Service robots are increasingly used in service settings, such as hotels, restaurants, and airports. They can provide information, serve food, or perform other basic service tasks. In doing so, they can help address challenges related to labor shortages in many industries. However, robots also make mistakes: they may misunderstand customers, bring the wrong order, or fail to respond appropriately to a problem. This raises the question of how service robots should be designed and how they should respond in such situations.

Voice as Social Support

It is hardly surprising that financial compensation, such as discounts, can be helpful after service failures. However, the Augsburg study shows that the voice of a service robot can also play an important role. “When a service robot makes a mistake, customers are not only concerned with the factual correction of the error,” explains Maximilian Bruder, one of the authors of the study. “They also perceive the extent to which they feel supported and taken seriously in the situation.”?The study focuses on the concept of social support. This concept has long been established in psychology, but has received considerably less attention in marketing research. The study shows that a human-like voice can increase perceived social support. Customers then experience the robot’s response as more helpful, caring, and supportive. This, in turn, has a positive effect on satisfaction with the service robot and on attitudes toward the company.

This effect is particularly relevant when no financial compensation is offered. When customers receive a discount, this material form of recovery tends to dominate their evaluation of the situation. However, when no such compensation is provided, the way the robot communicates becomes more important. In such cases, a human-like voice can help customers perceive the interaction as more supportive.

Not Every Human-Like Feature Has the Same Effect

Another finding of the study is that not every form of human-likeness has the same effect. While a human-like voice produced positive effects, a more human-like appearance of the robot did not lead to comparable outcomes. “A voice not only conveys information, but also social cues,” explains Michael Paul, Chair of Value Based Marketing at the University of Augsburg. “It can influence whether a response is perceived as mechanical and distant or as supportive and caring.”

For companies, this means that the design of service robots should not be reduced to their appearance or technical functionality. Especially in difficult service situations, voice can be an important design element. When financial compensation cannot or should not be offered, a human-like voice can help customers feel more supported and thereby improve their overall perception of the service interaction.

Five Studies Show: Voice Makes a Difference

The published article reports a total of five experimental studies. The studies examined service failures in a restaurant context in which a service robot brings the wrong order. The authors varied, among other things, whether financial compensation was offered and whether the robot spoke with a human-like or artificial-sounding voice. Additional studies examined whether comparable effects also emerge from a more human-like robot appearance. The results show that voice can convey social support, whereas a more human-like appearance did not produce comparable effects.

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• Download:? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829632600295X

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