| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis we have investigated the advantages and disadvantages of chatbots for customer
service. Chatbots gained popularity because of their potential to partly automate customer
service centres. Their success depends on the company’s capability to implement the solution,
and the customers motivation of using the chatbot. Previous research suggests that cost cutting, setting a reliable scope, transparency of chatbot capabilities and well written
responses, are key contributors to chatbot success. The customers motivations for utilizing
chatbots are efficiency, productivity, previous experience, human-likeness, and trust in
chatbots. We performed five types of experiments in order to challenge previous research on
established truths regarding chatbots. Our experiments included comparative analysis,
sentiment analysis, regression, and random forest. Our results indicate that customers are less
patient with chatbots than human agents. We found that the users’ sentiment towards chatbots
is more negative compared to conversations with human agents. Furthermore, we found that
when customers use less time and has to write fewer messages to get their inquiry resolved it
has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Asking a chatbot uncomplicated questions
instead of complex questions also had a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Based on
findings from previous research, our research, and interviews, we recommend several
measures to managers that are considering acquisition of chatbots. These are: 1) gradual
increase in functionality, 2) include human-likeness, and 3) transparency. | en_US |
