IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/meanco/v6y2018i3p60-68.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Personal Power and Agency When Dealing with Interactive Voice Response Systems and Alternative Modalities

Author

Listed:
  • Jill Walsh

    (Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA)

  • Brittany Leigh Andersen

    (Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA)

  • James E. Katz

    (Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA)

  • Jacob Groshek

    (Division of Emerging Media Studies, Boston University, USA)

Abstract

In summer 2015, we conducted an exploratory study of how people in the U.S. use and respond to robot-like systems in order to achieve their needs through mediated customer service interfaces. To understand this process, we carried out three focus groups sessions along with 50 in-depth interviews. Strikingly we found that people perceive (correctly or not) that interactive voice response customer service technology is set up to deter them from pursuing further contact. And yet, for the most part, people were unwilling to simply give up on the goals that motivated their initial contact. Consequently, they had to innovate ways to communicate with the automated systems that essentially serve as gatekeepers to their desired ends. These results have implications for communication theory and system design, especially since these systems will be increasingly presented to consumers as social media affordances evolve.

Suggested Citation

  • Jill Walsh & Brittany Leigh Andersen & James E. Katz & Jacob Groshek, 2018. "Personal Power and Agency When Dealing with Interactive Voice Response Systems and Alternative Modalities," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 60-68.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v:6:y:2018:i:3:p:60-68
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1205
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dang, Ngoc Bich & Bertrandias, Laurent, 2023. "Social robots as healing aids: How and why powerlessness influences the intention to adopt social robots," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    2. Thuy Duong Oesterreich & Eduard Anton & Julian Schuir & Alexander Brehm & Frank Teuteberg, 2023. "How can I help you? Design principles for task-oriented speech dialog systems in customer service," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 37-79, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v:6:y:2018:i:3:p:60-68. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.