When Humanizing Customer Service Chatbots Might Backfire

  • Hadi R
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Abstract

More and more companies are using chatbots in customer service. Instead of with a human employee, customers interact with a machine. Many companies give these chatbots human traits through names, human-like appearances, a human voice or even character descriptions. Intuitively such a humanization strategy seems to be a good idea.Studies show, however, that the humanization of chatbots is perceived in a nuanced way and can also backfire. Especially in the context of customer complaints, human-like chatbots can intensify negative reactions of angry customers, because their performance is judged more critically compared to non-humanized chatbot variants. Service managers should therefore consider very carefully whether and in which situations they should use humanized service chatbots.

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APA

Hadi, R. (2019). When Humanizing Customer Service Chatbots Might Backfire. NIM Marketing Intelligence Review, 11(2), 30–35. https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2019-0013

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