<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>More and more companies are using chatbots in customer service. Instead of with a human employee, customers interact with a machine. Many companies give these chatbots human traits through names, human-like appearances, a human voice or even character descriptions. Intuitively such a humanization strategy seems to be a good idea.</p>
<p>Studies show, however, that the humanization of chatbots is perceived in a nuanced way and can also backfire. Especially in the context of customer complaints, human-like chatbots can intensify negative reactions of angry customers, because their performance is judged more critically compared to non-humanized chatbot variants. Service managers should therefore consider very carefully whether and in which situations they should use humanized service chatbots.</p>
</abstract>

More and more companies are using chatbots in customer service. Instead of with a human employee, customers interact with a machine. Many companies give these chatbots human traits through names, human-like appearances, a human voice or even character descriptions. Intuitively such a humanization strategy seems to be a good idea.
Studies show, however, that the humanization of chatbots is perceived in a nuanced way and can also backfire. Especially in the context of customer complaints, human-like chatbots can intensify negative reactions of angry customers, because their performance is judged more critically compared to non-humanized chatbot variants. Service managers should therefore consider very carefully whether and in which situations they should use humanized service chatbots.

When Humanizing Customer Service Chatbots Might Backfire

NIM Marketing Intelligence Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"When Humanizing Customer Service Chatbots Might Backfire"}

More and more companies are using chatbots in customer service. Instead of with a human employee, customers interact with a machine. Many companies give these...

When Humanizing Customer Service Chatbots Might Backfire

Published Online: Nov 15, 2019

Page range: 30 - 35

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2019-0013

Keywords
Chatbots, Customer Service, Angry Customers, Avatars, AI

© 2019 Rhonda Hadi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

When Humanizing Customer Service Chatbots Might Backfire

Published Online: Nov 15, 2019

Page range: 30 - 35

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2019-0013

KeywordsChatbots, Customer Service, Angry Customers, Avatars, AI

© 2019 Rhonda Hadi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Chatbots, Customer Service, Angry Customers, Avatars, AI