A Pragmatic Study Of Complaint Response Strategies In Interpersonally Sensitive Interactions

The present study focuses on complaint response strategies in interpersonally sensitive complaint-handling calls between agents and complaining customers.All the data of 7.5-hour recorded calls were collected from the Customer Care Center of a Chinese airline company.Within the conceptual framework of Spencer-Oatey's rapport management theory,this study is conducted with a qualitative and conversation analytical approach.It addresses three research questions: 1)what complaint response strategies are employed by agents in interpersonally sensitive interactions;2)what are the factors driving the agents' choice of complaint response strategies;3)what are the effects of these response strategies?It is found that in interpersonally sensitive interactions,six different conventional and unconventional response strategies are employed by agents.Conventional strategies include apology,atonement,account and attentiveness,while unconventional strategies cover the strategy of ostensible agreement and shift devices such as proposing a shift to an alternative solution or to the next step of activity.Besides,agents' strategy use is driven by several factors including their rapport orientations,consideration of time cost due to the task quota per day,the customer-service provider social role,as well as socio-pragmatic principle of equity and association,namely consideration of imposition and affect-involvement.What's more,analysis on the effects shows that agents' complaint response strategies produce positive outcomes in some cases while lead to negative ones in others.When the strategy adopted by agents is effective in the current context,it enhances the rapport between the agent and complaining customer,or is beneficial to the progressivity of complaint handling.On the contrary,when the strategy is ineffective,it deteriorates the originally sensitive rapport and sometimes even leads to upgraded complaint.The present study aims to provide further empirical evidence and pragmatic insights into complaint responses strategies in the airline industry.The findings contribute to our understanding of complaints response strategies in institutional encounters.