Hultgren2009
| 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 | |
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| Number | |
| Pages | 322–342 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306897.003.0015 |
| ISBN | |
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| Howpublished | |
| Book title | “Why Do You Ask?”: The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse |
| Chapter | |
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.
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