Abstract:
In customer service communication, organizations have latched onto chatbots because of their ease of use and familiarity with digital marketing. Technology has helped businesses to understand their customer journey through instant engagements and assessing this engagement using digital analytics, signifying the necessity to have digital communication in customer service. The Covid-19 pandemic created more room for organizations to metamorph and adapt digital communication strategies to keep connected to their customers. This study uses Venkatesh, Thong and Xu (2016) Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology to model the adoption of emerging digital technologies for customer service communication by Kenyan corporate organizations, using Envision Technologies chatbot as a case. The objectives of this study are to find out the relationship between performance expectancy factors and the customers' use of Envision Technologies chatbot for relating with the company’s customer service; to examine the effect of Effort Expectancy in using Envision Technologies chatbot on customers adoption of chatbots for communicating with the company’s customer care, and to evaluate whether Facilitating Conditions influence customers’ adoption of the chatbot in communicating with Envision Technologies customer service. Findings from the analysis indicate that Performance Expectancy does affect the Adoption of Chatbots, accounting for a 48% change though the lowest level among all the other factors. Adding Effort Expectancy to the model increased the predictability of the model to 60.0%, further adding Conditions that Facilitate Use of Chatbots caused the greatest shift of the predictability of the model to 67%, adding Gender to the model causes a very little change of 0.1%, Age affected the model by 0.4%. This study proposes that further research be conducted on the use of chatbots in other sectors, more inquiry into the influence of the conditions that facilitate the adoption of these digital communication solutions, and a qualitative inquiry into technology adoption and the interplay of age in the adoption process.
