Impact of chatbot service quality on satisfaction and loyalty of bank customers

Abstract

This study seeks to identify the impact of AI Chatbot service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty among bank customers in Malaysia as well as customer viewpoints on perceived AI Chatbot service quality. The study conducted a mixed-method sequential exploratory approach by conducting a preliminary qualitative elicitation study to measure the dimensions and indicators of the phenomenon of interest—in this case, service quality of AI chatbots. Five discussants were part of the qualitative elicitation study which provided inputs to build the survey instruments for the quantitative study. The results of this study found that customers perceived AI Chatbot dimensions of reliability, responsiveness and empathy were important in offering services to the customers. This study investigated the relationship between customer satisfaction towards the bank and AI Chatbot, and analysed the impact on customer loyalty and the service quality. 310 sets of questionnaire data were collected from respondents having experience with using Malaysian banking service. Thirteen survey instruments for the questionnaire were adopted from previous literature, and fourteen of the remaining survey instruments were built from the result of the exploratory study. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to conduct the preliminary data analysis and Analysis of a Moment Structures (AMOS) was used to analyse the relationship between all independent and dependent variables. The findings indicate that customer satisfaction towards the bank positively impacts customer loyalty towards the banks. On the other hand, the analysis revealed that customer satisfaction towards AI Chatbot has a full mediation relationship through customer satisfaction towards banks and customer loyalty. The research result further exposed that service quality AI Chatbot is insignificant with customer satisfaction towards the bank due to the limited exposure to utilising AI Chatbot as customer services. However, the study results found that service quality of AI Chatbot significantly influences the level of customer satisfaction towards the Chatbot. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing empirical results for improving and enhancing use of technology in customer services. Also, this study contributes theoretically by introducing a new construct of framework. The finding of this study will be valuable for researchers and the banking industry. The discovery paves the way for further research avenues in developing countries around the world.