An Investigation on the Relational Work of Tour Representatives within Customer Orientation and Sales Work

In the contemporary world, service work encompasses more efforts to be customer-oriented and to boost sales. Scholars note that customer orientation and sales work may be contradictory, as the primary aim of capitalist organizations is to earn money rather than please customers. Thus, capitalist organizations demand workers to harmonize customer orientation and sales work. However, we know little about how this is achieved within situated interactions. This study uses the concept of “relational work” to explain how tour representatives (tour reps) harmonize customer orientation and sales work. Based on qualitative data, this study addresses the work of Turkish tour reps for Turkish tour operators. This study reveals how customer orientation and sales work overlap, and how this overlap is enacted within relational work.