How smart experiences build service loyalty: The importance of consumer love for smart voice assistants

Abstract

Smart voice assistants (SVAs) have emerged as new artificial intelligence service platforms. They have the capacity to act like actual human assistants and modify traditional forms of human–computer interactions. So, consumers relate to their SVA as though it was a person, despite knowing that they are interacting with a machine. Based on the stimulus‐organism‐response framework, this paper examines feelings of love that consumers develop for SVAs when they are interacting. It proposes that these feelings act as the psychological mechanism to transmit the effect of consumers' experiences with the technology (i.e., smart experiences) on their service loyalty. Feelings of love are conceptualized following the triangular theory of love that considers three components: passion, intimacy, and commitment. Service loyalty refers to consumers' intentions to continue using SVAs in the future and to recommend SVAs to other people through physical and/or electronic word of mouth communication. The results show that smart experiences influence consumers' passion for technology, while passion explains their intimacy and commitment. Consumer intimacy and commitment for SVAs lead to service loyalty. Therefore, this paper contributes to research focusing on the importance of consumers' feelings for SVAs and shedding light on the process that drives to service loyalty.

How artificiality and intelligence affect voice assistant evaluations

“…We propose a mechanism wherein VA features are signals of either perceptions of VA artificiality or VA intelligence, in turn, these perceptions of artificiality and intelligence affect VA evaluations. In so doing, we assert that VA intelligence provides a more overarching construct than ease of use or usefulness (Table 1; Moriuchi, 2019), and VA artificiality (or its lack) is a more comprehensive construct than feelings of love (Table 1; Hernandez-Ortega & Ferreira, 2021). Formally, we test whether perceptions of reduced artificiality and increased intelligence enhance VA evaluations.…”

Alexa, what do we know about conversational commerce? Insights from a systematic literature review

“…Consequences are factors that result from the influence of antecedents, mediators, and moderators. Noteworthily, the consequences in conversational commerce manifest through a process involving attitudinal acceptance (Fernandes & Oliveira, 2021); intentions such as behavioral intention (Vimalkumar et al, 2021), continuance intention (Ashfaq et al, 2021), purchase intention (McLean et al, 2021), and word-of-mouth intention (Hernandez-Ortega & Ferreira, 2021); actual use behavior (Moriuchi, 2021); experience (Bawack et al, 2021); satisfaction (Loureiro et al, 2021); and post-usage behavior such as addiction (Ramadan, 2021), continuance (Poushneh, 2021b), and loyalty (Hasan et al, 2021).…”

How communications by AI-enabled voice assistants impact the customer journey

“…As we summarize in Table 2, from a source effect standpoint, various studies have examined VAs and how they might foster customer engagement or prompt subsequent consumer behaviors (Fernandes and Oliveira, 2021;Hernandez-Ortega and Ferreira, 2021;McLean et al, 2021). If VAs signal intelligence, e.g.…”

“…If VAs signal intelligence, e.g. provide relevant information in response to a service request, then customers will display an increased commitment to the VA brand (Hernandez-Ortega and Ferreira, 2021). The ability of VAs to convey a social presence also has a positive impact (Paul et al, 2021); prior research has shown, mere social presence, whether real or imagined, can motivate purchases (Argo et al, 2005;Dahl et al, 2001).…”

“…If VAs signal intelligence, e.g. provide relevant information in response to a service request, then customers will display an increased commitment to the VA brand (Hernandez-Ortega and Ferreira, 2021). The ability of VAs to convey a social presence also has a positive impact (Paul et al.…”