Purpose

Chatbots are increasingly engaged in service marketing. Some academics and managers think using anthropomorphism chatbots will improve positive attitudes and behaviors in the customer journey, but at a high degree of anthropomorphism, consumers may experience negative emotions such as fear and disgust due to the feeling that the robots resemble humans too much, which is known as the uncanny valley effect. Therefore, the authors aim to explore whether chatbot anthropomorphism will promote or limit the development of the customer journey and explore the moderating factors and the antecedent factors affecting consumers' perceptions of chatbot anthropomorphism.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected 72,782 unique data points from 42 articles and 82 samples using a meta-analysis. Based on the stimuli-organism-response (SOR) model, the impact of anthropomorphic chatbots on the consumer journey was discussed.

Findings

The authors’ findings show that chatbot anthropomorphism positively impacts the customer journey but not their negative attitudes. Further moderator analysis reveals that the impact depends on service result, chatbot gender and sample source. The chatbot anthropomorphism is significantly influenced by social presence cues, emotional message cues and mixed cues.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the chatbot anthropomorphism literature and offers guidance for managers on whether and how to enhance chatbot anthropomorphism to facilitate the customer journey and improve service sustainability.

中文翻译：

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聊天机器人拟人化对客户旅程影响的元分析

目的

聊天机器人越来越多地参与服务营销。一些学者和管理者认为，使用拟人化的聊天机器人会改善客户旅程中的积极态度和行为，但在高度拟人化的情况下，消费者可能会因为感觉机器人太像人类而体验到恐惧和厌恶等负面情绪，这使得被称为恐怖谷效应。因此，作者旨在探讨聊天机器人拟人化是否会促进或限制客户旅程的发展，并探讨影响消费者对聊天机器人拟人化认知的调节因素和先行因素。

设计/方法论/途径

作者通过荟萃分析从 42 篇文章和 82 个样本中收集了 72,782 个独特数据点。基于刺激-有机体-反应（SOR）模型，讨论了拟人化聊天机器人对消费者旅程的影响。

发现

作者的研究结果表明，聊天机器人拟人化对客户旅程产生积极影响，但不会影响他们的消极态度。进一步的主持人分析表明，影响取决于服务结果、聊天机器人性别和样本来源。聊天机器人拟人化受到社交存在线索、情感信息线索和混合线索的显着影响。

原创性/价值

这项研究为聊天机器人拟人化文献做出了贡献，并为管理者提供了关于是否以及如何增强聊天机器人拟人化以促进客户旅程并提高服务可持续性的指导。