Does Customers’ Emotion toward Voice-based Service AI Cause Negative Reactions? Empirical Evidence from a Call Center

Abstract

Many companies are introducing voice-based service artificial intelligence (AI) into their call centers. Little is known about the relationship between customers' emotions to voice-based service AI and customers' negative reactions. This study investigates the link between customers' emotions toward voice-based service AI and customers' negative reactions. Our results reveal that customers' emotion toward voice-based service AI could significantly affect their complaint behavior, and customers' complaint differ among different emotions types. Customers' negative and positive emotions toward voice-based AI services have asignificantly positive and negative effect, respectively, on customer complaint behavior than neutral emotion. We also find that the exchange round of human-AI interaction moderates the effect of the customer emotion on customer complaint. This study investigates the impact of customers' emotions toward voice-based service AI on customers' complaint behavior to make up the existing research insufficiency in a certain degree.

Enhancing Customer Service in Shopping Malls with an Advanced Chatbot-Integrated Concierge Device

“…Challenges such as diverse accents, background noise, and unclear pronunciation complicate voice support. AI algorithms for speech recognition can improve routing, providing a more seamless customer experience (Li and Liu, 2021). Deep learning models predict emotional tones when customers react negatively and redirect calls to human agents.…”