Abstract
Voice technologies are becoming pervasive in consumers’ lives, offering brands a wide range of opportunities to develop deeper, para-social consumer relationships that engender brand loyalty. Much of the growing popularity of voice technologies is due to characteristics that closely mirror human-to-human interactions. By examining how consumers interact with voice technologies, we delineate their core functionalities (searchability, actionability, and sociability) and explain how these functionalities prompt consumers to anthropomorphize the technologies’ mechanisms and outputs. This process can result in the attribution of human traits of warmth and competence to voice technologies, leading to the formation of para-social relationships. By leveraging voice technologies, brands can potentially develop more intimate consumer relationships and enhance brand loyalty.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Handbook of Research on Customer Loyalty |
| Editors | Debbie Keeling, Ko de Ruyter, David Cox |
| Place of Publication | Cheltenham |
| Publisher | Edward Elgar Publishing Limited |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781800371637 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781800371620 |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 22 Apr 2022 |