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Emotion in Service … �New (Data, Tools, Research, Operations) Opportunities

Prof. Anat Rafaeli

© Anat Rafaeli Slides and papers available on website

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Logic:

Employee Emotions

Promote Sales and Satisfaction;

Emotions are

Cheap and Effortless;

Emotion Labor Rules!

Sutton & Rafaeli (1985; 1987) Academy of Management Journal

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�Lots of Emotions in Organizations … �(and Lots of Technology!)�

Technology Partners offer Opportunities

Rafaeli & Altman (2016), Journal of Service Research

Rafaeli, Ashtar & Altman (2019)  Current Directions in Psych Science.

Employee Emotional Labor

Customer Emotions

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  • Heavy Reliance on Self-Report (Biases?)
  • Nice Lab Findings (External Validity?)

?? Contextual Factors ???

?? Operational Implications ???

Available Research on Emotion in Service

New Platforms:

Great Data, Research and Operations Opportunities!

Rafaeli, Yom Tov, Ashtar & Altman (2020).  Emotions and Service in the Digital Age

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Customers

Digital Service Platforms

Data Archives

Technology Mediated Interactions

Rafaeli et al (2019) Current Directions in Psychological Science

Data Analysis Tools

Rafaeli & Altman (2016), Journal of Service Research

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Data Unpacks Service: �Hospital Emergency Department

Westphal et al (2020) JMIR Formative Research.

Process Mining: Identifying INDIVIDUAL Patient Journeys

Queue Mining: Identifying SERVICE FLOW

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Unpacking Airline Service Chats

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Real Customers;

Real Agents;

Real Service Conversations

Multiple Industries

N=149,995 Conversations

3.2016 - 4.2017

SYSTEM: Welcome to AIRLINE. How may I help you?

Customer (13:37:46):

Hi. I have a ticket to XX and need to change it.

Agent (13:41:33):

What is the ticket order number?.

Customer (13:41:46):

I have been waiting for you for 20 mins!! Its zx05492vh

Agent (13:42:00):

You can change it but there is a change fee.

Customer (13:42:17):

Come on.

Customer (13:42:29):

Don't pass the bill.

Customer (13:42:46):

I wasn’t told there would be a change fee??

Customer (13:43:05):

This is really misleading.

Agent (13:43:22):

I apologize for the inconvenience.

Customer (13:43:33):

Can you help me?

Customer (13:43:43):

Can I talk to your supervisor?

Yom-Tov et al (2018) Proceedings of WWW Conference

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Digital Data: �Detailed Tracking

4

  • Employee behavior (load, multi-tasking, number of words, expressed emotion)
  • Employee time (response time, breaks)
  • Customer behavior (requests, expressed emotion, number of words, response time)
  • Context (queue length, workload)

Yom-Tov et al (2018) Proceedings of WWW Conference

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Digital Tools: �Expressed Emotion

4

Sentiment Analysis�

  • Dictionary of “emotion” in words (e.g., LIWC);
  • Additional Analyses:
      • Amplifiers (Very), Negation (Not);
      • Emoticons and CAPS;
      • Recency effects;
      • Time effects;

Negative

Positive

Precision

0.72

0.87

Recall

0.24

0.57

Yom-Tov et al (2018) Proceedings of WWW Conference

CustSent

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Tools for Emotion Analyses

Herzing et al )2016( UMAP

Predicting Customer Satisfaction Using Affective Features

  • Stanford;
  • SentiStrength;
  • NLTK

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How Much Emotion do Customers Express?

10,035,328 Messages

% Conversations

% Messages

677,936 Conversations

October - December 2016

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Customer Emotion Rollercoaster for Agents

8 Hour Shift

Rafaeli & Sutton (1991) Academy of Management Journal

Emotional Load

Rafaeli et al (2020) Emotions and service in the digital age

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Emotion Evolution During Conversations

No emotion

Negative

Positive

677,936 Conversations.

October - December 2016.

10,035,328 Messages.

Rafaeli et al (2020) Emotions and service in the digital age

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Emotion Evolution and Customer Satisfaction

Ashtar, Yom-Tov, Rafaeli (2022 Under Review) Journal of Service Research

Conversations with lowest satisfaction

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Social Interaction: Customer Emotion 🡺 Agent Performance

Emotional Labor: Agent Performance 🡺 Customer Emotion

Customer Emotion

Control, Context Variables

Agent Response Time

Altman, Yom-Tov, Olivares, Ashtar, Rafaeli (2021).  Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

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Experimental Research

Angry – Rude Customer

Polite Customer

It’s a nightmare to reach you! Your service is horrible. Update my home number to 03-7526654. George Ashley

Please update my home number. New number is 03-7526654. Thank you very much, George Ashley.

I am sick and tired of your lousy service. Move me to the weekend deal. Password is "Friends". Josh.

Hi I want you to move me to the weekend deal. My password is "Friends". Thank you, Josh.

Rafaeli et al. (2012)  Journal of Applied Psychology.

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Cumulative Effects on Agent Performance

Rafaeli et al. (2012), Journal of Applied Psychology

The Challenge of Experiments!

4 conditions;

120 “employees”;

No real customers

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Rafaeli et al. (2012), Journal of Applied Psychology

Habituation Challenges?

The Challenge of Reviewers!

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Digital Data:�“Degree of Emotional Load

Sentiment Analyses: �Emotion in Conversation 🡺 (Real) Agent Response Time

Air Travel

208,210 conversations

1,447,070 customer lines

Altman et al (2021).  Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.

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Agent Emotional Intelligence?

Variation in Agent RT in High Intensity Customer Emotion

Rafaeli & ???? To Be Done ☺

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Ashtar, Yom‐Tov, Akiva & Rafaeli (2021) Journal of Organizational Behavior

Emotional Labor or Social Interaction Effects?

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Ashtar et al (2021) Journal of Organizational Behavior

Influences on Employee Emotion Displays?

Social Interaction

Emotional Labor

Organization Policy

Employee Emotion

Customer Emotion

Employee Emotion

Customer Emotion and Behavior

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Influences on Employee Emotion?

Social Influence

Emotional Labor

Ashtar et al (2021) Journal of Organizational Behavior

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Message Level Analysis:�Interdependence of Emp’s and Cust's

Analyses at Interaction Level!

Ashtar et al (2021) Journal of Organizational Behavior

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Influences on Employee Emotion?

Inter-dependence

Emotional Labor

Ashtar et al (2021) Journal of Organizational Behavior

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Organic Data … REAL People…

  • Archived in digital technology;
  • Analyzed at higher resolutions;
  • Customer influences on employees;
  • Emotional Load Concept;
  • Still a long way to go …
    • Agent Emotional Intelligence
    • Employee micro breaks?
    • Responding to angry customers?

Emotion is NOT Effortless (Takes time and effort)!

Social influence overrides organizational policy

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Thank You

Galit

Yom-Tov

Shelly Ashtar

Daniel Altman

© Anat Rafaeli Slides and papers available on website

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Not interested in Service?

Studying Organizational Behavior through Slack Communication

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Topic of Messages

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Communication Behavior

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Expressed Emotion

Analyses of User in Day Means