Problem Solving by the Service

What it measures

This three-item scale measures how much a customer believes a particular service answered their question and solved their problem. Castelo et al. (2023), who called the construct communication effectiveness, used it in Study 4A with 597 U.S. Prolific participants, in research on consumer reactions to service bots. No source was given, and the items appear to have been written by the authors.

Response format

7-point Likert (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree)

Scale items

• My question was sufficiently answered.
• My problem was appropriately solved.
• I got the help I needed.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alpha was .94 in Study 4A (Castelo et al. 2023, p. 857); validity was not discussed. Directions: 'Please evaluate the effectiveness of the service you've used.' The original study evaluated a chatbot, but the wording would work equally well for other technologies or for human service staff. See also Perspective-Taking of the Agent (ID 90476).

Citation

Castelo, Noah, Johannes Boegershausen, Christian Hildebrand, and Alexander P. Henkel (2023), "Understanding and Improving Consumer Reactions to Service Bots," Journal of Consumer Research, 50 (4), 848-863.

Keywords

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