Effects of “emotional text” on Online Customer Service Chat

With the increasing popularity of online shopping, interests in online customer service chat used on e-commerce websites has grown significantly. As one type of computer-mediated communication (CMC), online customer service chat is mainly text-based communication. While CMC may not allow us to hone in on a facial expression or hand gesture, there are subtle cues to perception of character traits embedded within our text communications. This study examined the effects of “emotional text” (defined as use of emoticons, capitalization, exclamation points, and “lol”) on perceptions of service agents’ socialibility and reliability. Results demonstrated that emotional text does have an impact on customers’ perceptions of service agents and generally in a positive direction. Service agents who use emotional text during an online service encounter were perceived to be more social. However, customers’ did not report any differences in terms of perception of reliability. Further, emotional response was demonstrated to be a significant mediator that impacts the relationship between emotional text and perception of character traits