Page 127 - The Disneyization of Society

THE DISNEYIZATION OF SOCIETY

the form of TQM. Their work entailed dealing with members of the public who
wanted to purchase or reserve tickets, or wanted any of the other travel services
118 the company offered. Agents were encouraged to be themselves on the telephone,
so that they did not sound robotic in dealing with customers. As noted above,
there is a growing recognition that scripted forms of emotional labour sound very
insincere and if anything undermine the very impression they are trying to
engender. In effect, this means that agents are required to draw on their own emo-
tional resources in order to deliver the kind of customer service the firm requires
and to facilitate meeting financial targets. Each agent devised his or her own way
of injecting emotionality into the interaction, though they were given training in
how to deal with angry or difficult customers.
On the face of things, the framework within which these agents were working
would seem to give them considerable autonomy in their emotional labour.
However, as Taylor observes, the fact that they are required to work within a cus-
tomer care programme and to be themselves, in addition to the fact that their calls
monitored (an issue that will be returned to in the next chapter), meant that in
order to deliver emotional labour they had to engage in the kind of deep acting to
which Hochschild referred. Precisely because of company instructions about the
need to cultivate customers and because of the preference for not using scripted
emotional labour, in order to fulfil company demands concerning meeting cus-
tomers’ needs and to meet financial targets, deep acting was required. Similarly,
emotional labour skills were found to be crucial for staff in call centres in several
different countries (including Australia, the USA, and Japan) studied by Frenkel
et al. These included ‘the ability to remain calm amid the pressure of responding
to a continuous stream of customer calls and the ability to maintain a friendly,
positive, and tactful attitude while simultaneously remaining disengaged psycho-
logically as protection from abusive customers’. 70 Further evidence comes from a
study of a British company that is part of a US-based multinational which provides
consultancy for handling calls and managing call centres. It was involved in a
‘mystery shopper’ examination of levels of customer care in the handling of calls.
Three of the eight criteria of care – agent helpfulness, agent tone, and enthusiasm –
are very much the kinds of features expected in emotional labour. 71
Further evidence of the significance of emotional labour for call centre work
comes from a study of customer service representatives at a call centre referred to
as Telebank. The research shows that technical skills were far less important to
recruiters than social and communication skills. As one manager put it: ‘But we
recruit attitude. You can tell by talking to someone during the interview whether
they smile, whether their eyes smile. If you smile during your interview and you
are enthusiastic, you’ll be okay.’ 72 Another manager suggested ‘the only substan-
tive differentiator between the banks [is] the personality of the individuals on the
telephone. … The differentiator is how they communicate with the customer. It
is the overriding skill they’ve got to have.’ 73