Describe a small business that provides especially good service.
A card about a local business that treated you well: a repair shop, a café, a tailor or a family-run grocer. One concrete episode carries the whole answer.
The task card
Describe a small business that provides especially good service.
You should say:
- what the business does
- where it is located
- what experience you had there
and explain why its service stood out.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Introduce the business in one breath — what it does and where it is — then get to the experience quickly. The third bullet wants a story, not a review, so choose a single visit: the time they repaired your coat while you waited, or stayed open late so you could collect a parcel.
Tell that episode with a beginning, a problem and a resolution. What did you ask for, what could have gone wrong, what did the staff actually do? A strong answer includes a small moment of dialogue or a specific gesture, because 'especially good service' has to be shown, not claimed.
For 'why it stood out', compare the business with the alternative: a chain would have quoted a week and a standard fee. The common mistake is praising the product instead of the service — the card is about how they treated you, so keep the focus on the people.
Ideas you can actually use
Three angles on this card. Pick the one closest to something real in your own life — invented material is what makes candidates hesitate at ninety seconds.
What good service actually looks like
- They remember your order, your name, or the thing you asked about last month
- They tell you not to buy something, or send you to a competitor who does it better
- They fix a problem before you have finished explaining it, without asking for proof
One incident that proves it
- A repair done free, a replacement given without a receipt, an order held back for you
- Staying open ten minutes late, or opening early because you were stuck
- Owning a mistake immediately instead of arguing about whose fault it was
Why small businesses can do this and chains cannot
- Decisions are made by the person standing in front of you, not a policy
- Their reputation is local and personal, so a bad interaction genuinely costs them
- Concede the trade-off: they are more expensive and open fewer hours
What your one minute of notes should look like
Not sentences — a few words per cue point. This is the level of detail sixty seconds actually buys you, and it is enough to speak from for two minutes.
- WHAT — bike repair shop, two streets away, run by Marek
- SERVICE — remembers the bike, explains what he did, no upsell
- INCIDENT — fixed a gear cable in 5 min, refused payment
- WHY GOOD — he decides, not a policy; I now go nowhere else
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
I'd like to describe a small bicycle repair shop near my old flat — a two-man workshop in what used to be a garage, run by a father and son. I first went there with a puncture, expecting to leave the bike for a day, and the older man fixed it while I waited — but what he actually did was the interesting part. He noticed the brakes were badly adjusted, showed me exactly what was wrong by making me squeeze the lever myself, fixed them in five minutes, and then refused to charge for it because, in his words, brakes aren't upselling, brakes are brakes. The service is good in ways that are hard to fake. They tell you when a repair isn't worth it, which costs them money. They remember your bike, not just your face — the son once greeted me with 'how's the rear wheel holding up' after two months. And there's a little shelf of loaner pumps and tools outside that works on pure trust, even overnight. Why does it stand out for me? Because their whole model is the opposite of most service businesses — they optimise for you coming back for years, not for the size of today's bill. And it clearly works: there's often a queue, they never advertise, and when I moved across the city I still take my bike there, which I suppose is the only review that really counts.
Why this works: The answer proves 'good service' through three concrete behaviours instead of adjectives, including one quoted line — direct speech is a naturalness marker examiners notice. The final sentence converts loyalty into evidence, closing the 'explain why' bullet with an argument rather than a feeling.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- family-run
Describes a business owned and operated by one family.
- to go the extra mile
Idiom for doing more than expected; fits the final bullet perfectly.
- nothing was too much trouble
Natural phrase for patient, generous service.
- a loyal customer base
The group of people who keep returning to a business.
- word of mouth
Recommendations passed between people rather than advertising.
- personal touch
The small human details that large companies rarely provide.
The same phrases in a full sentence
A phrase list is only useful if you know how the words sit around it. Say each of these aloud once before you attempt the card.
- they go the extra mile
- “They genuinely go the extra mile, and they do it without making a performance of it.”
- to build up a rapport
- “Over about three years we have built up a rapport, so it is a conversation, not a transaction.”
- word of mouth
- “They have never advertised — it is all word of mouth.”
- no quibbles
- “He replaced it with no quibbles at all, even though I had lost the receipt.”
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
Customer service
Example questions
- 1What do people in your country expect from good service?
- 2How do businesses usually find out whether customers are happy?
- 3Do you think online reviews are reliable?
Small businesses
Example questions
- 1Can you suggest why some people prefer small shops to large chains?
- 2What difficulties do small businesses face today?
- 3Should governments protect small businesses from larger competitors?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Places. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.