Anthropomorphic service recovery: the panacea following service failure of automated CSAs

Résumé

Orientation: Automated customer service agents (CSAs) are not mere tools but social interaction entities with anthropomorphic traits capable of predicting consumer responses following unique online service failures scenarios. Research purpose: The study advances the discourse in how automated CSAs can seem more human, with acute understanding of shopper experiences. Thus, anthropomorphism remains an ineluctable ingredient preceding the alteration of shoppers’ trustworthiness perceptions via forgiveness. Motivation for the study: Selected anthropomorphic traits of automated CSAs could make shoppers personify these agents as endowed with human qualities such as humour and response empathy, thereby enhancing the trustworthiness of non-human computer social actors. Research design, approach and method: A scenario-based quantitative survey was distributed as a hyperlink, yielding 287 valid participants. Main findings: The SEM-PLS analysis demonstrated good model fit. The findings showed a significant effect between empathy and anthropomorphism with perceived trustworthiness. In addition, anthropomorphic CSAs provide a trust shield effect, reducing the loss of trust following a service failure. Consequently, shoppers are more willing to forgive the online retailer. Practical/managerial implications: The findings of this study could shape customers’ response mechanisms during failed interactions with automated CSAs, offering salient insights to adequately address service failures while tapping into the judicious utilisation of human-robot collaboration opportunities. Contribution/value-add: The study provides initial lenses for considering the social acting nature of automated CSAs. The positionality in this paper is that during a online service failure, humans pardon and are more trusting of a technological service agent that demonstrates anthropomorphic and humanist attributes. Keywords: anthropomorphism; automated customer service agent; empathy; humour; service failure; perceived trustworthiness.

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