Flinkfeldt2022

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Flinkfeldt2022
BibType ARTICLE
Key Flinkfeldt2022
Author(s) Marie Flinkfeldt, Sophie Parslow, Elizabeth Stokoe
Title How Categorization Impacts the Design of Requests: Asking for Email Addresses in Call-Centre Interactions
Editor(s)
Tag(s) Categorization, Requests, Call-center, Institutional talk, EMCA
Publisher
Year 2022
Language English
City
Month
Journal Language in Society
Volume 51
Number 4
Pages 693–716
URL Link
DOI 10.1017/S0047404521000592
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Marketing research shows that organizations tailor communication for particular customer 'segments', but little is known about the live design of interaction for different categories. To investigate this, we examine telephone calls to a holiday sales call-centre (for 'seniors') and a university admissions call-centre (for 'young' students). While topically different, call-takers in both datasets requested callers' email addresses in order to progress service. Using conversation analysis, we examine how these requests were designed, where and how 'age' was made relevant, and how subsequent service provision was handled in a way that matched callers' presumed age categories. Contrastive to the static notion of 'segments', we show how recipient design is bound up with categorial considerations while being responsive to the live unfolding of actual interaction. The article demonstrates how a comparative collection-based approach can be used to analyse the relevance of social categories in situations where this is implicit or ambiguous.

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