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.