Houston, we have a problem!: The use of ChatGPT in responding to customer complaints

Abstract

This study aims to explore the use of ChatGPT-4 in generating management responses to customer reviews or complaints posted on Tripadvisor. Customer reviews and management responses are viewed as information sources for holidaymakers when they are making their decisions. A negative customer review about a hotel accommodation experience from TripAdvisor together with the response made by hotel management to this review, and the ChatGPT-4 generated management response to the same customer review were evaluated by 40 industry experts based on six dimensions of a service recovery model and three dimensions of justice that are frequently used by researchers. The findings suggest several practical implications mainly that the ChatGPT-4 generated management response satisfies the requirements of an efficient and effective management response. The quality of ChatGPT-4 generated management responses tends to be extremely high and they may be generated within seconds and with little effort. In addition to the several above practical implications, as ChatGPT-4 can measure the severity of service failures based on customer complaints the study has important implications for service failures and recovery literature. © 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.