probably really two double rooms. We have the small bedroom set up as an office.
Representative: Right. And just a standard kitchen, lounge, dining room and bathroom?
Customer: Well, actually, we don’t have a separate dining room. It’s a kitchen-diner. Then there’s the lounge, and as well as that, we have a family room. Oh, and two bathrooms.
Representative: Okay. Right, that’s all I need to know about the house itself. Now, what we do is we offer a basic cleaning service and then you let us know about anything extra you’d like cleaned.
Customer: Right. And what does the basic service include?
Representative: We clean all the floors and surfaces and do a basic clean in the kitchen and bathroom.
Customer: Okay, that sounds good. And do you clean windows?
Representative: Well, I’m afraid we don’t do that, health and safety regulations, but we do offer other special services. We can put clean sheets on the beds, for example, or we can clean out your fridge. A lot of people like that done.
Customer: Oh, I’m not so worried about that, but I would like the sheets changed.
Representative: No problem, we can do that.
Customer: What about the carpet?
Representative: As well as the standard vacuum, we can shampoo it if you want.
Customer: Right. We’ve got young children so it gets pretty dirty. I haven’t had it done for six months.
Representative: It really needs doing more often than that. You can have it done every month if you like, but three months is what we usually recommend.
Customer: That sounds good. The only other thing is the washing. Do you do laundry work?
Representative: Yes, we do. That’s no problem. What exactly would you like done?
Customer: Well, it’s no problem to put a load of washing in the machine, I can do that, but I would like to have the ironing done.
Representative: That’s fine. And would you like the washing put away in drawers or wardrobes?
Customer: No, it’s okay, you can just leave everything out and fold it up.
Representative: Okay, right. Now I’ll just set up an account for you and I’ll take down some of your details. First of all, what’s your full name?
Customer: It’s Rose Kelly.
Representative: And could I have your home address, please, Mrs Kelly?
Customer: Yes, it’s 48 Amyes Road. That’s A-M-Y-E-S. And that’s in Mount Eden.
Representative: Okay, now what day of the week would you like the property cleaned?
Customer: It doesn’t really matter. Not Monday, but any other day.
Representative: Okay, let’s see. We have a cleaner in your area later on Thursday, so shall we go for that day? We could have someone there by about 9:30 in the morning. Does that suit you?
Customer: Yes, that’s fine.
Representative: And do you charge an hourly rate or a total for the whole job?
Customer: No, we charge by the hour. It will work out to about $25 per hour.
Customer: That’s quite reasonable. I thought it might be closer to $30. And how long do you expect it to take?
Representative: Well, you said the house isn’t large, so I’d guess no more than three hours at the most. We can occasionally finish a three-bedroom in two and a half, but that’s probably not too realistic.
Customer: Right, that sounds good.
Representative: Okay, that’s lovely. Thank you very much and we’ll have someone there next week.
Customer: Thank you!
