Research on call centres as a workplace in general casts mainly negative perceptions. One of the major criticisms is standardisation of scripts, which evokes issues of control, power, and agency. This book tackles this controversial subject through the lens of a calling script and provides a fresh argument contrary to the conventional beliefs and assumptions. Woydack suggests that there is an oversimplification of standardised scripts, which leads to a focus on the ‘costs’ in general while ignoring the ‘benefits’.
The research was conducted in a multilingual IT telemarketing call centre in London. Accessing data within a call centre context is not easy because of privacy and company confidentiality issues. Many studies rely on surveys and off-site interviews. Extensive fieldwork of the kind this book is based on is uncommon. The author spent four years at the call centre, carrying out a variety of roles (e.g. call agent, trainer, and team leader), including three years of participant observation. The researcher as an insider records the processes of the script as she experiences it, which reveals valuable nuances in relation to many levels of the work. This is particularly relevant in terms of the business model and day-to-day operations.
Detailed descriptions of the call centre, including the organizational hierarchy, key roles of its staff and division of labour for specific jobs are presented. Business models and their operation are closely observed. These details provide valuable background information and reference points for the discussion.
The core of the research is based on the trajectory of a script from its inception by the client, through a number of processes, to its execution by the agents on the phones. These stages are covered extensively in chs. 3, 4, and 5. Drawing on her interview data, the author describes the formation of the initial stage of a draft script, which involves the client, sales team, and the campaign manager. A draft becomes the master script after the client's approval.
The master script enters its second stage of its evolutionary process and is then passed onto the team leaders for ‘adaptation’. ‘Personalisation of the script’ is not forbidden but encouraged. Enactments of these ‘adaptations’ by a number of team leaders are used as evidence that scripts of this call centre are not fixed but rather dynamic, contrary to a more general belief that agents need to follow the scripts ‘word by word’. The author also reported, however, that ‘following the script word by word’ is expected by the senior management and the clients. This creates a tension between what is expected and what is practically implementable.
After the master script has been ‘personalised’ by the team leaders, it enters into the final stage of its trajectory, where agents will further ‘improve’ it to make it sound ‘more natural’. Often the modification of scripts, in previous studies, has been interpreted as an act of resistance. The author argues that adaptation of scripts by agents to use their own words in a more concise manner is not an act of resistance but rather a show of prioritisation in order to cope with their work conditions.
Despite call centres having been ubiquitous for a couple of decades, linguistically focused research in this type of workplace is still relatively uncommon. This book provides a unique perspective on the subject. While there are many examples of the script and how team leaders and agents would modify the master script, it would be helpful to have some authentic call samples to illustrate the actual exchanges. Professional communication, sociolinguistics and perhaps also business operation researchers will find this book useful.
