Customer-robot interactions: Understanding customer experience with service robots

Technology developments relating to automation, artificial intelligence, and robots have transformed the landscape of service industries, including hospitality and tourism. Through a qualitative content analysis of online review data, this study seeks a comprehensive and grounded understanding of customer experience with service robots in hospitality and tourism settings. The analysis identified four categories of customer experience: (1) sensory experience (verbal language, physical appearance, kinesics, and paralanguage), (2) cognitive experience (utility, cuteness, autonomy, coolness, interactivity, and courtesy), (3) affective experience (enjoyment, novelty, negative emotion, and satisfaction), and (4) conative experience (approach/resistance). Results led to the development of a framework representing customer experience with service robots and to insights into customer-robot interactions. Most customers described positive experiences, and while service robots performed well in delivering functional and emotional value, social interaction skills need improvement.     

Effects of online retailer after delivery services on repurchase intention: An empirical analysis of customers’ past experience and future confidence with the retailer

This study empirically examines the influence of after delivery services on customer perception of satisfaction, trust, and repurchase intention. Data from 262 survey respondents, analyzed through structural equation modeling, indicate three critical after service factors related to customer satisfaction: product exchange, returns, and refunds. Analyses also indicate significant mediating effects of customer satisfaction and trust with after delivery services upon repurchase intention. Results reveal that customer satisfaction with services also mediate the relationship between after delivery services and consumers’ trust in the retailer. The findings suggest implications for management and future research directions.     

Guest satisfaction & dissatisfaction in luxury hotels: An application of big data

In order to understand the pivotal attributes of luxury hotel service in Malaysia, this study analyses big data in the form of online reviews, as available in TripAdvisor. The content analysis, which was performed using the word frequency analysis has revealed that the main themes of luxury hotel service quality include hotel-related attributes, room-related attributes, staff-related attributes, travel-related attributes, and possible outcomes. The critical incident technique has also been performed to examine the antecedents and outcomes of hotel guests’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction. In this study, quality of rooms and interaction with employees have been determined as major drivers of customers’ word of mouth and revisit intentions. This study contributes with an empirical analysis of particular features of textual context and discussion of the concept of luxury service in the developing countries has been largely neglected so far.     

Applying the Kano model to investigate the quality of transportation services at mega events

The opportunity to host international sporting events is an important milestone for advanced countries, and transportation services play a significant role at such events. This study applies the Kano model to evaluate passengers’ satisfaction with each service element at a mega event. Furthermore, it explores various transportation modes (i.e., buses and cars) according to passenger group (collectively and individually), and accordingly, ranks service elements requiring improvement. The findings show that sufficient transportation services to the desired destination are considered a fundamental service at a mega sport event. Although the ability of drivers to communicate in English is neither demanded nor anticipated, they are expected to be friendly towards passengers. Compared with car passengers, bus passengers place greater value on clear transportation information, sufficient transportation frequency, and other internet-related functions such as free Wi-Fi on the bus and free apps for transportation reservations and destination navigation. Good complaint management, straightforward reservation systems, vehicle tidiness, sufficient transportation frequency, and clear transportation information are considered critical services. Organizers must therefore prioritize these services for improvement.     

子女性别、婚姻年龄与父母生活满意度——代际经济关系转换视角下的实证研究

通过文献回顾以及构建引入婚姻支出的OLG模型,推导子女成婚影响父母生活满意度的假说,并使用2015年中国健康与养老追踪调查数据进行实证检验。研究发现女儿在提升父母生活满意度方面具有正向作用。在代际关系转换前,婚姻市场挤压使得彩礼、买房等导致男性竞争压力向家庭传导,婚姻支出降低了未婚儿子父母的生活满意度;成婚后子女经济支持差距缩小,子女通过向父母提供经济支持提升满意度的差异较小,尽管经济上儿子会损害父母的生活满意度,但儿子和女儿如果成婚较早都能改善父母的满意度。     

Packaging-free products: A lever of proximity and loyalty between consumers and grocery stores

This research investigates the consequences for retailers and their stores of a new sustainable consumption trend—the purchase and consumption of bulk products. It examines the effects of offering packaging-free products on three subdimensions of perceived proximity (identity, process, and relational) and on transactional loyalty (satisfaction–loyalty) and relational loyalty (satisfaction–trust–loyalty). A total of 1407 buyers and consumers of bulk products at a convenience store (of a university cooperative style) filled out an online questionnaire. These consumers were then divided into three subgroups (convinced, pragmatic, and wary). This research empirically establishes that unpacked products are a strategic tool for retailers and their stores to create or strengthen the relationships established with their customers. Unpacked products and the proximity they create between a consumer and a store are the first link in the development or preservation of a relational chain between the consumer and the store. Moreover, the step reached by the consumer in his process of purchasing and consuming packaging-free products (from the discovery stage to the already well-established habit) has a direct impact on the relational chain built.     

Creating consumer durable retailer customer loyalty through order fulfillment service operations

Manufacturers now find themselves in the position of finding new ways to remain competitive in the era of retail power. The onus rests on the manufacturer's ability to implement operational strategies that help the retailer achieve its objectives. Specifically, manufacturers that establish successful order fulfillment service can affect retailer loyalty. The overarching goal of this research, therefore, is to examine the importance to operations managers of understanding the order fulfillment needs and expectations of their retail customers and to establish the value-added role that operations management plays in developing retailer loyalty. Empirical evidence is provided on the relationships between relational order fulfillment service, operational order fulfillment service, satisfaction, affective commitment, purchase behavior, and loyalty. Such evidence not only focuses on the strategic importance of the OM discipline in manufacturer–retailer relationships, but also extends previous OM theory by taking a more complex view of the loyalty phenomenon.     

Measuring customer experience in situ: The link between appraisals,emotions and overall assessments

Customer experience is frequently researched using one-off recall studies, missing the opportunity to assess the momentary fluctuations associated with consumption in real time. To address this gap, this study investigates how specific experience appraisals of an event affect emotions at different points in time, as well as determining how these appraisals contribute to overall satisfaction, recommendation, and repeat visitation. Fifty-one event goers report their experiences on four occasions (three during and one post event). Results show appraisals of having fun predict feelings of joy at each of the three sampling periods, whereas appraisals of sensory experience predict feelings of inspiration. Overall, sensory appraisals at Time-2 and appraisals of fun at Time-3 are associated with higher ratings of recommendation and repeat visitation. This research extends the understanding of customer experience by demonstrating the differential role of appraisals and emotions in real time and the flow-on effects to post experience assessments.     

Effects of Chinese consumers' relationship benefits and satisfaction on attitudes toward foreign fashion brands:The moderating role of country of salesperson

The paper examines the various responses of consumers depending on the country of salesperson (COS) and to look into the effects that consumer–salesperson relationship benefits have on consumer satisfaction and brand attitude. The results suggest that consumers' perceived social benefit and functional benefit positively influenced their satisfaction with salesperson, and a significant positive effect of consumers' satisfaction with salesperson on consumers' brand attitude is found. This positive relationship was moderated by COS. These findings suggest that COS will serve as an important retail mix for global marketers. Other results and management implications are also discussed.     

The impact of perceived similarity to other customers on shopping mall satisfaction

This study highlights the role of social presence with other consumers in influencing consumers' satisfaction evaluations by exploring a question: can non-interactive social presence of other people affect satisfaction with shopping mall experience? Based on Latané's (1981) social impact theory and Byrne's (1971) similarity-attraction paradigm, this study posits that a mere presence of other shoppers can be influential when there is perceived similarity between a customer and others. Further, the similarity perception is hypothesized to influence customer's mall satisfaction through affective and cognitive processes. The findings from a large-scale online survey with consumer panel subjects in the U.S. support all study hypotheses.