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Robotics for Customer Service
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Robotics for Customer Service: A Useful Complement or an Ultimate Substitute?
We propose a conceptual framework that includes the antecedents and consequences of firms’ adopting and integrating robotics into their customer service operations. Drawing insights from literature on customer service, technology marketing, and computer science, our proposed framework elaborates on the concept of the degree of robotics adoption (DRA) as well as the antecedents (employee acceptance of robots and customer acceptance of robots) and multiple sequential consequences (service quality, customer long-term performance, and customer engagement) of DRA. We also discuss how the nature of the firm (Business to Consumer versus Business-to-Business, i.e., B2C vs. B2B), service characteristics (utilitarian vs. hedonic), and brand positioning (low equity vs. high equity) might moderate the relationship between DRA and service quality. Further, we provide actionable guidance for managers to adopt and integrate robotics into their customer service operations.To get more news about GRS, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.
Since the first case of the adoption of robots in a Swedish metal works plant in 1959, the robotics industry has experienced rapid growth. By 1973, there were 3,000 robots in operation; by 2003, there were 800,000 robots; and today, the figure is more than 1.3 million (Wilson 2015). After growing at a compounding rate of 17% each year, the worldwide robot market is now US$9.5 billion, and is projected to reach up to US$135 billion by 2019, based on the estimate of the International Data Corporation. The United States ranks among the top five single markets for robots in the world, along with the European Union, China, Japan, and South Korea. Moreover, the United States is the top producer and technology leader in the robotics field (International Federation of Robotics [IFR] 2016).
Due to their superior efficiency, precision, work capacity, faster adaptability to procedural changes, and tolerance of severe and hazardous environments, robots have been widely deployed in various industries including automotive, electronics, rubber and plastics, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and food and beverage. Robots working in factories are referred to as industrial robots. While industrial robots will always have a place in the economy, the relative newcomers on the scene are service robots, referring to robots used for service applications (IFR 2016). For example, Lowe’s introduced “LoweBot” in 11 of its stores throughout San Francisco in 2016 to answer standard customer questions and help them navigate around the store (Adhikari 2017); Tug robots are used in hundreds of hospitals across the United States, taking dirty dishes and sheets from patients (Brooks 2014); The Los Angeles Times uses robots to report on earthquakes (DeVries 2014), National Public Radio uses robot sportswriters to produce coverage of games (DeVries 2014), and restaurants in China have tried using robot waiters to take orders and deliver food to diners (Nguyen 2016).
Enabled by recent advances in mechanical engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, customer service robots have started to gain momentum. Worldwide revenue of customer service robots reached US$53.77 million in 2016. The global market for customer service robots is predicted to grow 7 times faster than the market of industrial robots (Business Insider 2015), and Tractica (2017) expects that it will reach a market value of US$87.97 million by the end of 2022. In view of the wide application and great potential for customer service robots, this article focuses on the application of robotics in the domain of customer service.
However, successfully incorporating robotics into customer service is not a trivial task but a significant challenge for most firms (Ackerman 2016; Forlizzi 2014). With the steadily increasing prevalence of robotics in customer service, firms need urgent and actionable guidance on how, when, and to what extent to adopt and integrate robotics in their customer service operations strategies in order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. In academics, scholars have recognized the growing importance of robotics as a fundamental shift in the nature of customer services (e.g., Bitner 2017; Huang and Rust 2017; Wirtz and Zeithaml 2018). However, the relevant literature in service marketing is very sparse and fragmented. Both the impact of robotics in customer service and the means by which firms should deploy robotics into their customer service function remain largely unknown. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework to study the effects of robotics on customer services as well as the antecedents and consequences, with the purpose of addressing the concerns of both academics and practitioners. -
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