Digital Voice Assistants in Service Encounters: An Abstract

Abstract

Digital voice assistants are becoming a pervasive technology with the potential to change entire business processes and models. These voice assistants are at the forefront of organizational frontlines, service encounters, and customer experience. In the wake of digitalization and artificial intelligence, companies embrace such technologies by rule-based automating business processes. One area of application for digital voice assistants is service encounters in call centers. Research on call centers identifies service expertise, interaction competence, and linguistic qualities of human agents as key determinants of consumers’ satisfaction and loyalty (e.g., Cheong et al. 2008; Dean 2004; Gerpott/Paukert 2012). This study investigates acceptance of digital voice assistants as call center agents. If consumers accept the technology in such service encounters, it questions whether digital voice assistants can either reduce workload or replace human call center agents. The empirical results present a general willingness of consumers to engage with digital voice assistants in such service encounters. Consumers expect such service encounters to be free of effort and that the technical system is readily available, flexible, and reliable. Male consumers particularly emphasize technical usability. Even though the empirical results do not statistically support the effect of linguistic qualities, this finding can be attributed to the preexisting experience with voice systems in smartphones and smart speakers. Consumers consequently assume that digital voice assistants perform in service encounters at least as good as their personal devices. In contrast, consumers do not attribute much interaction competence to digital voice assistants. Consumers seem to be predominantly interested in the solving capabilities of digital voice assistants in the service encounter. As a result, service expertise is perceived as more important than emotional value. Digital voice assistants need to primarily fulfill their perceived intended purpose if they are to assume the role of call center agents and resolve corresponding service tasks. Emotional value also positively affects consumers’ perceived usefulness. Regarding the engagement with digital voice assistants, consumers value a positive, enjoyable, and relaxed atmosphere. These aspects are in particular relevant for female consumers in the present service encounter setting. Digital voice assistants should not only provide requested information but also process and resolve consumers’ concerns. As a result, digital voice assistants should facilitate problem-solving in a professional service fashion. Based on their accessibility and usefulness, consumers anticipate digital voice assistants being informative, useful, and positive in service encounters. Consumers thus form favorable attitudes towards engaging with these digital assistants and are intending to use these assistants in the foreseeable future.