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Virtual assistants are increasingly common on commercial websites. In view of the benefits they offer to businesses for improving navigation and interaction with the consumers, researchers and practitioners agree on the value of providing them with anthropomorphic characteristics. This study focuses on the effect of the voice of the virtual assistant. Although there are some studies of human-computer interaction in this field, there is no work that addresses the topic from a marketing perspective and compares the effect of a human voice versus a synthetic voice. Our findings show that consumers who interact with a virtual assistant with a human voice have a stronger impression of social presence than those interacting with a virtual assistant with a synthetic voice. The human voice also builds trust in the virtual assistant and generates stronger behavioural intentions.

Background: Healthcare systems are facing many changes. Particularly, patients are more engaged in the care process. The medical perspective of the process is insufficient to provide patients with high quality care and service personalisation. This research presents an attempt to complete this medical perspective through an experiential perspective, especially for chronic diseases such as cancer. We investigated patients' experiences and profiles to reach a deeper understanding of their needs and expectations when they confront the disease. The objectives of this research were to model the key stages underling the patient pathway and to identify the challenging touch points of the interactions between patients and healthcare providers. Bringing together findings of patient experience, pathway, and profiles would help all the stakeholders involved to develop better practices for the healthcare process. Methods: A qualitative observational nethnography on a French specialized forum for breast cancer patients "les Impatientes" was conducted. A total of 967 reviews were collected over a complete year period from all over France. Thematic and lexicometric content analysis were performed according to the experience dimensions, the pathway stages and touch points, as well as the patients' profiles. Results: Data analysis shows that the healthcare pathway experienced by the patients is built around three stages. The discovery stage is closely related to the emotional dimension regarding the patient and physician relationship. The examination stage is characterized by a more technical and informational needs for the types of treatments. The follow-up and survivorship stage illustrates the patients' need to assess the treatments' effectiveness and the quality of the follow-up. Moreover, three profiles of patients were identified. The newcomers, the altruists and the autonomous are characterized by different attitudes depending on the stage of the healthcare pathway they were living. Conclusions: Our research presents an original modelling of the patient pathway and profiles beyond the medical process. It gives practical tracks to improve the healthcare pathway. Patients expect healthcare providers to integrate and strengthen several challenging touch points in order to create satisfactory patient experiences and high quality service.

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International audienc

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Les conseillers virtuels se sont fortement démocratisés sur les sites marchands. Compte tenu des bénéfices qu’ils offrent aux entreprises pour améliorer la navigation et l’interaction avec le consommateur, chercheurs et praticiens s’accordent sur l’intérêt de les doter de caractéristiques anthropomorphiques. Cette recherche s’intéresse particulièrement à l’effet de la voix du conseiller virtuel. Bien qu’il existe quelques recherches en interaction homme-machine sur la question, il n’existe pas de travaux traitant le sujet d’un point de vue marketing et comparant l’effet d’une voix humaine vs une voix de synthèse. Les résultats montrent que les consommateurs qui ont interagi avec un conseiller virtuel doté d’une voix humaine éprouvent un sentiment de présence sociale plus fort que ceux interagissant avec un conseiller doté d’une voix de synthèse. La voix humaine permet également de susciter plus de confiance envers le conseiller virtuel et de générer de meilleures intentions comportementales.

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