A research team, including a scholar from UTM, has explored the relationships between service quality and service authenticity when robots are used in restaurants, and their human customers’ intention to return to the eatery concerned
A scholar from UTM has been involved in a study – presented as pioneering – looking at how quality of robot-delivered service in restaurants within China influences customers’ perceptions of service “authenticity”. The research, featuring UTM’s Dr. June Yang Hui Jun, suggests that restaurateurs should enhance robotic technical service quality by collaborating with robot manufacturers and operators, as this could increase customer-retention rates for eateries.
The research team also included two scholars based in the United Kingdom: Dr. Song Hanqun from the University of Essex and Dr. Erose Sthapit from Manchester Metropolitan University. Their findings were published last year in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management under the academic paper “Robotic service quality, authenticity, and revisit intention to restaurants in China: extending cognitive appraisal theory”.
The researchers noted that an increasing number of hospitality businesses – including in China – were resorting to service robots to support or replace human staff in the tasks of assisting and serving customers. Nonetheless the authors pointed out that “despite the extensive adoption of robotic services in China, concerns have arisen regarding technological flaws, unpleasant robotic services”, and the quest for quality experiences.
The researchers highlighted the “uniqueness “of robotic service quality. How customers evaluate robot-delivered services in terms of authenticity “varies significantly” compared with how customers tend to evaluate human employees in restaurants, said the authors. Nonetheless, the researchers stated that understanding robotic service quality was “conducive to improving customer experience, organisational competitive advantage, and profitability”.
As part of their research, the team conducted a web-based survey of diners who had experienced robot-delivered services at restaurants on the Chinese Mainland in the prior six months. The survey was done via questionnaire on Wenjuanxing, a mainstream online survey platform popular in China. A total of 428 sets of valid responses was collected.
Getting robots right
The researchers found that “functional robotic service quality” – encompassing efficiency, reliability, and dependability – positively influenced customers’ perceptions of service authenticity and, consequently, client “revisit intention”. Restaurateurs should therefore ensure that service robots operate reliably and effectively, the authors advised.
They emphasised the importance of regular evaluations of service robot performance by experienced customers and technology providers. Efforts should focus on designing reliable hardware, software, and user interfaces, implementing maintenance routines, and ensuring effective service delivery processes, said the team of researchers.
The authors cautioned that restaurant managers should be mindful of potential technological flaws and constraints associated with robot service. Where robotic service was perceived as less authentic, restaurateurs could offer appropriate human assistance, it was suggested.
Restaurateurs should also collaborate closely with robot manufacturers to optimise service robot design, as recommended by the researchers. They specifically highlighted the need to enhance robots’ abilities to respond to and address diners’ requests and needs, solve problems, and provide the most up-to-date information. The team noted that if all involved had an understanding of concepts such as perceived service quality and authenticity, it could be crucial in designing successful robotic services that lead to customer retention.
In particular, the authors suggested that restaurateurs invest effort in ensuring that service robots can “actively interact” with customers, recommend suitable dishes, and provide information about food culture and nutrition during on-site service. Such interactive experiences may enhance customers’ intention to revisit the eatery, while helping to optimise their time spent at that and other restaurants adopting the technology.
The research also covered some of the differences between “mascot”-like service robots and human-like robots. “When a mascot-like robot, rather than a human-like robot, performs comparatively simple functional service tasks… customers normally believe this mascot-like robot performs better and offers more authentic service than the human-like robot does,” the authors said.
MORE INFO
Dr. Hanqun Song is a scholar based at the Department of Management and Marketing within the Essex Business School, at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. He holds a PhD from Griffith University, in Queensland, Australia, and his current teaching responsibilities include operations and supply chain management, digital marketing and social media, and consumer behaviour.
Dr. Huijun Yang is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Innovative Hospitality Management at UTM. She holds a PhD in Hotel and Tourism Management from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include robotics, ‘smart’ technology applications, human resource management, and intercultural communication related to hospitality and tourism management.
Dr Erose Sthapit is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism at the Department of Marketing, Retail and Tourism at the U.K.’s Manchester Metropolitan University. He holds a PhD in marketing, focusing on consumer behaviour in tourism, from the University of Vaasa, Finland.
Hanqun Song, Huijun Yang and Erose Sthapit: “Robotic service quality, authenticity, and revisit intention to restaurants in China: extending cognitive appraisal theory”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, published online, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-11-2022-1396
Editor: Research Corner | A partnership between Macau Business and UTM
