Training Customer Complaint Management in a Virtual Role-Playing Game: A User Study

Abstract

Handling customer complaints properly, especially through chat or phone-based interaction, has become an increasingly important social skill and is the subject of professional training in companies, markets, and multinational corporations. In order to develop such skills, training methods can involve videos and role plays. Virtual role play scenarios can provide a fairly authentic experience of realistic conflict situations with customers and allow for trying out different problem-solving strategies without consequences in the real world. This paper presents an attempt to train customer complaint handling through an educational role-playing game based on theories of consumer psychology and complaint management using a chatbot system with intelligent support. The playability, game experience, and perception of the virtual role play environment, as well as the interaction with the chatbot, have been evaluated in a mixed method study. The results indicate that the idea and approach of the game, in general, are assessed positively and the scenarios are perceived as useful and realistic. Furthermore, the study confirms that the chatbot’s conversation style is influencing the game experience and the perception of the chatbot significantly.