{"id":5013,"date":"2017-02-09T12:57:04","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T11:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=5013"},"modified":"2017-02-09T12:57:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T11:57:04","slug":"the-language-of-call-centres-and-why-it-can-offend-the-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/education-languages-health\/languages\/the-language-of-call-centres-and-why-it-can-offend-the-ears\/","title":{"rendered":"The language of call centres and why it can \u201coffend the ears\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most of us dread dealing with them, but call centres are hard to avoid as an increasingly widespread aspect of modern life.\u00a0 Now a new study from The Open University, published in the <a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/josl.12224\/full\">Journal of Sociolinguistics<\/a>, has opened up the world of call centres and examined how pressurized call centre agents take short cuts to politeness and over-use phrases which can \u201coffend the ears\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Shortcuts to politeness<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Sociolinguist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/people\/akh235\">Dr Anna Kristina Hultgren<\/a> analysed the linguistics of a Scottish call centre, getting rare access to recordings of customer service calls, sitting in on training and interviewing staff.\u00a0 She found that the pressure to complete calls, whilst building rapport with the customer, led to shortcuts to politeness. Dr Hultgren gives an overview in this video:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/player.open.ac.uk\/embed\/e8267adfaa\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A statistical analysis found that despite agents being trained in and encouraged to use a range of different linguistic strategies to create rapport with the customer, one particular way was clearly preferred over others: using the customer\u2019s name. This is because using the customers\u2019 name is the most time-effective way of creating rapport with the customer, enabling agents to keep the call under control while also giving an impression of personalized customer care.<\/p>\n<p>In one example from the research, an agent used the customer\u2019s name five times in a relatively short interaction of just a few minutes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHi Chris\u2026I\u2019m just bringing up the details in front of me Chris\u2026What company is it you\u2019re calling from Chris?&#8230; Can I have your telephone number Chris?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Dr Hultgren said: \u201cBy using the customer\u2019s name, the agent resolves the conflicting requirements they face between processing calls quickly and giving an impression of personalized customer care\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, with <a href=\"https:\/\/press.which.co.uk\/whichpressreleases\/press-1-to-find-the-worst-call-centre-offenders-in-new-which-survey\/\">the British consumer association <em>Which<\/em> commenting<\/a> that \u201cunfortunately, poor customer service from call centres has become a 21st century bug-bear for too many people\u201d there is no evidence that the balance between personal customer care and efficiency has been struck.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Make small talk, but not too much<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A one-second fall in call time per agent would save a business an estimated two million pounds (Miozzo and Ramirez 2003) so time is of the essence for agents.\u00a0 But call centres are aware that they need to counterbalance efficiency with customer care, and in today\u2019s saturated market they increasingly compete on service.<\/p>\n<p>Almost half of the staff training time in call centres is typically devoted to training in \u2018soft skills\u2019 \u2013how agents should interact and speak with customers.\u00a0 Staff are encouraged to instigate small talk, ask if there\u2019s anything else they can help with and close the call with a personal greeting.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Hultgren says: \u201cA female agent said that if a customer called in to notify a change of address she would use this as a chance to engage in small talk by saying \u2018Oh a new house! Are you moving anywhere nice?\u2019\u00a0 In a call assessment, a male agent was commended for \u2018chatting up\u2019 a female customer.\u00a0 But at the same time, agents are rewarded for taking charge of the calls efficiently and revealingly, although they are expected to finish every call with \u2018Is there anything else I can help you with today?\u2019, the best answer from the customer is \u2018no\u2019 so that the call can be ended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr Hultgren\u2019s research shows there is a gap in the advice and in what agents actually do to build rapport with customers \u2013 with naming their number one strategy as it cuts call times.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Don\u2019t blame the agent<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Working in a call centre is stressful. Call centres are notorious for high staff turnover, absenteeism, employee burnout and emotional exhaustion and agents are constantly at risk of angry outbursts from customers.<\/p>\n<p>This study suggests that call centre agents shouldn\u2019t be blamed for any shortcomings in service. Agents are skillfully adapting their language to try to please everyone. Their language is a natural consequence of the inherent conflict in call centres between customer care and a fast service.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Hultgren said: \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s the way in which we choose to organize our society that will shape the way in which language is used. The relentless emphasis on targets and performance indicators has led to a new type of politeness emerging. A <em>rationalized<\/em> type of politeness has emerged out of the conflict between personalized care and efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><small>Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/26234018@N03\/2486090836\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">alanclarkdesign<\/a> <a title=\"Attribution-NoDerivs License\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ounews.co\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-inject\/images\/cc.png\" \/><\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most of us dread dealing with them, but call centres are hard to avoid as an increasingly widespread aspect of modern life.\u00a0 Now a new study from The Open University, published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics, has opened up the world of call centres and examined how pressurized call centre agents take short cuts to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[131,341,1273],"class_list":["post-5013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-languages","tag-anna-kristina-hultgren","tag-call-centre","tag-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}