Purpose

Artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot technology is increasingly used to handle customer complaints in the service recovery process. Built on the justice theory, this paper aims to explore the optimal way to utilize chatbots in handling customer complaints for service failure recovery and the moderating role of humor.

Design/methodology/approach

Two scenario-based between-subjects experimental design studies were conducted to examine the two aspects of justice in service failure recovery: Study 1 focuses on procedural justice manifested as perceived control and Study 2 on interactional justice assessed as social presence. Furthermore, the moderating role of humor is investigated.

Findings

The results indicate that both perceived control and social presence can improve chatbots’ effectiveness in handling service failures to regain customer satisfaction and the consequent revisit intention. However, humor shows opposite effects in the two studies: chatbots using humorous language in complaint handling may attenuate the positive effect of perceived control but enhance the positive effect of social presence.

Practical implications

The findings provide practical guidelines to the service industry regarding the optimal service design and technology deployment in customer service, particularly for an effective service failure recovery process.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the service failure recovery literature by investigating how the new service technology of AI-powered chatbots can effectively handle customer complaints for service failure recovery. Furthermore, the research reveals the nuanced effects of humor in different complaint-handling situations.

中文翻译：

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投诉处理中的聊天机器人：幽默的调节作用

 目的

人工智能 （AI） 驱动的聊天机器人技术越来越多地用于处理服务恢复过程中的客户投诉。本文以正义理论为基础，旨在探索利用聊天机器人处理客户投诉以恢复服务故障的最佳方法以及幽默的调节作用。

设计/方法/方法

进行了两项基于情境的受试者间实验设计研究，以检查服务失败恢复中正义的两个方面：研究 1 侧重于表现为感知控制的程序正义，研究 2 侧重于评估为社会存在的互动正义。此外，还研究了幽默的调节作用。

 发现

结果表明，感知控制和社交存在可以提高聊天机器人处理服务失败的效率，以重新获得客户满意度和随之而来的再次访问意图。然而，幽默在两项研究中显示出相反的效果：聊天机器人在投诉处理中使用幽默语言可能会减弱感知控制的积极影响，但增强社交存在的积极影响。

 实际意义

研究结果为服务行业提供了关于客户服务中最佳服务设计和技术部署的实用指南，特别是对于有效的服务故障恢复过程。

 原创性/价值

本研究通过调查人工智能聊天机器人的新服务技术如何有效处理客户投诉以实现服务故障恢复，为服务故障恢复文献做出贡献。此外，该研究揭示了幽默在不同投诉处理情况下的细微影响。