Peter Pre­vos, 5 May 2011.

Ser­vice with a smile is the most pop­u­lar man­tra in cus­tomer ser­vice. This common-sense wis­dom has also been con­firmed sci­en­tific­ally many times. Genu­inely smil­ing ser­vice staff has been linked to increased cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion and repur­chase inten­tions.^1.

Respond­ing pos­it­ively to smiles is part of our mind’s soft­ware. When we see some­body smile, so called mir­ror neur­ons are activ­ated. These neur­ons form part of the same path­way as the neur­ons that we use when we smile ourselves. This is the sci­entific explan­a­tion of why smiles are so con­ta­gious and why being around happy people makes us feel happy as well.

Many man­agers are aware of the com­mon sense and sci­entific evid­ence that smil­ing staff will increase their chances of achiev­ing busi­ness object­ives. How­ever, some man­agers do not fully under­stand the the­ory and coerce their staff to smile. They pub­lish writ­ten remind­ers about the import­ance of smil­ing and pre­tend they are in a theatre and segreg­ate the ‘front stage’ from the ‘back stage’, ask­ing staff to behalf as if they are act­ors in a play. These man­age­ment approaches are not very effect­ive and cre­ate a lot of emo­tional labour. There is, how­ever, a very easy and cost effect­ive way to make sure your staff treat their cus­tom­ers very well.

The most effect­ive and cheapest way to make your staff smile is by smil­ing at them and provide a fun work place where people feel free to joke with each other.^2. No need for expens­ive cus­tomer ser­vice sem­inars and pro­pa­ganda, just being nice to your staff is the best invest­ment a man­ager can make.

1. Sandra Goun­tas, Michael T. Ewing, John I. Goun­tas (2007), Test­ing air­line pas­sen­gers’ responses to flight attend­ants’ express­ive dis­plays: The effects of pos­it­ive affect. Journal of Busi­ness Research (60) 81 – 83. [↩]
2. Man­agers with a STAR in their per­son­al­ity invent­ory will find it easier to behave this way. [↩]