Customer Brand Engagement through Chatbots on Bank Websites– Examining the Antecedents and Consequences

ABSTRACT

Chatbots are virtual conversation agents that offer innovative features to connect with customers and thus offer a promising avenue to engage customers. Currently many private and nationalized banks are deploying chatbots for connecting and communicating with customers. This technology is expected to dominate the banking sector in the future by improving customer service. However, the success of banking chatbots will be effective when customers are satisfied with the chatbots and engage in using them. To probe in to the question, this study investigates the antecedents and consequences of customer brand engagement in using banking chatbots, with the lens of diffusion of innovation theory. The antecedents include interactivity, time convenience, compatibility, complexity, observability, and trialability. The consequences are satisfaction with the brand experience and customer brand usage intention. The theorized model has been validated with 470 Indian banking chatbot customers usable responses. The results suggest that trialability, compatibility, and interactivity positively influence customer brand engagement through a chatbot, thereby influencing satisfaction with the brand experience and customer brand usage intention. The paper presents theoretical and managerial implications which enable banks to strengthen customer engagement, satisfaction and brand usage intention through chatbots.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Harinder Hari

Harinder Hari, School of Business Management, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies University, Mumbai, India e-mail id: [email protected]. She is a Research Scholar with NMIMS University, Mumbai and her research interest are in the area of Customer engagement, Customer Relationship Management and Marketing and is corresponding author for this paper.

Radha Iyer

Radha Iyer, K J Somaiya Institute of Management, Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai, India e-mail id: [email protected] She is Professor with K J Somaiya Institute of Management, her research interests are in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship and she facilitates these courses.

Brinda Sampat

Brinda Sampat, is an Assistant Professor at NGA-SCE, NMIMS University, Mumbai. Her research interests are at the interface of IS and Analytics which focus on areas related to consumer adoption, diffusion of emerging technologies and digital innovations through the lens of emerging economies.