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Introduction
In this century, often referred to as the digital age, human beings have reached the “second machine age” using robots and artificial intelligence (AI) in their daily life and at work (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014). “Big data, machine learning, deep learning, and super-intelligence have gained oil-like value in this age” (Helbing, 2019, p. 48). AI is also a crucial element of customer experience. Owing to AI, it has become possible to filter, analyze and interpret customer data that are too large for a human to process (Oracle, 2017).
The banking sector has increasingly adapted to the digital age, even though it has been essentially human-powered in the past. With the advent of new technologies, financial products and services are gathered under the umbrella of Fintech. Unlike the internet or mobile banking and digitalization, Fintech applications focus on developing and promoting innovative tools to meet customers' financial needs (Belanche et al., 2019). Banks create algorithms that help them implement customer-centered strategies. Chatbots are one of the most frequently used types of AI. Research indicates that the use of chatbots affects individuals' acceptance of technology in all areas of human life, including banking (Sanny et al., 2020).
Achieving customer satisfaction through digital platforms by offering new products and services is both a purpose and a tool for banks. However, very few studies (Trivedi, 2019) focus on customers' experience with chatbot services that banks have begun offering. This study contributes to the chatbot service literature in the banking context in two ways:
investigating customer satisfaction, in line with the expectations confirmation theory (ECT); and
establishing the effects of perceived trust and corporate reputation on customer satisfaction.
The rest of this study is organized into five sections. Section 2 discusses the study's theoretical background and hypotheses. Section 3 describes the study's methodology, questionnaire design, data collection method and sample. Section 4 presents data analysis and empirical findings. Finally, Section 5 discusses the results, implications, limitations and suggests further research.
Theoretical background and hypotheses development
This study relies on ECT to determine the relationships between customer expectations, perceived performance, confirmation of customer expectations and customer satisfaction. Moreover, it investigates the relationship between perceived trust, banks' reputation and customer satisfaction.
Chatbots
Chatbots represent one of the most frequently...