How Do Initial and Interactive Social Cues Increase Customers’ Continuance Usage Intention of Chatbots?

Abstract

Enterprises widely utilize chatbots as “intelligent customer service” because of their efficiency and low cost. However, customer complaints and doubts occur occasionally, and improving users’ willingness to continue to use is a crucial issue that needs to be solved urgently. This study investigates whether and how initial social cues (avatar, name, and initial greeting) and interactive social cues (emoji) can improve users’ intention to continue using. Our findings from three scenario experiments reveal that both initial and interactive social cues can increase consumers’ warmth perception, while only interactive social cues elevate competence perception. The greater the warmth and competence perceived by users, the higher their trust in chatbots, leading to increased intention to continue using them. Furthermore, we identified a reinforcing effect when both types of social cues are combined, further augmenting users’ intention to persist with chatbots. This study contributes to the chatbot-human interaction literature by validating the effectiveness of these two social cues and offers practical insights for enhancing customer retention and optimizing chatbot design.

Keywords:

• Chatbot
• social cues
• continuance usage intention
• perceived warmth
• perceived competence
• trust

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72061010, 72362009); Hainan Natural Science High-level Talents Project (Grant No.623RC445, 722RC646, 724RC493, 721RC515); 2021 Hainan Graduate Innovation Research Project [Qhyb2021-01].

Notes on contributors

Huili Yan

Huili Yan is a professor at Hainan University, China. Her research interest includes the tourism economy and online travel.

Yuzhi Wei

Yuzhi Wei is a Ph.D. student at Hainan University, China. She has interests in artificial intelligence, consumer behavior, and tourist experience.

Hao Xiong

Hao Xiong is a professor at Hainan University, China. His research interest includes big data operation optimization, logistics, and supply chain.