It takes two to empower: Customer responses to empowerment recovery in the context of robot service failure

Abstract

Service robots have been gradually adopted by various providers. However, despite their significant potential in various service scenarios, robots can make mistakes during service interactions. Drawing on the concept of customer empowerment (CE), this study contributes to the existing literature by comparing the difference in the empowerment perceptions of younger and older customers toward robots and human employees. This study further examined empowerment strategies among two adult age groups in the context of robot service recovery and provided empirical evidence regarding the role of CE in service remediation. The results of the first experimental study revealed that older customers felt less empowered when encountering robot service failures than human service failures. The results from the follow-up two experiments indicate that the “wooden barrel effect” exists for effective recovery strategies to achieve empowerment perception and then, post-recovery customer satisfaction; that is, empowerment recovery strategies might succeed only when both information-sharing and compensation options are provided. These findings provide evidence-based guidance for policymakers and service providers in executing robot service recovery.