Quality of Life and the Digital Service Landscape: The Moderating Role of Customer Complaining Effort.

The last decade, and more specifically the COVID-19 pandemic, has created a favorable environment for digitalization, which has become a necessary condition in the context of how everyday life is conducted. Even if digital communication and services have become a trend and help brand-customer relationships, brands still have more gaps to close. The purpose of this study was to investigate how consumers' behaviors and digital interactions impact their shopping well-being and quality of life, and how the level of customer complaining effort affects the relationship between digital behavior and quality of life. This research provides practical implications for companies and marketers that offer digital services and technologies, helping them design and deliver more effective and customer-centric digital experiences. Additionally, it contributes to the growing interest in how digital services and technologies can improve consumer experiences and quality of life. This study surveyed 331 respondents in Romania. Results show that digital behavior influences consumers' shopping well-being and comes with insights that strengthen the importance of reducing consumers' cognitive and procedural effort in order to increase their quality of life. The paper discusses the implications for brands that must design easy experiences to gain more loyal customers, the study's implications and novelty for the warranty area.

An Efficient System for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: A Pilot Study.

In this paper, we describe an actuator-based EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) virtual assistant system that can be used for the treatment of participants with traumatic memories. EMDR is a psychological therapy designed to treat emotional distress caused by a traumatic event from the past, most frequently in post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. We implemented a system based on video, tactile, and audio actuators which includes an artificial intelligence chatbot, making the system capable of acting autonomously. We tested the system on a sample of 31 participants. Our results showed the efficiency of the EMDR virtual assistant system in reducing anxiety, distress, and negative cognitions and emotions associated with the traumatic memory. There are no such systems reported in the existing literature. Through the present research, we fill this gap by describing a system that can be used by patients with traumatic memories.