Who are you talking to? How chatbot identity disclosure affects service satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Chatbots are increasingly able to talk as humans. Disclosing the identity of chatbots can negatively impact the user trust, but withholding is considered illegal. Disclosing is an inevitable trend, and it is crucial to study different disclosure types. However, most research focuses on comparing disclosure versus non-disclosure. This article investigates the impact of interaction between disclosing and service contact types on service satisfaction. Specifically, pre-dialogue (vs. post-dialogue) disclosure appears more satisfying for high-contact services, whereas post-dialogue disclosure is better suited to low-contact services. Trust is the mediating mechanism of these effects. These findings can help service providers devise marketing strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Chatbots
• identity disclosure
• service satisfaction
• contact service types

Acknowledgments

This research would not have been possible without the panelists who provided thoughtful responses in each phase of the project. We would also like to thank the professors, students, and participants who supported our research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2024.2369755.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 71962007, 71832015, 72362008, 72262027) and the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation High-level Talents Project (no. 722RC627).