Although digital interfaces are increasingly pervading public administration, little is known about how replacing face-to-face interaction with digital interfaces affects citizens' satisfaction with public service encounters. This study presents evidence from a vignette experiment conducted on a sample of German citizens (N = 1.234) whereby we randomly varied the type of public service request with regard to its psychological costs, service quality, and the type of interaction (face-to-face, self-service terminal, or app). We found that replacing face-to-face communication with a digital interface has no effect on citizens' satisfaction, nor does it mitigate the effect of psychological costs, service failure, and recovery. Corroborating previous research on service recovery, we found that explaining and apologizing partially compensates for failure. Based on these results, we conclude that using digital interfaces does not undermine the goal to enhance citizen satisfaction with public services.

中文翻译：

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说话还是打字？数字接口对市民对标准化公共服务满意度的影响

尽管数字界面越来越普遍地渗透到公共管理中，但人们对用数字界面取代面对面交互如何影响公民对公共服务的满意度知之甚少。本研究提供了对德国公民样本进行的小插曲实验的证据（N= 1.234），我们随机改变公共服务请求的类型，包括心理成本、服务质量和交互类型（面对面、自助服务终端或应用程序）。我们发现，用数字界面代替面对面交流不会影响公民的满意度，也不会减轻心理成本、服务失败和恢复的影响。证实了先前关于服务恢复的研究，我们发现解释和道歉可以部分弥补失败。基于这些结果，我们得出结论，使用数字界面不会破坏提高公民对公共服务满意度的目标。