Exploring Online Help-Seeking Tendencies: The Influence of Experience Type and Helper Identity

Businesses increasingly provide online assistance through help features to enhance user experiences in the digital era. Understanding factors influencing users’ tendencies to seek online help is crucial for optimizing resources and improving support and overall user experience. This paper examines the impact of experience type and helper identity on users’ online help-seeking behavior, drawing from the utilitarian- and hedonic-motivation systems theory. Across three studies—including secondary data analysis, an online experiment, and an observational study of actual user behavior—we found that users are more (vs. less) inclined to seek help when encountering difficulties in utilitarian (vs. hedonic) experiences. This pattern was driven by users’ greater focus on achieving specific outcomes in utilitarian contexts, in contrast to their emphasis on experiential enjoyment in hedonic contexts. Importantly, users showed a stronger preference for seeking assistance from human service staff over service robots when facing challenges in utilitarian experiences. Nevertheless, during hedonic experiences, no notable difference emerged in their inclination to seek help between human staff and service robots. These findings highlight the importance of considering experience type and helper identity when planning online support services, contributing valuable insights to the literature on hedonic versus utilitarian motivation systems, users’ online help-seeking behavior, and user experience.