Blame the bot: Anthropomorphism and anger in customer-chatbot interactions
Chatbots have become common in digital customer service contexts across many industries. While many companies choose to humanize their customer service chatbots (e.g., giving them names and avatars), little is known about how anthropomorphism influences customer responses to chatbots in service sett...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publications
2021
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| _version_ | 1826279169567227904 |
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| author | Crolic, C Thomaz, F Hadi, R Stephen, A |
| author_facet | Crolic, C Thomaz, F Hadi, R Stephen, A |
| author_sort | Crolic, C |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Chatbots have become common in digital customer service contexts across many industries. While many companies choose to humanize their customer service chatbots (e.g., giving them names and avatars), little is known about how anthropomorphism influences customer responses to chatbots in service settings. Across five studies, including an analysis of a large real-world dataset from an international telecommunications company and four experiments, the authors find that when customers enter a chatbot-led service interaction in an angry emotional state, chatbot anthropomorphism has a negative effect on customer satisfaction, overall firm evaluation, and subsequent purchase intentions. However, this is not the case for customers in non-angry emotional states. The authors uncover the underlying mechanism driving this negative effect (expectancy violations caused by inflated pre-encounter expectations of chatbot efficacy) and offer practical implications for managers. These findings suggest it is important to both carefully design chatbots and consider the emotional context in which they are used, particularly in customer service interactions that involve resolving problems or handling complaints.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:54:46Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:73d46bba-35d1-465c-be00-aa6f4f4ccb84 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:54:46Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | SAGE Publications |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:73d46bba-35d1-465c-be00-aa6f4f4ccb842022-03-26T19:58:57ZBlame the bot: Anthropomorphism and anger in customer-chatbot interactionsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:73d46bba-35d1-465c-be00-aa6f4f4ccb84EnglishSymplectic ElementsSAGE Publications2021Crolic, CThomaz, FHadi, RStephen, AChatbots have become common in digital customer service contexts across many industries. While many companies choose to humanize their customer service chatbots (e.g., giving them names and avatars), little is known about how anthropomorphism influences customer responses to chatbots in service settings. Across five studies, including an analysis of a large real-world dataset from an international telecommunications company and four experiments, the authors find that when customers enter a chatbot-led service interaction in an angry emotional state, chatbot anthropomorphism has a negative effect on customer satisfaction, overall firm evaluation, and subsequent purchase intentions. However, this is not the case for customers in non-angry emotional states. The authors uncover the underlying mechanism driving this negative effect (expectancy violations caused by inflated pre-encounter expectations of chatbot efficacy) and offer practical implications for managers. These findings suggest it is important to both carefully design chatbots and consider the emotional context in which they are used, particularly in customer service interactions that involve resolving problems or handling complaints. |
| spellingShingle | Crolic, C Thomaz, F Hadi, R Stephen, A Blame the bot: Anthropomorphism and anger in customer-chatbot interactions |
| title | Blame the bot: Anthropomorphism and anger in customer-chatbot interactions |
| title_full | Blame the bot: Anthropomorphism and anger in customer-chatbot interactions |
| title_fullStr | Blame the bot: Anthropomorphism and anger in customer-chatbot interactions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Blame the bot: Anthropomorphism and anger in customer-chatbot interactions |
| title_short | Blame the bot: Anthropomorphism and anger in customer-chatbot interactions |
| title_sort | blame the bot anthropomorphism and anger in customer chatbot interactions |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT crolicc blamethebotanthropomorphismandangerincustomerchatbotinteractions AT thomazf blamethebotanthropomorphismandangerincustomerchatbotinteractions AT hadir blamethebotanthropomorphismandangerincustomerchatbotinteractions AT stephena blamethebotanthropomorphismandangerincustomerchatbotinteractions |