Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T19:22:14.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Getting personal: unusual routines at the customer service interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2011

Ronald E. Rice
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Stephen D. Cooper
Affiliation:
Marshall University
Get access

Summary

Perhaps the most familiar unusual routine is the combination of a customer's experience with and then complaint about some unsatisfactory interaction with an organization, its service, or its product, and the organization's lack of, insufficient, or mismatched response. The main assumption behind this claim is that most customers are not asking for any particularly exceptional or unusual service, product, or information; they are simply following the standard, normal, or explicit procedures associated with an advertisement, offer, instruction, standard retail clerk interaction, attempt to use the product or service, or inquiry. Despite this, they experience difficulties or problems with one or more of these, suggesting that others – possibly everyone – also following the procedures will experience the problem as well. When they attempt to communicate with the organization to gain an understanding of the situation, resolve it, return the product, get a refund, possibly institute legal action, or simply to convey their feelings the effort involves a variety of work, delay, error, and blame (as well as straightforward financial cost) subroutines, along with general frustration. And it may not result in a favorable response, or, for that matter, any response at all. So there are two levels of problems here: the original UR experience, and the UR experience in trying to communicate about the original experience.

Type
Chapter
Information
Organizations and Unusual Routines
A Systems Analysis of Dysfunctional Feedback Processes
, pp. 67 - 106
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×