Convenient or intrusive? A dual-pathway investigation of proactive service robots’ effect on customer satisfaction, and the boundary role of robotic voice

Details

Supervisors

Hazée, Simon

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enThe deployment of service robots at the frontline is shifting customer encounters toward proactive forms of engagement, in which robots initiate service rather than wait to be activated. Although such initiative promises to ease the service encounter, the same behavior may also be experienced as an unsolicited intrusion, and the mechanisms through which it shapes customer satisfaction remain underspecified. Drawing on service convenience theory and reactance theory, this research investigates how robot proactivity (vs. reactivity) influences customer satisfaction through the parallel pathways of perceived convenience and perceived intrusiveness, and whether the human-likeness of the robot’s voice acts as a boundary condition on the intrusiveness pathway. A 2 (proactive vs. reactive) × 2 (human-like vs. machine-like voice) between-subjects scenario-based experiment was conducted in a simulated airport check-in setting. Results show that proactive robots increase customer satisfaction relative to reactive ones. This effect operates through two countervailing routes: a positive functional pathway via perceived convenience and a negative socio-emotional pathway via perceived intrusiveness, comparable in magnitude and largely offsetting. Voice human-likeness did not significantly moderate the intrusiveness pathway. These findings refine the view that robotic proactivity is inherently ambivalent by isolating the dual mechanism through which it shapes customer evaluation, and offer guidance for managers seeking to design frontline robotic service that captures the convenience gain while containing the intrusiveness cost.