An Initial Model of Trust in Chatbots for Customer Service – Findings from a Questionnaire Study

Abstract

Chatbots are predicted to play a key role in customer service. Users’ trust in such chatbots is critical for their uptake. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning users’ trust in chatbots. To bridge this knowledge gap, we present a questionnaire study (N = 154) that investigated factors of relevance for trust in customer service chatbots. The study included two parts: an explanatory investigation of the relative importance of factors known to predict trust from the general literature on interactive systems and an exploratory identification of other factors of particular relevance for trust in chatbots. The participants were recruited as part of their dialogue with one of four chatbots for customer service. Based on the findings, we propose an initial model of trust in chatbots for customer service, including chatbot-related factors (perceived expertise and responsiveness), environment-related factors (risk and brand perceptions) and user-related factors (propensity to trust technology).