管理评论

管理评论 ›› 2023, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (11): 166-178.

• 电子商务与信息管理 • 上一篇    下一篇

人工还是智能?AI时代电商在线客服策略选择

张鹏1, 马俊2, 董绍增3, 孙凯4   

  1. 1. 上海对外经贸大学工商管理学院, 上海 201620;
    2. 对外经济贸易大学国际商学院, 北京 100029;
    3. 江苏海洋大学商学院, 连云港 222005;
    4. 淄博市特种设备检验研究院, 淄博 255088
  • 收稿日期:2022-03-22 出版日期:2023-11-28 发布日期:2023-12-27
  • 通讯作者: 马俊(通讯作者),对外经济贸易大学国际商学院教授,博士生导师,博士。
  • 作者简介:张鹏,上海对外经贸大学工商管理学院讲师,硕士生导师,博士;董绍增,江苏海洋大学商学院讲师,硕士生导师,博士;孙凯,淄博市特种设备检验研究院高级工程师,硕士。
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金项目（72071047）；对外经济贸易大学中央高校基本科研业务专项资金资助项目（19YB03）；江苏省社会科学基金项目（21GLD003）。

Service Agents or E-robots?——A Study on the Online Customer Service Strategy Selection for the E-retailer in the AI Era

Zhang Peng1, Ma Jun2, Dong Shaozeng3, Sun Kai4   

  1. 1. School of Management, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Shanghai 201620;
    2. Business School, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029;
    3. School of Business, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005;
    4. Zibo Special Equipment Inspection Institute, Zibo 255088
  • Received:2022-03-22 Online:2023-11-28 Published:2023-12-27

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摘要： 人工智能已被网络零售商应用到在线客服系统中，并受到越来越多的关注。本文从消费者异质购物意愿出发，探讨网络零售商在在线客户服务中引入智能技术是否为其带来更多收益，研究网络零售商的在线客服模式选择问题。根据在线客服承担主体不同得到四类决策情境：不提供在线客服、人工在线客服、智能在线客服以及混合在线客服；针对每类决策情境构建决策模型，分别得到四类情境下的最优产品价格、最优产品需求以及最优产品利润；对比分析得到网络零售商在线客服中引入智能技术的条件。研究表明：（1）在线客服人员服务质量提升并不影响产品定价，但可以增加产品需求，有助于网络零售商利润增长。（2）智能机器人学习能力提升有助于智能在线客服下网络零售商利润提升，但混合在线客服模式下能否通过提升智能机器人学习能力实现利润增长还取决于客服人员的服务质量。（3）当人工客服人员工作贡献率较低或当人工客服工作贡献率高且智能机器人学习能力强时，网络零售商应该由人工在线客服转为智能在线客服。（4）当客服人员服务质量高并且智能机器人学习能力强时，网络零售商应该由人工在线客服转为混合在线客服。

关键词: 网络零售, 在线客服, 智能客服机器人, 人力成本, 麻烦成本

Abstract: Artificial intelligence has been applied to online customer service systems by e-retailers and is receiving increasing attention. This paper studies the strategic choice of online customer service mode for the e-retailer by exploring whether the introduction of intelligent technology in online customer service system brings more benefits to the e-retailer regarding consumers' heterogeneous shopping intention. Four different decision-making scenarios are discussed:no online customer service, with online service agent, with artificial intelligent online customer service, and with hybrid online customer service; decision models are constructed for each scenario, and the optimal product price, optimal product demand, and optimal product profit are obtained for each scenario; then the conditions for introducing intelligent technology in online customer service are analyzed. Some interesting results are obtained. (1) The improvement of online customer service quality does not affect product pricing, but can increase product demand and contribute to the profit growth of the e-retailer. (2) The higher learning capacity of e-robots contributes to the profit increase under AI online customer service. However, under the hybrid online customer service mode, whether profit growth can be achieved by improving the learning ability of e-robots depends not only on the e-robots' learning capacity but also on the service quality of customer service agents. (3) When the wage contribution rate of customer service agents is low, or when both the current wage rate of service agents and the learning capacity of e-robots are high, the e-retailer should switch from online service agent to artificial intelligent online customer service. (4) The e-retailer should switch from online service agent to hybrid online customer service when both the service quality of customer service agents and the learning capacity of e-robots are high.

Key words: online retail, online customer service, artificial intelligent customer service, human resource cost, hassle cost