Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2022
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact

By: Michelle A. Kinch and Ryan W. Buell
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:62
ShareBar

Abstract

Prior research in social psychology has shown that when people feel anxious, they seek advice from others. However, companies that operate in high-anxiety settings (like financial services, health care, and education) are increasingly deploying self-service technologies (SSTs), through which anxious customers transact without access to human contact. The impact of customer anxiety in self-service is neither well understood, nor consistently factored into service design. In a field experiment conducted within the context of a credit union’s SST loan-approval process, a reminder of access to a human loan agent increases the customer uptake rate of approved loans by 24%, suggesting that access to human contact in high-anxiety settings might improve service performance. Subsequent controlled laboratory experiments, which explicitly investigate the linkages among anxiety, choice satisfaction, and firm trust during SST encounters show that anxious participants are consistently less satisfied with their choices and report lower levels of trust in the firm. When anxiety is related to the SST encounter, we find that providing the opportunity for access to a human service provider dampens anxiety’s negative effects on choice satisfaction and, by extension, increases firm trust. We also find that granting customers access to a human peer can mitigate anxiety in SST settings where anxiety is endemically high.

Keywords

Anxiety; Self-service; Empirical Operations; Behavioral Operations; Customers; Emotions; Service Delivery; Interpersonal Communication; Customer Satisfaction; Trust

Citation

Kinch, Michelle A., and Ryan W. Buell. "Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-089, February 2019. (Revised November 2023.)
  • SSRN
  • Read Now

About The Authors

Michelle A. Kinch

→More Publications

Ryan W. Buell

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2023
    • PLoS Global Public Health

    Evidence from the First Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) Randomised Controlled Trial in India: SMAs Increase the Satisfaction, Knowledge, and Medication Compliance of Patients with Glaucoma

    By: Nazlı Sönmez, Kavitha Srinivasan, Rengaraj Venkatesh, Ryan W. Buell and Kamalini Ramdas
    • July 2023
    • Faculty Research

    'Bugs' Burger Bug Killers

    By: Ryan W. Buell and William Fulmer
    • December 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Canlis: Turning Toward

    By: Ryan W. Buell and Jorian Hoover
More from the Authors
  • Evidence from the First Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) Randomised Controlled Trial in India: SMAs Increase the Satisfaction, Knowledge, and Medication Compliance of Patients with Glaucoma By: Nazlı Sönmez, Kavitha Srinivasan, Rengaraj Venkatesh, Ryan W. Buell and Kamalini Ramdas
  • 'Bugs' Burger Bug Killers By: Ryan W. Buell and William Fulmer
  • Canlis: Turning Toward By: Ryan W. Buell and Jorian Hoover
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College