Customer-salesperson interaction technologies: Are robo-advisors replacing personal selling?
(A2019-8807)

AUTHORS

Frederike Meyer, Sparkasse Harburg Buxtehude; Goetz Greve, HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration

KEYWORDS

Salesperson; Technology; Robo-Advisor

ABSTRACT

With the development of digital sales tools, e.g. robo-advisors, and its adoption by consumers, sales management is changing rapidly. This development may lead into disintermediation of salespeople as technologies emancipate consumers to inform themselves about offerings. Consequently, consumers may not view the buying process necessarily driven by humans. Whereas research has already surveyed the perspective of salesperson technology adoption, little is known about the consumer perspective when it comes to customer-salesperson interaction technologies. Thus, our main contribution is to compare different levels of customer-salesperson interaction technologies and its impact on behavioral constructs. Using experiments, we contribute to the literature by investigating how different forms of customer- salesperson interaction technologies impact customer perception. Second, we contribute to the growing robo-advisory literature by demonstrating how robo-advisory is perceived by customers.