“So you got the brain but have you got the touch?”: the impact of the social presence of service robot and service innovativeness on customer satisfaction

While robots offer clear benefits in fulfilling functional tasks, service providers remain cautious when using robots in roles that include interaction with customers, as their social benefits may be questionable. This paper examines how the social presence of the robot makes service encounters with service robots satisfactory to customers. Across two online studies and one laboratory study, results show that social presence positively influences customer satisfaction with service encounters. Service innovativeness mediates this relationship, but only for more innovative customers. The results highlight the importance of balancing social presence and anthropomorphism in service robots, as robot anthropomorphism negatively moderates the relationship between social presence and satisfaction. The paper contributes to service robot research by explaining how social presence shapes customer responses and when its benefits vary. Managerially, the findings suggest that providers should implement robots high in social presence while carefully balancing their level of anthropomorphism to maximize their benefits.