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"Maam, let me tell you our story": Analyzing interpersonal relationship and recount structure in American-Filipino call centre complaint conversations
Author(s)
Date Issued
2017
Citation
In Proceedings of the International Conference: Doing research in applied linguistics 3 / English in South-East Asia Conference 2017 (pp. 338-359).
Description
Online Access
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Call centre conversation is a newly emerging workplace discourse. These conversations usually involve a wide range of customer service enquiries and problem-solving goals. The Customer Service Representative (CSR) needs to maintain positive interpersonal interaction with the customer. The major aim of the present study is to find typical interpersonal features which are used by the Filipino CSR and the American customer to make meanings at points of complaint in the call centre conversations. This article firstly investigates the authentic working environment in several reputable call centre service encounters in China, The Philippines and Hong Kong. Participants such as Head of Client Relations and Service Platform Officer were interviewed about the work dynamics, training sections and language used in the call centre. The structure of the calls termed Customer Interaction Process and negotiation features from insiders’ perceptive are discussed in sections 4.1 and 4.2. Later, sections 4.3 and 4.4 indicate that customers frequently use recount strategy and different Appraisal resources to express their negative experience and frustration. The theoretical framework draws on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Twenty representative calls with complex negotiation were selected and transcribed
among about 2000 calls of English conversations from an insurance call centre in the Philippines. The outcomes of this study are twofold: 1) an attempt is made to contribute to applied linguistics; and 2) this in-depth analysis is to support the linguistic service offered by the call centre industry.
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