How do we decide?

If you are a company owner, how should your customer service look?

Beeler and colleagues focus on judgments of digital assistant technologies, but what they learned can likely be extrapolated to other contexts: “ability assessments are dependent upon both the use context (i.e., automation versus augmentation; disclosure of automation) and individual characteristics (i.e., consumer mood state and consumer preference for human interaction). . . . some consumers simply prefer people over technology, regardless of the technological capabilities of the digital assistant. Managers should consider offering a variety of potential customer interactions, as opposed to forcing customers to use digital assistants, as frustration can ensue from a failed technological interaction when no other alternatives (e.g., human interactions) are available. . . . companies should consider contexts in which negative moods may be likely. For example, a consumer employing the use of a digital assistant to play music in a high-stress situation, such as rush hour traffic or when feeding a baby, may lead to more negative perceptions of the digital assistant’s ability.”

Lisa Beeler, Alex Zablah, and Adam Rapp.  2022. “Ability Is In the Eye of the Beholder:  How Context and Individual Factors Shape Consumer Perceptions of Digital Assistant Ability.”  Journal of Business Research, vol. 148, pp. 33-46, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.045