Hultgren2009

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Hultgren2009
BibType INCOLLECTION
Key Hultgren2009
Author(s) Anna Kristina Hultgren, Deborah Cameron
Title “How may I help you?”: questions, control and customer care in telephone call centre talk
Editor(s) Alice F. Freed, Susan Ehrlich
Tag(s) EMCA, questions, telephone talk, customers
Publisher Oxford University Press
Year 2009
Language
City Oxford
Month
Journal
Volume
Number
Pages 322–342
URL Link
DOI 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306897.003.0015
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title “Why Do You Ask?”: The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse
Chapter

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Abstract

This chapter, written by Ann Kristina Hultgren and Deborah Cameron, is concerned with questions in telephone interactions between customers and service personnel (“agents”) in a Scottish call center that is part of a large insurance company; the data involve inbound calls initiated by the customers. The company imposes standards on the agents relating to both efficiency and customer care, applying the same closely controlled strategies to both. The inherent tension between the two sets of objectives puts agents in the position of constantly trying to determine what balance will be acceptable to their superiors. The chapter considers how these conditions affect the use of questions between agents and customers. The authors conclude that power in this interaction belongs to neither of the participants but is located rather in the call center system.

Notes