Chatbot Müşteri Deneyimleri ile Algılarının Y ve Z Kuşağı Temelinde İncelenmesi

In today's world, where the importance of interaction between companies and customers and real-time marketing has increased, the adoption of digital innovative systems supported by artificial intelligence has become essential for the success of brands. With digital channels, companies aim to promote their brands across various platforms. As companies and brands gain greater control over their content, brand awareness, and marketing, this has led to the rise of brands that take marketing processes from intermediaries. To expand their engagement in digital marketing, brands must prioritize relationship-based interactions with customers and users. Artificial intelligence, which forms the foundation of digital marketing and enables customer communication and the storage and use of the resulting data, serves as a bridge between technology and humans. The ever-evolving development of artificial intelligence and the increasing importance of consumers to brands today necessitate adapting to the digital age brought about by artificial intelligence.

Chatbots are among the most adopted innovative systems and play a key role in adapting to this era. Chatbots are dialogue-based computer programs that use messaging interfaces developed with artificial intelligence and can answer consumer questions 24/7 within the framework of personalized marketing. The use of chatbots by businesses and customers has increased recently, and the effects of chatbots on attitudes and intentions have been evaluated in the literature. Still, no qualitative study has been found that comprehensively evaluates the experience, perception, and behavioral dimensions together, especially from the perspective of generational differences. The study has an original value. Thanks to this digital transformation, consumers have become aware of product and service alternatives, and customer experiences and perceptions have become major determinants of purchasing behaviors. This study aims to determine the direction of chatbot experiences and perceptions of Y and Z generation customers. For this purpose, the research universe consists of customers who have previously experienced chatbots. Purposeful sampling, which allows the discovery and explanation of many situations, events, and phenomena, was preferred as a sample. The first section of the study explains the concepts of customer experience and perception. The final section analyzes the chatbot customer perceptions of Generation Z, who grew up surrounded by technology, and Generation Y, who are trying to keep up with new technology using traditional communication channels.

 In purposeful sampling, the researcher selects people from the universe who they think are knowledgeable about the subject in line with their purpose. Typical case sampling was used as one of the purposeful sample types. In typical case sampling, the researcher tries to determine one or more of the most typical situations where a new application or innovation is introduced. The study aimed to benefit from the experiences and opinions of people who have used chatbot applications before and are knowledgeable about this application. In this context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample group of 14 people from Generation Z born between 1997 and 2012 and Generation Y born between 1981 and 1996, accepted by the Pew Research Center. The interviewers were limited to 14 people in the study because in in-depth interviews, the answers started to repeat each other in line with the general principle of sample selection, and the interviews had to be terminated when sufficient data sources were reached. In this study, which was designed as a phenomenological design from qualitative research designs, categories were obtained using the descriptive analysis method. According to the results obtained, while Generation Y perceives user data storage by chatbots as a threat, Generation Z does not perceive any threat to chatbots. While Generation Z finds the answers given by chatbots satisfactory, the majority of Generation Y does not find the answers given by chatbots satisfactory. The most significant difference between the two generations is that Generation Z is more aware of the qualities of chatbots in Turkey and trusts bots than Generation Y. The experiential differences between these two generations will show how brands should determine their chatbot strategies. In particular, considering two generations' unique values, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors from different perspectives is expected to shed light on how companies should design chatbots and lead to research in this area.