Within the context of service inquiries, and the specialized inferential logic associated with the particularized activities (Levinson 1992) there is a gap in the orientations of customers and service representatives. Specifically, one problem that arises in customer service encounters is that customers and service representatives appear to arrive at different understandings of what constitutes a relevant response to a service inquiry. By examining one type of customer service context, calls to an electronic repair facility, this article offers a conversation analytic account of how customers use formulations to collaboratively achieve a mutually agreed upon answer to their service inquiry and close the gap in the underlying logics that emerge in these calls.
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Cited by (11)
Cited by 11 other publications
Orthaber, Sara
2023. Routine Calls for Information and Request Emails. In (Im)politeness at a Slovenian Call Centre [Advances in (Im)politeness Studies, ], ► pp. 97 ff.
Boginskaya, Olga
2022. Popularizing in legal discourse: What efforts do Russian judges make to facilitate juror’s comprehension of law-related contents?. Discourse Studies 24:5 ► pp. 527 ff.
Herijgers, Marloes & Tessa van Charldorp
2021. Communicating information packages in institutional face-to-face consultations. Discourse Studies 23:1 ► pp. 3 ff.
Chen, Jessie & Scott Barnes
2020. Giving information in cosmetics sales interactions: Exploring some interactional functions of the Mandarin response token dui. Journal of Pragmatics 159 ► pp. 12 ff.
Kent, Alexandra & Charles Antaki
2020. Police Call-takers' First Substantive Question Projects the Outcome of the Call. Applied Linguistics 41:5 ► pp. 640 ff.
2017. Enquiry calls to GP surgeries in the United Kingdom: Expressions of incomplete service and dissatisfaction in closing sequences. Discourse Studies 19:4 ► pp. 441 ff.
2015. What Can You Do for Me? Communication Methods Customers Use to Solicit Personalization within the Service Encounter. Communication Monographs 82:4 ► pp. 510 ff.
Kevoe-Feldman, Heidi
2015. Working the overall structural organization of a call: How customers use third position as leverage for gaining service representatives' assistance in dealing with service problems. Language & Communication 43 ► pp. 47 ff.
Kevoe-Feldman, Heidi
2018. The interactional work of suppressing complaints in customer service encounters. Journal of Pragmatics 123 ► pp. 102 ff.
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