Context
More and more organizations are introducing service robots at the front end of the customer journey. At the same time, managers and employees wonder where robots truly add value and where they might create friction. Society is watching closely, concerned about impacts on work, autonomy, and trust. Leiño Calleja focuses on the service triad of customer, employee, and robot, investigating what customers notice when robots deliver service independently or alongside employees.
Question
The central question is how robots contribute to a positive perception of both the service and the people providing it. The researcher explores this through three studies that together offer practical guidelines for designing and managing human–robot teams.
Warmth
The first study shows that customers generally rate frontline employees as more customer-oriented than robots. This is due to higher scores on warmth and competence. The gap narrows when robots communicate relationally and actively participate in the information and negotiation phases of the customer journey. Switching from an employee to a robot midway through the journey negatively affects how robots are perceived and should be avoided in service design.
Teamwork
The second study introduces automated social presence, the degree to which customers perceive a robot as socially present. Higher social presence correlates with better perceptions of team quality and more positive evaluations of the employee. Functional coordination between robot and human in front of the customer can amplify or weaken these effects, depending on frequency and tone. Employees sometimes feel these corrections undermine the positive impact, highlighting the need for clear agreements and careful training.
Clarity and expectation
The third study examines robots as recommendation agents. When robots suggest external alternatives alongside their own products, customers perceive greater customer orientation. This boosts trust, brand value, and repeat purchase intentions. In contexts where human recommendations are the norm, the presence of an employee can slightly temper the positive effect of agnostic recommendations. This shows how role clarity and expectation management shape customer experience.
Complement each other
For society, this means humans and robots can complement each other when social presence, role consistency, and relational style are thoughtfully designed. For organizations, it offers guidance for creating hybrid teams that make technology feel more human. For employees, it clarifies where robots support without diminishing their value.
Information and negotiation
The findings provide direction for service design in retail, hospitality, healthcare, and public services. Robots perform best in information and negotiation phases, maintaining a consistent role throughout the customer journey. Relational communication and transparent recommendations build trust. This creates a dynamic where customers appreciate both human and robot contributions.
David Leiño Calleja defended his thesis on December 17 2025. Title of the thesis: Dancing with Robots Elevating the Customer Service Provision with Frontline Employees and Robots. Supervisors: Jeroen Schepers and Ed Nijssen.
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