ABSTRACT
Much of contemporary interactive service work is structured to promote the consumption of the sign value of the enchanting myth of customer sovereignty. This chapter examines the key problems that face call centre management in its attempts to ensure that customers are able to consume this sign value. It argues that organisation of much of contemporary service work, can be usefully analysed in terms of a customer-oriented bureaucracy, in which there are dual logics of rationalisation and customer-orientation at play. The service organisation attempts to structure the interaction to promote the consumption of the enchanting myth of customer sovereignty. The chapter examines three main ways in which enchanting myth of customer sovereignty occurs: through the symbolic representation of the call centre in advertising and marketing, through the overall operation of the call centre, and through the organisation of the service interaction between front line worker and customer.
