Impact of the introduction of service robots on consumer satisfaction: Empirical evidence from hotels

Abstract

Service robots have become integral to the service industry in the context of intelligent upgrading and transformation, both of which affect consumer evaluations of their overall service experience. The different service experiences of customers helped by service robots and customers helped by humans merit scholarly attention. This study explored the relations among service robots, consumer service experience perceptions, and consumer satisfaction. Based on social perception theory, the study developed a multi-period difference-in-differences model to empirically test the formulated hypotheses using operational data from 3790 hotels and 8,127,772 online reviews. The results showed that the introduction of service robots in hotels had a positive effect on consumer satisfaction, with perceived warmth and competence mediating this effect. In addition, perceived competence was moderated by hotel class and size, whereas consumer satisfaction and perceived warmth were moderated by membership tiers. Finally, consumer satisfaction showed heterogeneity across different city classes and customer segments. This study offered theoretical and practical implications for the use of service robots in hotels.