“Helping You to Pay Us”: Rapport Management in Debt Collection Call Centre Encounters
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Abstract This paper investigates the rapport management (Spencer-Oatey 2005) that collections agents at a UK-based utilities company call centre are expected to perform during debt collection telephone interactions. It examines the rapport-relevant information communicated in the textual materials, including training manuals, through which a prescribed debt collection style is implemented. The analysis reveals that there are tensions in the rapport-concerns that collectors must attend to when using the style. Collectors are instructed to perform potentially face-threatening behaviours in order to collect debt, whilst simultaneously engaging in linguistic behaviour that may be interpreted as face-enhancing and which functions to develop rapport with the debtor. It is suggested that the local deployment of this contradictory “helping you to pay us” philosophy is problematic on multiple levels and may give rise to relational tensions between collectors and debtors who have conflicting expectations about rapport management entitlements. In turn, this may contribute to a culture of sanctioned face-attacks in call centres (Archer and Jagodziński 2015). Therefore, I suggest that call centres may need to loosen the synecdochical hold they have over their employees, thereby affording them the flexibility and volition to cope with the complex face demands, unpredictability and potential volatility of debt collection encounters.
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The techniques such as demonstrating knowledge and authority (but not aggression) seen here are also used to build rapport in other, genuine interactions such as debt collection phone calls.
“The techniques such as demonstrating knowledge and authority (but not aggression) seen here are also used to build rapport in other, genuine interactions such as debt collection phone calls (Harrington 2018).”
From The Language of Romance Crimes (2024) · cites this paper as Harrington 2018
Section 5.1 describes demonstrating knowledge of a debtor’s account and sounding authoritative without aggression; Section 5.2 says collectors are instructed to create rapport. But the paper treats demonstrating knowledge chiefly as a way to control the call, while its rapport-building examples include open questions and empathy. Section 4.1 also says the analysis concerns a prescribed style, not observed use in calls. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThis mirrors the interactions of call centre debt collection professionals, who frame that interaction as a joint effort in order to build and maintain rapport in the face of often unwanted requests of the recipient.
“This mirrors the interactions of call centre debt collection professionals, who frame that (legitimate) interaction as a joint effort in order to build and maintain rapport in the face of often unwanted requests of the recipient (Harrington 2018).”
From The Language of Romance Crimes (2024) · cites this paper as Harrington 2018
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- Authors
- Harrington, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Harrington, Leigh
- ORCID
- Harrington, Leigh
- Venue
- Journal of Politeness Research
- Publisher
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH
- Published
- 2018-07-26
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 193-223
- ISSN
- 1612-5681 (ISSN-L)
- 1613-4877
- OpenAlex
- W2808473673
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 8.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Politeness Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Aston Publications Explorer (Aston University) (submittedVersion)
- Nottingham ePrints (University of Nottingham) (submittedVersion)
- Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Loughborough University
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J500100/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Linguistics and Discourse Analysis
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Emotional Labor in Professions
- Keywords
- rapport management, debt collection, call centers, face-threatening acts, debt collectors, training manual, facework, relational tensions, face attack, employee autonomy, telephone interaction
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