Emotional communication by service robots: a research agenda

Abstract

PurposeMany service industries are facing severe labor shortages. As a result, service providers are turning to new sources of labor, such as service robots. Critics however often point out that service robots lack emotional communication capabilities without which they cannot be expected to truly replace human employees and fill the emerging labor market gaps. Here, a research agenda for the investigation of the role of emotional communication by service robots and its effects on customers and their service experience are laid out. This paper aims to propose that research in this area will further understanding of how service robots can add value to service frontlines, engage customers, increasingly replace service employees and ultimately help overcome pressing labor shortages.Design/methodology/approachA research agenda structured around the three-step emotional communication process (i.e. read, decide and express) and the four emotional communication strategies crucial for service interactions (i.e. mimicking, alleviating, infusing and preventing) are conceptualized.FindingsThree contributions are made. First, the importance of emotional communication by service robots during service interactions is highlighted. Second, interdisciplinary research priorities and opportunities in this emerging field are mapped out. Third, a theoretical structure to connect the findings of future studies is provided.Originality/valueService research investigating the role and implications of emotional communication by service robots is scarce. A research agenda to guide the exploration of this crucial, yet underresearched component of customer-robot service interactions is structured and mapped out.

Technologies in service communication: looking forward

“…The last article by Becker et al. (2022), examines new types of communication problems arising from the advancements of service robots with capabilities to engage in human-like emotional communication with service customers.…”

“…Other technologies offer possibilities for human-like machine touchpoints and they create a shift from mainly human communication between various actors in the service domain to non-human communication between humans and machines (e.g. see Becker et al, 2022 andGrewal et al, 2022). In particular, the emerging AI-based service communication systems show great potential to move beyond the automation of human service and communication tasks to make autonomous decisions, recommendations, and self-generated service communications with agency.…”

“…Other technologies offer possibilities for human-like machine touchpoints and they create a shift from mainly human communication between various actors in the service domain to non-human communication between humans and machines (e.g. see Becker et al. , 2022 and Grewal et al.…”

Guest editorial: Opportunities and challenges at the crossroads of communication and services

“…The next three papers in this section focus upon specific technologies. The first one (Becker et al , 2022) discusses service robots, system-based autonomous and adaptable interfaces that interact, communicate and deliver services to an organization's customers. Although service robots become increasingly important in service industries, critics often point out that they lack emotional communication capabilities without which they cannot be expected to truly replace human employees in service interactions.…”

Building a Low-Cost Wireless Biofeedback Solution: Applying Design Science Research Methodology

“…Service robots in the health care sector can aid patients with cognitive obstruction via built-in affective computing algorithms [ 58 ]. In commerce, empowering service robots with emotion recognition is a highly popular topic in research [ 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ]. Some emotion recognition databases are available for service robots [ 65 , 66 ].…”