The Discourse of Customer Service

For this week’s reading, we were given a textbook chapter by John Swales about what makes something a discourse community. I’m someone who loves to read, and I’ve been known to casually throw around some advanced vocabulary from time to time. Despite this, reading Swales’ writing was arduous. It was only because of our previous class discussion, where we went over what to expect from Swales’ writing, that I was able to understand what he had to say.

Customer Service as a Discourse Community

In his writing, Swales presents six characteristics that are required to be considered a discourse community by his definition. These characteristics include:

Based on these requirements, I would say that customer service workers belong to a discourse community. At the very least, the workers that make up each individual store are their own discourse communities. From personal experience working as a cashier in a grocery store, I know that each of these criteria are met.

1. Having a broadly agreed set of common public goals

At the store in which I am an employee, our goals are part of our company promise. We aim to provide spectacular products and customer service to each person who walks through the front doors. This is something we are taught right from the get go in training, and many of the training modules focused on how to successfully provide this above average consumer experience. The words “Every day you get our best” are even posted around the store for all to see, so the goals of the community are very public.

2. Having mechanisms of intercommunication among its members

While some things are discussed in person while I am at work, I can also receive important information through email and through the app we use as an employee portal. This is where I can find when my shifts for the week are.

3. Using its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback

The coordinators and managers do regular check ins and evaluations to make sure all employees are showing improvement. These evaluations show the strengths, as well as the shortcomings of any given employee’s work, which allows their superiors to know what that employee may need more training for.

4. Utilizing and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims

Much like the example discussed in class, one of the genres used in our store are the sales receipts. We also have sheets that we fill out at the register if we need change, which can be sent back to the accounting office along with large bills. These genres serve specific purposes, ones that are common, and thus need to be replicated again and again.

5. Having acquired a specific lexis

We use several terms within the store that have a specific meaning to us, but outsiders without the context of being an employee wouldn’t quite understand. For example, when I say I’ve been put on reshops, that means I have been tasked with taking items that customers decided they didn’t want and putting them back on the sales floor so that they can be sold again. If I say I’m on damages, that means that I’m taking all of the damaged products that have accumulated throughout the day and bringing them to the specific locations within the store where they can be collected and disposed of.

6. Having a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise

There are a number of different positions within the store. I myself am a cashier, and I’ve only worked at the store for a few months, so I don’t have the expertise my managers who have worked there for years do. As I continue to work in the store, there is the possibility for me to gain new knowledge and move up the ranks, if this is something that interests me.