PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION (2020) 57(9): 2181-2186 ISSN: 00333077 2181 www.psychologyandeducation.net Role of Chat-bots in Customer Engagement Valence Esther Hepziba R 1 , Dr. Florence John 2 1 Department of Business Administration. 2 Department of Commerce, Madras Christian College. Chennai. ABSTRACT Chat-bot an Artificial Intelligence Software, has brought in a two-way instant communication without much waiting time for Customers when they have a query or when they want to report their grievances or any other problem regarding the product or services. The chat-bots are designed to replicate human behaviour and takes the place of humans in a chat. Firms use chat-bots in various platforms to reach out to their customers especially in e-commerce. It is observed that chat bots are applied in various aspects and in several forms in the field of e-commerce which leverages customer engagement, that can be positive or negative according to its effectiveness and Customer satisfaction. Chat-bots have the capacity to learn continuously and with the help of already stored expressions, they are capable of giving the right answers to the customers and clients. This can be used in an effective manner by marketers to bring about the desired impact on customers and keep them engaged in a favourable mode. The application of chat-bots in various fields have been discussed and the factors leading to positive Customer Engagement while interacting with the chat-bots have been identified from previous research and factors not much researched earlier, such as Resolving Problems, Availability and Humans first have been arrived at. The factors identified can be used for further field research. Keywords Chat-bot, Customer Engagement valence, Interaction with chat-bots, Customer Satisfaction. Article Received: 10 August 2020, Revised: 25 October 2020, Accepted: 18 November 2020 Introduction Chat-bot is a software of artificial Intelligence that has been developed for dialogues in the internet. Particularly in the E- commerce platforms this is used to address the customer complaints, answer customer queries, track products, reporting and collection of information. This is a form of virtual assistance that is done through texting or it can be voice based also. The chat-bots act as human beings and simulate human behaviour while responding to the customers. This is done instantaneously without the customer having to wait on the phone call for a long time. There are two types of Chat-bots one which uses Natural language processing and the other which uses already designed formula, which is more structured conversational sequence that is similar to a decision tree says Fran Conejos (2020) Application of chat-bots finds it place through a spectrum of platforms and types in e-commerce where it facilitates communication between customers and firm Wikipedia (2020). A favourable word of mouth can be spread using Chat-bots say Team Kore.ai (2019) Customer Engagement is augmented through Chat-bots due to its capability of maintaining the flow of conversation, imparting relevant and useful information and retains them for a longer time in a particular platform claims Apurv Verma (2019) Customer Satisfaction is a measure of the happiness of Customers after they experience a service, purchase or usage of a product.(asq.org). This is a very good feedback to the firms and marketers as to how they can further improve their products and services. Only when the Customers are satisfied and happy they would indulge in Positive Engagement. According to Oliver R.L. (1997) unsatisfied Customers cause adverse effect on loyalty, retention and purchase intention. Customer Engagement is the dialogue between the customers and a firm, which transcends into activities like sharing, liking, loyalty, purchase with cognition, emotion and behavioural components. Hollebeek et al (2019) These communications engage the customers in a positive and negative manner. All this solely depends on the satisfaction of customers in the manner in which the communication was made, what kind of impression it had on the customers and customer‟s response to that. Customers interact with the content and the messages which reaches them through Chat- bots and when they are happy about that, that tends to have a positive engagement such as sharing it to others, loyalty, recommending to others, continue purchasing and repeat purchase. Methodology To reveal the role of chat-bots in determining the nature of customer engagement is the objective. The different forms of chat-bots available, the basic functioning and applications have been collated in this study to provide fundamental information. After establishing the fundamentals, the factors that would lead to positive responses have been determined. In order to unearth that, earlier research done, information from blogs, websites of firms and customer reaction and responses to these from already available literature has been discussed in this study. Fig.1 Conceptual Model Fig.1 Conceptual Model