ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the co-production of service interactions in the context of service interactions and the role of the customer. It presents evidence from a case study of a call centre in the financial services sector. The chapter describes briefly several lines of research on the role of the service recipient in service work in general and especially in call centres. In contrast to call centres that concentrate on simple tasks like taking orders or checking addresses, the media-based financial services cover a broad spectrum of activities of varying complexity. The chapter also presents analysis of an empirical study of work at the X-Bank call centre, and focuses on transcripts of recordings of interaction sequences. The service interactions at the X-Bank reflect in part the instructions which the bank gives for interactions. The chapter analyses the critical situations in service interactions with reference to the behaviour of employee and customer.
