Does 'Smile' Matter in e-Retailing? The Role of Emoticons in Shaping Customer Service Evaluations

摘要

In e-retailing, computer-mediated communication has replaced face-to-face conversation between salesperson and customer. One problem along with this replacement is the loss of facial cues, such as a smile. To rectify this problem and express their friendliness in an e-retailing environment, salespeople usually put an emoticon that looks like a smiley face (e.g., "J"), or type an onomatopoeia that sounds like a smiling voice (e.g., "haha") throughout their communication with customers. Although smiles have been proved to work very well within the traditional retailing context, whether a similar conclusion can be derived in the new context of online retailing is yet to be fully examined. Indeed, there may be some differences between the effect of online and offline smiles because the emotion contagion process, the degree of social presence and many other factors appear to differ considerably in these two contexts. These differences may, in turn, prompt customers to exhibit different responses toward the use of smiles. Against this backdrop, we intend to address two research questions related to the impact of online smiles: Whether online smiles (emoticon and onomatopoeia) matter in an e-retailing context? Would online smiles always improve customer service evaluation?