On the verge of (in)directness: Managing complaints in service interactions

In this conversation analytic study, we investigate how customers and staff members manage complaints in Swedish-speaking service interactions in Sweden and Finland. Prior research on complaining has typically distinguished between so-called direct and indirect complaints and studied one of these types. We re-examine this distinction in the context of our data and identify sequences that might better be referred to as hybrid complaints, which share features with both direct and indirect complaints. The hybrid complaints start off as indirect complaints but are oriented to as possibly assigning blame and responsibility for the complainable situation to the recipient. We illustrate the interactional work participants undertake to suppress the ‘directness’ of such complaints and how they transform them into indirect ones. We also document features that are either common or distinct of the different types of complaints, pertaining to the placement and emergence of complaints, interactional resources used in complaining, and responses to complaints. The findings contribute to a better understanding of different types of complaints and of the management of complaining in institutional interactions.