When a customer service representative says, “I totally get your frustration,” it feels natural. When a chatbot says the same thing, something feels deeply off. Now, researchers have confirmed that gut feeling with actual data.
As reported by Techxplore, a new study published in MIS Quarterly finds that when AI chatbots express empathy during a service failure, it can actually make things worse for customers, not better.
Why does chatbot empathy backfire?
The research team from McGill University, University of South Florida, and Hong Kong Baptist University ran three separate experiments, where participants interacted with a service chatbot that made mistakes. In some cases, the chatbot responded with empathetic phrases such as “I really feel your frustration” after the errors. In others, it simply moved on without acknowledging the customer’s emotions.
MIS QuarterlyThe empathetic responses did not go over well. Instead of calming
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