How to make consumers tolerate robotic service failures

Many companies are now using service robots to partially replace human employees. Despite robots service failures are inevitable, very little is understood about how to mitigate the negative impact of consumers’ attitudes towards robot service failures. This research aims to investigate how the appearance and personality anthropomorphism affect consumer satisfaction and behavioral intentions toward service failure. Findings indicate that consumers tend to express more positive attitudes after experiencing robot service failures on a humanoid robot or an extroverted robot. Moreover, the interaction effect of appearance and personality anthropomorphism is demonstrated and the mediating role of social distance is also examined. The research findings provide insights for marketing practitioners and humanoid robot designers. •Anthropomorphism generates favorable customer's attitudes after service failure.•Anthropomorphism is not only in appearance, but also in personality such as extroversion.•Interaction effect of appearance and personality anthropomorphism on customer attitudes to robot service failures.•Social distance explain the effects of anthropomorphism on customer attitudes towards robot service failures.