Trust me, I'm a bot – repercussions of chatbot disclosure in different service frontline settings

Abstract

PurposeChatbots are increasingly prevalent in the service frontline. Due to advancements in artificial intelligence, chatbots are often indistinguishable from humans. Regarding the question whether firms should disclose their chatbots' nonhuman identity or not, previous studies find negative consumer reactions to chatbot disclosure. By considering the role of trust and service-related context factors, this study explores how negative effects of chatbot disclosure for customer retention can be prevented.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents two experimental studies that examine the effect of disclosing the nonhuman identity of chatbots on customer retention. While the first study examines the effect of chatbot disclosure for different levels of service criticality, the second study considers different service outcomes. The authors employ analysis of covariance and mediation analysis to test their hypotheses.FindingsChatbot disclosure has a negative indirect effect on customer retention through mitigated trust for services with high criticality. In cases where a chatbot fails to handle the customer's service issue, disclosing the chatbot identity not only lacks negative impact but even elicits a positive effect on retention.Originality/valueThe authors provide evidence that customers will react differently to chatbot disclosure depending on the service frontline setting. They show that chatbot disclosure does not only have undesirable consequences as previous studies suspect but can lead to positive reactions as well. By doing so, the authors draw a more balanced picture on the consequences of chatbot disclosure.

Voice Assistant vs. Chatbot – Examining the Fit Between Conversational Agents’ Interaction Modalities and Information Search Tasks

“…Another promising research area is the comparison of speech-based, text-based, and human interactions, in particular the impact of disclosing the CA's non-human identity. While this topic has already received initial attention for text-based CA interactions (Cheng et al, 2021;Mozafari et al, 2021aMozafari et al, , 2021b, it becomes progressively important given the increasing naturalness of synthetic speech output.…”

To serve and protect: a typology of service robots and their role in physically safe services

“…For instance, customers like to stay informed on the steps of automated service processes to more clearly perceive their own role (Meuter et al, 2005). They also like to be informed when they will be served by a robot and when a human will take over (Mozafari et al, 2021).…”

“…, 2005). They also like to be informed when they will be served by a robot and when a human will take over (Mozafari et al. , 2021).…”

Drivers of privacy concerns when interacting with a chatbot in a customer service encounter

“…New technologies have a significant impact on both consumers and financial institutions Molina-Collado et al, 2021). At the same time, the proliferation of these technologies in customer service is evidence of a growing emphasis on human-machine-type solutions at frontline-level functions (Eren, 2021;Mozafari et al, 2022;Riedel et al, 2022;Suhel et al, 2020). The chatbot has proven to be a technology that marks digital transformation and facilitates customer service in the financial, banking and insurance fields (Eren, 2021;Jang et al, 2021;Riedel et al, 2022;Riikkinen et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2021).…”