Excerpt
Table of Content
List of Figures IV
1 Introduction
1.1 Status Quo and Motivation
1.2 Research Questions and Goals
1.3 Structure
2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 Marketing Communications
2.2 Customer Relationship Management
2.3 Chatbots
3 Chatbots in E-Commerce
3.1 Implementation throughout the Customer Journey
3.2 Opportunities
4 Practical Use Case Analysis and Implementation
4.1 Collection and Selection of Use Cases
4.2 Requirements
4.3 Implementation
4.4 Evaluation
5 Conclusion
Works Cited
List of Figures
Figure 1: Lego’s Facebook Messenger Chatbot
Figure 2: Argomall’s Facebook Messenger Chatbot
Figure 3: 1-800-Flowers.com Facebook Messenger Chatbot
Figure 4: Otto.de Onlineshop Chatbot “Clara”
Figure 5: Trends in usage behavior – Fittkau & Maass Consulting
Figure 6: FlowXO ‘New Message’
Figure 7: FlowXO ‘Ask a Question’
Figure 8: FlowXO ‘Send a Message’
Figure 9: FlowXO ‘Filter’
Figure 10: FlowXO ‘Test Console’
1 Introduction
This chapter describes the current status quo of the field and the scope of this study. The underlying research questions are used to define the objectives of the study, followed by a discussion of the structure of the thesis.
1.1 Status Quo and Motivation
Customer service within the mail order sector has changed greatly in recent years. E-commerce has developed along with the expansion of the Internet. The increasing digitalization of society, the impact this has had on everyday life and the growing demands and needs of customers pose a new challenge to the economy and especially to e-commerce companies. The important role of digitalization in the form of, for example, constant and real-time connectivity with the Internet as well as the progressive networking of various devices and everyday objects have a major impact on customers’ behaviour and expectations. To meet customer demands, companies have established further contact channels so that a comprehensive range of services can be ensured. In addition to competing over who has the best product, companies now compete over who has the best service to differentiate themselves. As such, service is becoming an increasingly important success factor for companies. Companies aim to reduce the cost of customer service without reducing its quality. For this reason, robots will probably take over some tasks in everyday life as well as in professional life in the future. These robots will be able to interact and communicate with people. Through the World Wide Web, people have the opportunity to submit their searches anytime and anywhere. The visitor wants to find the desired information as directly and quickly as possible. Customers expect a comprehensive range of services on many different communication channels and want to self-determine which channel they use for their request. At this point of time, the use of chatbots is optimal to open another contact for customers.[1] The chatbots can assume the function of a human and provide the visitor with competent assistance in finding information.[2]
1.2 Research Questions and Goals
As mentioned above, chatbots can be used in online marketing and customer service. Rather than picking up the phone or sending an e-mail, customers’ questions about a product or service can be answered at any time by using chatbots. In the future, people will increasingly come into contact with chatbots, which will result in a change in dialogue and service between the company and its customers. Studying the literature on the topics shows that little is known about how and where chatbots can be used in e-commerce and what benefits they bring. The present work focuses mainly on the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) area, which aims at long-term customer loyalty and satisfaction. Due to artificial intelligence being such a broad subject area, only written interaction between humans and chatbots is discussed. Physical robots or other artificial intelligence are not considered here, nor are the detailed technical functions and structure of a chatbot or its programming explained.[3]
The goal of this thesis is to determine and evaluate the use of chatbots in customer service and online marketing by asking the following questions:
- Where can chatbots be used in customer management and online marketing?
- How does using chatbots in customer service and marketing affect a specific customer journey?
- What are the benefits of using chatbots for both customers and the company?
- What methods and requirements should be considered when using chatbots?
1.3 Structure
A brief overview of the topic is followed by a discussion of the theoretical framework in chapter 2. This section includes an introduction to marketing management in general and a classification into direct marketing, online marketing and social media marketing. Customer relationship management is introduced and the customer experience and customer journey are explained. Furthermore, the definition of chatbots is discussed in detail. Finally, the conceptual architecture is discussed and conversational interfaces are shown. In chapter 3, chatbots are analyzed and explained theoretically, based on their use in e-commerce throughout the customer journey. After this, the opportunities and benefits of chatbots from the corporate and customer perspective are discussed. Next, chapter 4 demonstrates and analyses different use cases. In addition to analytical methods, the requirements for implementing a chatbot are investigated. The chapter also explains possible approaches to the collection and selection of use cases. This is followed by introducing the systematization used to capture requirements, select systems and implement chatbots. Key metrics for the evaluation of chatbots are also described. Chapter 5 evaluates the results, and the thesis concludes with a look forward to identify interesting future research questions and provide an assessment of the use of chatbots.
2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 Marketing Communications
Marketing communications is an area of operative measures that is a part of the classic marketing mix. The term ‘marketing mix’ is based on McCarthy’s classic four P’s (product, price, place, and promotion) and describes the combination of marketing communication measures used by a company.[4] Further areas of operative marketing measures are product policy, contracting policy and distribution policy.
Marketing instruments are used for market cultivation.[5] Various instruments are available within marketing communications: communication instruments are typically divided into the sub-areas of advertising, sales promotion, public relations and personal sales.[6] In addition, there are modern instruments which generally include direct marketing, sponsoring, event marketing, product placement and online marketing.[7] Social media marketing can also be included under online marketing.[8]
All marketing communication measures aim to ensure that relevant market participants are sufficiently aware of the range of services on offer, develop an interest in them, feel addressed rationally and emotionally, and buy the product or service. Marketing communications thus has the task of informing potential consumers, influencing them in a targeted manner and overcoming sales resistance.[9] This involves strategic planning of the design, implementation, allocation and control of communication measures. In marketing communications, it is not the factual level that is decisive, but the target person’s perception of it, i.e., an emotional meta-level that superimposes the rational, factual level.[10]
Marketing communications can be used to create unique selling propositions. In saturated, strongly segmented markets that are occupied by many suppliers with substitutable products, product-related, unique features that are relevant for the target group are hardly to be found.[11] These kinds of Unique Selling Propositions (USP) are increasingly being replaced by a unique position oriented towards marketing communications, which is referred to as the Unique Communication Proposition (UCP). The UCP concentrates on a unique positioning generated by an advertising service. A substitutable product can be combined with an unmistakable experience profile in the perception of the target group by means of marketing communication instruments. The prerequisite is that the experience profile is relevant for the target group, valid in the long term and not already occupied by competition.[12]
In sum, marketing communications comprises the design of information regarding a company and its products, addressed to a market with the aim of serving the expectations, attitudes and demand of current and potential customers.[13]
Regular exposure to a brand increases the probability that it will be taken into account when making a purchase decision. This requires a clear positioning of the brand, which in turn can be achieved through a clearly focused communications strategy.[14]
2.1.1 Direct Marketing
‘Dialogue marketing’ is often used synonymously with the term ‘direct marketing’. The conceptual definitions are very broad, and therefore a definition of the term and a short summary seem necessary.
Holland has defined dialogue marketing as the establishment of interactive communication with the target person. A company’s message is oriented to elicit a reaction. This reaction is recorded, stored and evaluated for the following message. A dialogue takes place.[15] Andreas Mann has conceptualized a special, interaction-related form of customer orientation and referred to three essential characteristics:[16] - Interaction: A mutual exchange of information within a two-way communication link, whereby each participant can assume the role of communicator as well as the role of communicant. - Orientation towards understanding and understanding: A communication without prejudice, in which the dialogue initiator takes the interests of the dialogue participants into account and a mutual reconciliation of interests is strived for. - Pursuit of special (marketing) goals: These are set so that the dialogue with various stakeholder groups delivers a corporate policy benefit for a company.
Direct marketing means the use of consumer-direct channels to reach and deliver goods and services to customers without middlemen. Today, many direct marketers use direct marketing to build a long-term relationship with the customer.[17] Bruhn has described direct marketing as a summary of all communication measures aiming to establish direct contact with the addressee and initiating a direct dialogue through a targeted individual approach or aiming to lay the foundation for a dialogue at a second level through an indirect approach in order to achieve the company’s communications goals.[18] Dialogue marketing has been seen as a further development of traditional direct marketing or as modern direct marketing.[19]
In principle, dialogue marketing is aligned to a genuine dialogue and stresses the reciprocity of the relationship between customers and enterprises more strongly.[20] In contrast, direct marketing leads to only illusory dialogues. More and more companies are incorporating direct marketing into their marketing concepts. The purpose of using direct marketing activities is, among other things, to have direct communications with the customer. The enterprise tries to seize the needs of the customer and to deal with them accordingly.[21] Thanks to an individual dialogue with the target customer, the marketer achieves cost savings due to small losses as well as a higher efficiency of its marketing actions.[22] Consumers can be addressed with the help of direct marketing at the correct time, and direct advertising measures also accomplish a higher reading rate due to having an interested target group.[23] The Internet strengthens this effect further and this results in benefits for enterprises in the long run.
2.1.2 Online Marketing
Online marketing is a special type of direct marketing, i.e., a type of interactive alignment of marketing instruments through the use of networked information systems such as the Internet.[24] The Internet and online services have opened up new communication channels for marketing. The advantages of online marketing for the customer are uncomplicated communication, the possibility of simple information comparison and the relative unobtrusiveness of the medium. The marketer benefits from online marketing because it is possible to make short-term market and price adjustments, establish customer relationships via the Internet and monitor the success of the online offerings. An online presence can occur in the form of an online office, online advertising, e-mail or through open communication groups.[25] Online marketing thus offers a variety of opportunities for dialogue. In addition, products and services can be ordered online (e.g., from online shops) and further information can be requested by e-mail.
A close look at all online marketing channels reveals two basic strategies. On the one hand, advertising measures can be related to brand marketing.[26] In this case, an attempt is made to increase awareness of a brand, a company or a certain product with the help of broad distribution of advertising media as well as with a widespread acceptance of high costs and wastage. On the other hand, so-called performance marketing uses advertising measures specifically to trigger a measurable reaction from the advertising message’s recipients, who are defined as the target of the advertising campaign. The success of these advertising measures is measured after the end of the campaign or, increasingly, in real time, using defined key performance indicators; thus, this approach creates a space for permanent optimization possibilities.[27]
2.1.3 Social Media Marketing
‘Social media’ means the exchange of information, experiences and perspectives through community websites. Examples of social media are blogs, Internet forums, message boards, image and video portals, user-generated websites, wikis and podcasts.[28] The social web is the part of the Internet that deals with social structures and interactions but not with technical backgrounds and program architectures.[29]
Social media marketing comprises strategies and measures to successfully position companies on the social web. It is about making the social (the community) usable through its media (communication and tools) to market something to an audience.[30] When people go online, they spend most of their time on activities on social media. This fact also makes it possible for companies to become active on the Social Web, where they can show their presence to potential customers and exchange ideas with them.
If social media is to be used for marketing purposes, the goal must always be to address potentially attractive customers. Given the wealth of possibilities offered by the German social media landscape, it can be challenging to select a channel on which to create a profile.[31] Social networks offer users the opportunity to connect and exchange information with other participants. These can be acquaintances from the offline world or users with similar interests, views and hobbies. The networks are based on profiles which can be individually adapted and linked to other profiles.[32] Well-known social networks include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Xing and Snapchat. Companies can also use social networks. On many networks, there are separate pages for commercial members where companies can share news about the company or other information. Interested parties and customers can react to the publications, for example by classifying them as interesting or commenting directly on them.[33] Social networks are frequently used for marketing purposes for a reason: social networks – especially Facebook – achieve a very high rate of reach on the Internet. The information that users reveal about themselves on their profiles can be used relatively easily to gain insights into the relevant target group and its social environment.[34] New targets with relevant interests are easy to locate and contact. By having a personal and credible presence on social networks, companies have the opportunity to gain or strengthen the trust of users. In this way, companies can tap new target groups and markets that are difficult or impossible to reach by conventional means.[35] Such a presence on the Internet can have a negative effect if it contradicts the rules of social interaction, for example if positive user comments are falsified by the company. Even a presence that is not maintained or whose contents are strongly influenced by advertising lead to negative reactions on the user side and can cause a loss of reputation.[36]
Connecting social networks to online shops is equally feasible as the integration of Facebook plug-ins into the providers’ own shop; however, this type of distribution (called social commerce) has played a subordinate role so far.
2.2 Customer Relationship Management
The perception of customer needs and the corresponding reaction to them form the basis of the economic success of companies. This observation is based on the realization that long-term customer relationships have a considerable influence on the realization of corporate goals. In recent years, two developments have had a significant influence on the process of customer relationship management (CRM).
The first development is the transition from transaction marketing to relationship marketing, which meant the end of a focus on individual transactions and propagated a broader view of the customer relationship.[37] Secondly, the shift from an industrial society to an information society or knowledge management enabled rapid development especially in the field of information technology, and as a result applications and process changes produced more diverse and effective marketing measures.[38] An increased intensity of competition and technological change are major reasons for this development.[39] In a scholarly context, it has been established that a focus on individual transactions and the use of classical marketing instruments no longer constitute the most efficient form of a transaction. Accordingly, the consideration and evaluation of business relationships has become more comprehensive and inclusive of all of their facets.[40] Homburg and Bruhn have defined customer relationship management as the systematic analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring of all measures aimed at the current customer base with the aim of ensuring that these customers maintain or intensify their business relationship in the future.[41]
A basic assumption of customer relationship management is basically to maximize customer orientation.[42] The aim is to build and strengthen sustainable relationships with profitable customers in order to bind loyal customers to the company in the long term. In contrast to transaction marketing, the short-term pursuit of profit is not the focus of entrepreneurial activity. The focus is on tapping the entire volume of customer value that can be realized over the entire customer lifecycle.[43]
2.2.1 Customer Experience
in scholarly language, customer experience refers to a business process that uses strategic management to define all customer experiences with a company, brand or product at all customer contact points. The goal of this approach is to build strong customer relationships through active experience management and thus create a significant competitive advantage for the company.[44] Customer experience has an effect on emotional consumer behaviour and is intended to provide positive experiences for customers. The successful management of these customer experiences is facilitated by the use of customer experience principles.[45] In most cases, these named experiences take place at various customer contact points. Through the use of designed experiences, customer experience should exceed the expectations of customers and companies in a cross-channel dialogue.[46] According to customer experience principles, these unexpected but positive experiences increase the chances of retaining customers in the long term and thus creating a more profitable customer relationship. The increased customer loyalty enables a higher level of customer satisfaction and leads to a further increase in customer profitability.[47]
While the traditional marketing approach focused on products and short-term profit maximization through planning and control, marketing culture has undergone a fundamental change with the increasing use of customer relationship management.[48] The acquisition of new customers has become increasingly less important, while long-term customer loyalty and customer satisfaction have gained in relevance greatly against the backdrop of sustainable relationship marketing.[49]
Customer experience management (CEM) can be distinguished from customer relationship management to the extent that, thanks to customer-centricity, it is an outside-in approach in which the focus is on interaction and experience orientation and qualitative data is added to the quantitative data obtained from the CRM to provide even deeper customer insight.[50] It should be noted that, despite its developing character, CEM cannot replace CRM but can only complement it in a useful way.[51]
Customer experiences can be created through direct and indirect contact points (touchpoints) with the customer. Direct touchpoints are those that can be designed and controlled by a company and include, for example, customer hotlines or websites. Indirect touchpoints, such as word-of-mouth propaganda, are difficult to influence by a company.[52] This makes it all the more important for companies to optimally design direct touchpoints along the customer journey in order to sustainably increase customer satisfaction and thus bind customers to the company in the long term.[53]
2.2.2 Customer Journey
The customer journey structures the experience flow from the customer’s perspective by guiding every step a customer takes to purchase a product or consume a service.[54] The customer journey describes the continuous cycle of the relationship between a company and consumers from a customer perspective.[55] The customer journey consists of experience steps, the contact points at which the customer comes into contact with the respective experience step, and includes a view of the environment, since a customer contact point must always be integrated into the context of the entire customer journey.[56] A customer journey is the sum of customer contact points and thus represents the overall customer experience. The sum of all experiences with a brand, in turn, determines brand image and brand perception.[57] The so-called ecosystem should not be neglected, as it is only through this that the relationships and dependencies between individual experience steps become clear.[58] Connectivity across the entire customer journey requires a system-level solution.[59] In addition to the individual activities a customer experiences with the company, a customer journey view should also record what a customer sees during the experience steps and what happens behind the scenes.[60]
In the course of the ideal-typical customer journey, the selection of possible offers is systematically reduced from initial inspiration to the actual purchase. In reality, however, the decision-making process is more complex since, for example, further offers can be added in the course of the search phase and not all consumers follow a linear experience path.[61] In addition to various entry points into the customer journey, consumers also have various sources of information and channels at their disposal.[62]
A typical customer journey can be divided into the following three phases.
First pre-service phase: Before actually using the service, consumers want to become informed, daydream and fantasize.[63] This first phase is valuable for the consumer in terms of stoking his anticipation.[64] One part of the first phase is awareness. In the beginning, building of awareness is about getting involved with a company’s offer at all and considering it.[65] In this phase, the customer becomes aware of an offer via various media – for example through advertising or public relations, social media activities or narratives by others – and so a need arises. The next step in the first phase is research: various offers are actively compared, tried and evaluated as far as possible.[66] Here, the consumer faces the question of which is the best offer and which offer provides the best comfort and the best price. There is a danger that too much information will result in the options getting confused.[67] During the search phase it is important to provide orientation and help. In this phase, companies should convince the consumer with convincing products, attractive sales channels with simple and fast search processes and the mediation of security and trust.[68]
Second service phase: Actual interactions within the framework of use take place during the service phase.[69] The actual purchase occurs with the final decision regarding an offer.[70] Here, the consumer enters a personal or digital sales channel and asks himself the final question as to whether he needs and should buy the product. During this phase, it is essential that the (digital) salesperson can advise the consumer and dispel any doubts, present multisensual offers and make the service experience as good as possible.[71] From the company’s point of view, the post-purchase phase should be aimed at creating post-purchase dissonance, i.e., subsequent doubts about the decision to eliminate.[72] Immediately after the purchase, it is important that a simple, transparent and fast process can be ensured.[73] The actual experience phase does not begin until after the customer has completed the product use or the service is consumed during the use touchpoint of phase two. Before actual use, preparation or installation steps are sometimes necessary. During use, it is important to maintain the relationship in such a way that further complementary services are offered.
Third post-service phase: After the actual service, the consumer remembers it wistfully or collects souvenirs.[74] In this phase, the customer makes an overall assessment of the service, which in turn influences expectations for future services. From a business perspective, the goal is to create a post-consumer experience that promotes loyalty so that the consumer feels connected to the brand and recommends it to others.[75] During the post-service phase, it is crucial that simple, fast and personalised support is available.[76] During each phase of the customer journey, the customer passes through various contact points, also known as customer interfaces with the brand.[77] The connection between a contact point and the customer journey can be established in such a way that an episode or phase in the customer journey is composed of a sum of contact points and all episodes result in the customer journey or transaction.[78]
2.3 Chatbots
For many people, daily or at least frequent use of the Internet is an indispensable part of their private and professional lives.[79] At many touchpoints during the customer journey, chatbots are supposed to offer the user help and to simplify handling. Even digital natives, who generally find their way around media society 2.0 well, welcome the simplification of processes through bots, because the inhibition threshold for making contact is much lower with a chatbot than with a real person.[80] Whether the bot is artificially intelligent or rule-based does not affect the user, provided that the bot meets the requirements placed on it.[81] Chatbots, which have already become part of our everyday lives, are often found in B2C communications, i.e., in the interactions between companies and their customers. In this case, the bots serve as digital consultants who are available at any time in the form of an avatar for queries, such as frequently asked questions (FAQs), or for better orientation on a website.[82]
The three main current applications of chatbots are extended customer service, e-commerce and information filtering.[83] In addition, they are used for pure entertainment and as text-based personal assistants. In customer service or support, bots can answer routine queries, obtain customer feedback and select escalation points at which the user is directed to a real employee.[84] By analysing a user’s existing preferences and requesting information during a dialogue, the bot can give personalized purchase recommendations as part of e-commerce. In the future, it might also be possible to pay directly online via Facebook chatbots.[85] Based on information about a user, such as location and interests, it is also possible for a bot to present selected news or information.[86]
2.3.1 Definition
Chatbots, also known as ‘chatterbots’, ‘virtual agents’, ‘digital assistants’ and ‘conversational agents’, produce simulated conversations in which the human user and the chatbot communicate via text and voice messages or images.[87] A chatbot is a dialogue system that enters into a dialogue with the user within the framework of human-machine communication.[88] The term ‘chatbot’ consists of two parts: ‘chat’ stands for chatting or talking, and ‘bot’ is an abbreviation for robot. Chatbots are applications within the field of artificial intelligence (AI) that communicate with a chat partner in natural language and not through certain commands such as command lines.[89] The term ‘chatbot’ is defined in various ways in scholarship. According to Dale, the basic concept of chatbots is defined as result-oriented conversation: their aim is to ‘[...] achieve some result by conversing with a machine in a dialogic fashion, using natural language’.[90] Schlicht has similarly defined a chatbot as a ‘service, powered by rules and sometimes artificial intelligence, that you interact with via a chat interface’.[91] The definitions given above differ, but they all refer to the fact that chatbots are driven by AI.
For the purposes of this paper, a chatbot is defined as an intelligent software program that communicates with its user using natural language via text, voice and images. A chatbot can take complete control of an account or profile in a messaging service and react automatically to messages.
2.3.2 Conceptual Architecture
There are two differences in how chatbots are programmed. A rule-based chatbot uses an algorithm in order to provide correct answers to questions from customers by delivering an appropriate answer based on a programmed database. A self-learning chatbot learns to independently provide the right answers through conversations with people. In this case, the chatbot is artificially intelligent.[92]
Conversation with a universal chatbot, in contrast to a topic-specific chatbot, is not limited to a specific subject area.[93] For developers, this means that a chatbot must understand everything from the weather to insurance issues and solve them with confidence.[94] For humans, this gives the impression that the chatbot answers their questions spontaneously.[95] Since this work is is still developing new applications, universal chatbots are not discussed in more detail here.
Based on different user behaviour, rule-based chatbots can be divided into three types. Menu/button-based chatbots are the most basic type of chatbot on the market today.[96] In most cases, these chatbots are glorified decision-tree hierarchies presented to the user in the form of buttons. These chatbots require the user to make several selections to dig deeper towards the ultimate answer. They fall well short in more advanced scenarios in which there are too many variables or too much knowledge at play to reliably predict how users should reach specific answers.[97] It is also worth noting that menu/button-based chatbots are the slowest in terms of getting the user to their desired value.[98] Unlike menu-based chatbots, keyword recognition-based chatbots can observe what users type and respond appropriately – or at least try to. These chatbots utilize customizable keywords and AI to determine how to provide an appropriate response to the user.[99] For example, if a user asked the question ‘What are the shipping costs to Germany?’, the bot would likely use the keywords ‘shipping’, ‘costs’ and ‘Germany’ to best determine which answer to give. These types of chatbots fall short when they have to answer many similar questions. The chatbots will start to slip when there are keyword redundancies between several related questions. Some chatbots are a hybrid between keyword recognition-based and menu/button-based ones. These chatbots provide users with the choice to try to ask their question directly or to use the chatbot’s menu buttons if the keyword recognition functionality is yielding difficult results or the user requires some guidance to find their answer. Contextual chatbots are by far the most advanced of the three types.[100] These chatbots utilize machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to remember conversations with specific users to learn and grow over time. Unlike keyword recognition-based chatbots, contextual chatbots are smart enough to self-improve based on what users are asking for and how they are asking it.[101] For example, a contextual chatbot that allows users to order groceries will store the data from each conversation and learn what the user likes to order. The result is that when a user chats with this chatbot, it will eventually remember their most common order, their delivery address and their payment information and merely ask if they would like to repeat this order.[102] Instead of having to respond to several questions, the user simply has to answer in the affirmative. For a contextual chatbot to be useful, a data-centric focus is imperative.[103] The goal of any chatbot should be to provide an improved user experience in comparison to the status quo. An improvement in user experience often arises from providing particular value. Leveraging conversation context is one of the best ways to shorten a process like this using a chatbot, and this could be improved by natural language processing.[104] Natural language processing (NLP), i.e., the analysis of linguistic data with the aid of calculation methods, plays an important role in interactions with chatbots.[105] By using NLP, questions on a certain topic, consisting of words, phrases and sentences, can be transferred to the computer and answered in a suitable way.[106] Chatbots are thus part of the field of artificial intelligence. Conversations are generated using a stimulus-response approach in which the user’s input is compared with a large number of stored patterns from a knowledge base and a suitable response or action is produced.[107] Since the middle of the 20th century, AI has been regarded as a field of science in its own right.[108] In order to imitate human intelligence, researchers are striving to use algorithms to develop programs that can deliver this kind of performance. The most elementary requirements for a chatbot are responsiveness – a chatbot must respond to input from the user – and autonomy, as a chatbot must be able to process or answer inputs independently.[109]
[...]
[1] www.ey.com, 28.02.2018
[2] news.chrunchbase.com, 28.02.2018
[3] Cf. Damodoran, X. (2011), pp. 44-47
[4] Cf. Runia, P., Wahl, F., Geyer, O., Thewißen, C. (2015), pp. 157-159
[5] Cf. Dahlén, M., Lange, F., & Smith, T. (2010), p. 282
[6] Cf. Runia, P., Wahl, F., Geyer, O., Thewißen, C. (2015), p. 274
[7] Cf. Runia, P., Wahl, F., Geyer, O., Thewißen, C. (2015), pp. 301-328
[8] Cf. Esch, F.-R., Herrmann, A., Sattler, H. (2017), p. 162
[9] Cf. Fill, C. (2001), p. 23
[10] Cf. Kotler, P., Bliemel, F., Keller, K. L. (2017), p. 67
[11] Cf. Blythe, J. (2012), p. 250
[12] Cf. Runia, P., Wahl, F., Geyer, O., Thewißen, C. (2015), pp. 258-260
[13] Cf. Meffert, H., Burmann, C., Kirchgeorg, M. (2015), p. 437.
[14] Cf. Runia, P., Wahl, F., Geyer, O., Thewißen, C. (2015), pp. 262-264
[15] Cf. Holland, H. (2016), pp. 10-12
[16] Cf. Krafft, M. [ed.], & Mann, A. (2007), pp. 3-27
[17] Cf. Kotler, P., Bliemel, F., Keller, K. L. (2017), p. 620
[18] Cf. Bruhn, M. (2016), pp. 229-231
[19] Cf. Dallmer, H. (2002), pp. 8-10
[20] Cf. Stone, B., Jacobs, R. (2001), pp. 11-12
[21] Cf. Chaffey, D. (2001), p. 338.
[22] Cf. Holland, H. (2016), p. 87
[23] Cf. Kotler, P. (2013), p. 547
[24] Cf. Bruhn, M. (2016), p. 413
[25] Cf. Kotler, P., Bliemel, F., Keller, K. L. (2017), p. 1128
[26] Cf. Fill, C., Turnbull, S. (2016), pp. 358-359
[27] Cf. Kamps, I., Schetter, D. (2018), p. 60
[28] Cf. Weinberg, T. (2015), p. 2
[29] Cf. Ebersbach, A., Glaser, M., & Heigl, R.. (2016), p. 33
[30] Cf. Weinberg, T. (2015), p. 16
[31] Cf. Scott, D. M. (2014), p. 311
[32] Cf. Weinberg, T. (2015), p. 169
[33] Cf. Gabriel, R., Röhrs, H. (2017), p. 18
[34] Cf. Ceyp, M., Scupin, J. (2013), p. 179
[35] Cf. Koch, M., Richter, A. (2009), pp. 56-59
[36] Cf. Heymann-Reder, D. (2011), p. 29
[37] Cf. Mengue Nkoa, C. (2006), p. 34
[38] Cf. Wirtz, Bernd W. (2018), p. 6
[39] Cf. Rajola, F. (2003), p. 34
[40] Cf. Bruhn, M., Homburg, C. (2006), p. 7
[41] Cf. Bruhn, M., Homburg, C. (2006), p. 9
[42] Cf. Leußer, W. (2011), p. 19
[43] Cf. Hippner, H. (2011), p. 249
[44] Cf. Schmitt, B., Rogers, D. (2008), pp. 698-704
[45] Cf. Peppers, D., & Rogers, M. (2016), p. 35
[46] Cf. Schmitt, Bernd. (2011), pp. 57-58
[47] Cf. Baran, Roger J., & Galka, Robert J. (2017), p. 86
[48] Cf. Kumar, V., & Reinartz, Werner. (2018), pp. 35-36
[49] Cf. Albach, H. (2002), pp. 22-25
[50] Cf. Herbstritt, K. (2015), pp. 11-12
[51] Cf. Herbstritt, K. (2015), pp. 13-15
[52] Cf. Meffert, H., Burmann, C., Kirchgeorg, M. (2012), pp. 208-209
[53] Cf. Yi, Youjae. (2014), p. 63
[54] Cf. Nguyen, P., Pupillo, N. (2012), pp. 318-320
[55] Cf. Buttle, Francis. (2009), pp. 34
[56] Cf. Richardson, A. (2010)
[57] Cf. Dubberly, H., Evenson, S. (2008)
[58] Cf. Manning, H., & Bodine, K. (2012), p.38
[59] Cf. Brugnoli, G. (2009)
[60] Cf. Manning, H., & Bodine, K. (2012), pp. 49-52
[61] Cf. Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S., Vetvik, O. J. (2009)
[62] Cf. Brugnoli, G. (2009)
[63] Cf. MacInnis, D. J., Price, L. L. (1987), pp. 482-483
[64] Cf. Wikström, S. (2008), p. 45
[65] Cf. Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S., Vetvik, O. J. (2009)
[66] Cf. Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S., Vetvik, O. J. (2009)
[67] Cf. Richardson, A. (2010)
[68] Cf. Hauk, J., Schulz, C. (2012), p. 391
[69] Cf. MacInnis, D. J., Price, L. L. (1987), pp. 482-483
[70] Cf. Court, D., Elzinga, D., Mulder, S., Vetvik, O. J. (2009)
[71] Cf. Esch, F.-R., Gawlowski, D., Rühl, V. (2012), p. 21
[72] Cf. Shaw, C., Ivens, J. (2002), p. 23-24
[73] Cf. Hauk, J., Schulz, C. (2012), p. 391
[74] Cf. MacInnis, D. J., Price, L. L. (1987), pp. 482-483
[75] Cf. Dubberly, H., Evenson, S. (2008)
[76] Cf. Hauk, J., Schulz, C. (2012), p. 391
[77] Cf. Schmitt, B. H., Mangold, M. (2004), pp. 127-128
[78] Cf. Dreyer, A., Dehner, C. (2003), p. 94
[79] Cf. Sulaiman, A., Naqshbandi, M. M. (2014), p. 19
[80] Cf. Braun, A. (2003), pp. 208-209
[81] Cf. Saeed, K., Chaki, N., Pati, B., Bakshi, S., Mohapatra, D. (2018) p. 112
[82] Cf. Maes, P. (2018), pp. 28-34
[83] Cf. Buxmann, P., Schmidt, H. (2019), p. 135
[84] Cf. Buxmann, P., Schmidt, H. (2019), p. 143
[85] Cf. Bager, J. (2016), p.112 - 114
[86] www.theguardian.com, 23.11.2018
[87] Cf. McTear, M., Callejas, Z., Griol, D. (2016), p. 57
[88] Cf. Eicher, D. (2016)
[89] Cf. Niegemann, H. M., Domagk, S., Hessel, S., Hein, A., Hupfer, M., Zobel, A. (2008), p. 598
[90] Cf. Dale, R. (2016), p. 811
[91] Cf. Schlicht, M. (2016)
[92] Cf. Vogt, M. (2016)
[93] www. chatbotsmagazine.com, 23.11.2018
[94] www. medium.com, 23.11.2018
[95] Cf. Plassmann, E. (2011), p. 251)
[96] www. forbes.com, 23.11.2018
[97] www.chatbotslife.com, 23.11.2018
[98] www.techcrunch.com, 23.11.2018
[99] Cf. Abraham, A. (2018), p. 398
[100] Cf. Janarthanam, S. (2017), p. 192
[101] www.medium.com, 01.11.2018
[102] www.thenextweb.com, 23.11.2018
[103] Cf. Brézillon, P., Gonzalez, A. J. (2014), p. 151
[104] Cf. Hoffmann, A. (2018), pp. 111-118
[105] Cf. Verspoor K., Cohen K.B. (2013), p. 1494
[106] Cf. Goksel Canbek, N., Mutlu, M. E. (2016), p. 595
[107] Cf. McTear, M., Callejas, Z., Griol, D. (2016), pp. 125-148
[108] Cf. Ertel, W. (2016), p. 6
[109] Cf. www.deloitte.com, 23.11.2018