| Course | MT221 Customer Service |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 9 |
| Paper type | Seminar reflection |
| Length | About 800 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT221 Unit 9
It Was Not the Shouting: A Unit 9 Seminar Reflection on Why Five of Six Schedulers Left
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT221: Customer Service
Unit 9 Seminar Reflection
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Northline Auto Glass, its schedulers and the discussion are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
Where I Started
I thought the answer was obvious. Northline's schedulers take angry calls all day from customers whose windshields are late or wrong, and the hostility wears them down. The fix, I thought, was training in de-escalation: how to stay calm, lower the temperature of a call and not take insults personally. I had even found a course the company could buy.
What the Session Added
The instructor started from the idea of emotional labor in Hochschild (1983), the work of producing the feelings a job requires, such as warmth toward a customer who is yelling. She drew it from flight attendants, who were expected to keep smiling regardless of how passengers behaved. A classmate then described research by Grandey (2003) separating two ways of doing that work. Surface acting means faking an emotion you do not feel. Deep acting means trying to feel the emotion you display, for example by seeing the situation from the customer's side. Grandey found that surface acting was linked to emotional exhaustion, while deep acting was not linked in the same way.
That distinction unsettled my plan. De-escalation training mostly teaches surface acting: a calm script and a pleasant tone regardless of what you feel. If the problem was exhaustion from faking calm, more training in faking calm might make it worse.
The Point About Authority
The second turn came from a former call center agent in our group. She said the worst calls were not the loudest ones but the ones where she could do nothing. A customer would explain, reasonably, that the glass was wrong for the second time, and she would have to say she could not promise a date, could not waive the fee and would have to send a message to a manager. She said she could handle anger when she could fix the problem; what she could not handle was having to absorb anger with nothing to offer.
That matched what I knew about Northline. Until the new escalation procedure in Unit 7, schedulers could not credit even [$25] without approval, and the parts desk did not give them arrival dates. They were the face of failures they could not touch. Bowen and Lawler (1992) argued that giving frontline workers authority pays off most where customers' problems are varied and urgent and the relationship matters, and a scheduler taking calls about wrong glass and late vans fits every part of that description.
The schedulers were not burning out from the shouting; they were burning out from having nothing to say back.
What I Now Think
I now think turnover was driven less by customer hostility than by a job designed to absorb failures without the means to repair them. Emotional labor is heaviest when it is pure display, with no action behind it. A scheduler who can tell an angry customer the part arrives Thursday and the fee is waived is doing much less faking than one reading an apology script.
This changes my recommendation. Training still has a place, but it should focus on understanding the customer's situation and on using the scheduler's new authority, which supports deep acting, rather than on tone alone. The bigger changes are the ones from earlier units: arrival dates from the parts desk, the late-arrival call with permission to offer choices, and the escalation limits that let schedulers settle most cases on the first call. Those make the emotional work lighter because they give it something real to stand on.
I also noticed something uncomfortable about my original plan. Buying a de-escalation course would have let the company treat turnover as a problem inside the schedulers, something to be trained out of them, while leaving the booking script, the parts desk and the dispatch board exactly as they were. The seminar made me see that a training plan can be a way of avoiding a process fix.
What I Would Measure
To test this, Northline could compare scheduler turnover and sick days in the year before and after the new procedures, and survey schedulers every quarter on how often they felt unable to help a customer. If my new view is right, the second measure should fall first, and turnover should follow.
For Unit 10 I want to make sure the cost of these changes counts the savings from keeping schedulers, since replacing five of six in a year was expensive in hiring and training as well as in customer experience.
References
Bowen, D. E., & Lawler, E. E., III. (1992). The empowerment of service workers: What, why, how, and when. Sloan Management Review, 33(3), 31-39.
Grandey, A. A. (2003). When "the show must go on": Surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Academy of Management Journal, 46(1), 86-96. https://doi.org/10.2307/30040678
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
The Purdue Global MT221 Unit 9 instructions
The ninth unit of MT 221 is built on a seminar about service work, and the frontline employee is a frequent topic. A strong reflection states the writer's first explanation without softening it, reports the research or comment that undercut it, and names who supplied each. Hochschild and Grandey are common sources for emotional labor; Bowen and Lawler for empowerment. Apply them to the business followed in earlier units, using its own roles and processes. A useful reflection admits what a first proposal would have hidden, such as a training plan that avoids a process fix. End with how the new view could be checked, for example by tracking turnover or a quarterly staff survey, and a question for the last unit. Two pages in first person is the usual length, with each source cited.
Inside the MT221 Unit 9 example
The reflection opens with the writer's plan to buy de-escalation training. The seminar section introduces emotional labor through Hochschild and Grandey's surface and deep acting, and a margin note marks how that research undercut the plan, since scripts teach surface acting. The authority section reports a former call center agent's point that powerless calls were the worst, ties it to the schedulers' old inability to credit even $25, and adds Bowen and Lawler with a second note. The highlighted line states the new explanation. The next section reframes turnover as job design, keeps training only where it supports deep acting, and admits that the original plan would have let the company avoid fixing its scripts and parts desk. A measurement paragraph proposes comparing turnover and a quarterly survey before and after, and a final sentence sets up the cost of replacing schedulers for Unit 10.
Where the points sit in the MT221 Unit 9 rubric
The grade here follows the honesty of the writer's first explanation for the turnover and the precision of what changed it. Showing exactly how Grandey's surface acting finding undercut the training plan is worth far more than general praise for the session. Applying emotional labor and empowerment to the firm's real roles, such as schedulers without authority, shows integration with earlier units. Graders reward writers who notice what their first idea would have concealed. Proposing a turnover and survey comparison turns the new view into something the company could check. The voice stays first person, yet every claim about burnout rests on a citation or a scheduler's actual situation. The Hochschild book, the Grandey article and the Bowen and Lawler paper should be cited correctly.
Common MT221 Unit 9 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Seminar reflections about service workers often fall short by agreeing that the job is hard without changing any recommendation. Another frequent problem is describing emotional labor in general and never connecting it to the business's roles. Some writers blame customers or employees without examining how the job is designed. Others name research but misstate it, such as claiming all emotional labor causes burnout when the research distinguishes kinds. Measures for testing the new view are often missing. If you work in customer service, your own job is fair material, with the employer unnamed. Bring your seminar notes and what you know of the frontline roles in your business, and we can help shape an honest account of how your explanation changed.
Get an MT221 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Before the Unit 9 seminar you held some view of difficult customers; note it, and what shifted it, if anything. Add the prompt and rubric, and say whether this reflection stands in for live attendance. A first sample reflection is free, arrives in 24-48h, and is written around that change of view, with workplace details kept anonymous. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More MT221 papers and BS in Business Administration samples
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- MT221 Unit 3: Customer Expectations Report
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- MT221 Unit 6: Service Process Map
- MT221 Unit 7: Escalation Procedure
- MT221 Unit 8: Service Metrics Review
- MT221 Unit 10: Service Improvement Proposal
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MT221 Unit 9 questions, answered
Can the reflection draw on my own job in customer service?
Yes. A job you know is the easiest place to test the course's ideas about front-line pressure, and it frequently yields the strongest reflection. Keep the employer and coworkers unnamed, describe events rather than individuals, and connect each experience to a concept the seminar covered. A reflection resting only on personal stories, with no course idea applied, tends to lose depth.
What is the difference between surface acting and deep acting?
Surface acting means displaying an emotion the job requires without feeling it, such as a practiced smile over irritation. Deep acting means working to actually feel the required emotion, for instance by taking the customer's perspective. Research following Hochschild, Grandey's included, links surface acting more strongly to exhaustion, which is why the distinction matters when a reflection discusses turnover.
What if my view did not change during the seminar?
Then the reflection records how the view was tested and why it held. State the challenge the seminar raised at its strongest, show the evidence or reasoning that answered it, and note any part of your position that became narrower or more precise. Many graders accept a confirmed view when the testing is visible; they mark down a view that was never examined.
Where can I find a free MT221 Unit 9 sample paper?
You can read a complete MT221 Unit 9 seminar reflection here. It reconsiders scheduler turnover at a mobile auto glass company through emotional labor and frontline authority, cites three real sources and proposes how to test the new view.
Why does the writer drop de-escalation training as the main fix?
Because such training mostly teaches surface acting, faking calm, which Grandey linked to exhaustion. The bigger cause was schedulers absorbing anger with nothing to offer, which arrival dates and remedy limits address.