Purpose

Chatbots 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/approach

This 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.

Findings

Chatbot 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/value

The 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.

中文翻译：

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相信我，我是一个机器人——聊天机器人在不同服务前线设置中泄露的影响

目的

聊天机器人在服务前线越来越普遍。由于人工智能的进步，聊天机器人通常与人类无法区分。关于公司是否应该披露其聊天机器人的非人类身份的问题，先前的研究发现消费者对聊天机器人的披露有负面反应。通过考虑信任和与服务相关的上下文因素的作用，本研究探讨了如何防止聊天机器人披露对客户保留的负面影响。

设计/方法/方法

本文介绍了两项实验研究，研究披露聊天机器人的非人类身份对客户保留率的影响。第一项研究考察了聊天机器人披露对不同服务关键程度的影响，而第二项研究则考虑了不同的服务结果。作者采用协方差分析和中介分析来检验他们的假设。

发现

聊天机器人披露通过降低对高关键性服务的信任度对客户保留产生负面的间接影响。在聊天机器人无法处理客户服务问题的情况下，披露聊天机器人身份不仅不会产生负面影响，甚至会对保留率产生积极影响。

原创性/价值

作者提供的证据表明，根据服务前线设置，客户对聊天机器人披露的反应会有所不同。他们表明，聊天机器人的披露不仅会像以前的研究所怀疑的那样产生不良后果，而且还会导致积极的反应。通过这样做，作者对聊天机器人披露的后果绘制了一幅更加平衡的图景。