The Effect Of The Anthropomorphic Image Of Intelligent Customer Service Avatars On Consumers’ Willingness To Interact After Service Failure

Traditional human customer service has many problems,such as “slow response time”,“high labor costs”.Therefore,with the development of artificial intelligence(AI)technology,more and more companies began to use intelligent customer service system.Intelligent customer service provides consumers with 24/7 real-time responses through algorithmic programs that simulate conversations and text chats.Intelligent customer service can play the role of a company representative,replacing human employees to complete tasks,making the customer service process more efficient and significantly reducing labor expenses for the organization.At the same time,more and more companies are working on the image design of intelligent customer service avatars to better engage and serve customers by giving them human-like characteristics,such as human-like images or names.In fact,consumers often imagine human interaction and follow interpersonal interaction guidelines when interacting with anthropomorphic agents.This study draws on the Stereotype Content Model(SCM)to classify intelligent customer service anthropomorphic images into competent image and warm image.Scholars have found that warmth and competence influence consumer perceptions,emotions and behaviors.Meanwhile,there is evidence that consumers do not like to interact with intelligent customer service and service failures caused by intelligent customer service occur.Therefore,do different anthropomorphic images of intelligent customer service avatars also affect consumers’ willingness to interact with intelligent customer service in the service failure context? What are the potential mechanism and boundary condition by which anthropomorphic images of intelligent customer service avatars affect consumers’ willingness to interact?Based on expectancy disconfirmation theory,this thesis attempts to answer the above questions by exploring the mechanism and boundary conditions of the impact of intelligent customer service avtar anthropomorphic images on consumers’ willingness to interact in the context of service failure.Three contextual experiments are conducted to verify the effect of anthropomorphic images of intelligent customer service avatars(warmth vs.competence)on consumers’ willingness to interact and the mediating role of disappointment in the service failure context.In addition,the moderating effect of anthropomorphic types(human-like vs.cartoon-like)is also discussed.Study 1 includes a pre-test and a formal experiment with 119 subjects,aiming to explore the relationship between the anthropomorphic image of intelligent customer service avatar and consumers’ willingness to interact in the service failure context.The formal experiment of Study 1 is at the single factor 2 level(anthropomorphic images:competence vs.warmth),measured consumers’ willingness to interact after viewing service failure scenarios and anthropomorphic images.The results show that participants who view the intelligent customer service avatar in the competent image(vs.the warm image)are less willing to interact after the service failure.Study 2 consists of a pre-test and a formal experiment with a total of 127 subjects,aiming to explore the mediating role of disappointment.The formal experiment of Study2 is a one-factor 2-level(anthropomorphic image: competence vs.warmth)betweensubjects design,and after manipulating the anthropomorphic image,consumers’ willingness to interact and disappointment are measured separately.The results show that when experiencing service failure,the intelligent customer service avatars with a competentt image have a more negative impact on consumers’ willingness to interact compared to a warm image,and disappointment mediates the impact of anthropomorphic images of intelligent customer service avatars on consumers’ willingness to interact in the service failure context.Study 3 also contains a pre-test and a formal experiment with a total of 240 subjects participating in the experiment.The formal experiment of Study 3 is 2(anthropomorphic image: competence vs.warmth)× 2(anthropomorphic type: human-like vs.cartoon-like)between-subjects design.The results show that when the intelligent customer service is human-like,the intelligent customer service with a competent image have a more negative impact compared to a warm image,while when the intelligent customer service is cartoon-like,there is no significant difference in the impact of the anthropomorphic image of the intelligent customer service avatars on consumers’ willingness to interact.Theoretically,this study explains the mechanisms by which anthropomorphic images of intelligent customer service affect consumer emotions and behaviors in service failure contexts,expanding and complementing the literature on the effects of anthropomorphic images on consumer behavior,and making a contribution to the existing literature on service marketing and human-machine interaction.Managerially,our research aims to provide guidance in avatar image design,for companies who utilize AI agents in their online customer services to facilitate consumer experiences.