HONG KONG, Feb 20 (Bernama) — With their skyrocketing popularity, it is inevitable that emoticons now find themselves spreading into the commercial domain, but are emoticons in commercial relationships welcomed by consumers? In a new research paper, Dr. Shirley Xueni Li and Prof. Kimmy Wa Chan of Hong Kong Baptist University School of Business investigate how emoticons in commercial service discussions shape customer perceptions of businesses.
Service providers who use emoticons are perceived as warmer, but less competent
The study found that emoticon usage by a customer service employee had conflicting effects. According to participants polled, customer service employees who used emoticons appeared warmer, but also less competent than those who eschewed using emoticons. This outlook held true regardless of whether or not a customer service employee used emoticons that were pictorial or text-based (e.g. 🙂 ), showing that the power of emoticons is not purely driven by eye-catching graphics and colors.