Two-Sided Impacts of Service Provider’s Identity Disclosure in e-Customer Service Platforms: Evidence from Two Field Experiments
Abstract
Digital advancements have revolutionized customer service by enabling customers to easily express dissatisfaction and request resolutions through online platforms. Customer complaint management platforms are especially unique in facilitating providercustomer interactions, but researchers overlook implications from service provider anonymity. In this article, two randomized field experiments are conducted to examine a customer complaint management platform to identify how disclosure of service provider identity affects service performance, customer satisfaction, and biases in customers. Study 1, a large-scale randomized field experiment involving 75,041 customers and 1,280 service providers across 672 companies, finds that identity disclosure improves provider performance. This improvement is achieved by removing the provider’s dissociative anonymity, mitigating deindividuation, instilling self-awareness, and motivating personal responsibility. This effect is stronger for inexperienced service providers who work with many colleagues and have more discretion in handling complaints. Customers who receive identity details about providers benefit from better service and perceive higher satisfaction with complaint resolution. Study 2, a field experiment involving 2,710 customers, shows that customers report more satisfaction when customers identify that providers belong to the majority ethnic group compared with when they belong to an ethnic minority. Intriguingly, minority customers showed lower satisfaction with same-ethnicity providers, indicating that ethnic cues and identity matching significantly influence customer satisfaction. Four follow-up studies involving 1,211 participants identify the underlying mechanisms that influence customer and provider behaviors. The article concludes with practical implications for firms and platforms dedicated to customer service.
