All of us have had the experience of 'stony-faced' customer service at some time or another - the kind of service where you feel you are doing them a favour rather than the other way around.
We tend to view such experiences as negative for us, the consumer, and they are - such experiences could easily influence our purchasing or customer loyalty habits in a negative way. The impact of this alone on the business in question could be enormous - but on closer inspection the overall cost could be even higher than at first thought.
The power of a smile extends beyond the customer service experience offering of an individual - in fact it influences their all round performance, as well as the attitude and performance of those around them. Smiling in front of customers will enhance the value of each customer experience transaction, but smiling in general will create a deeper cultural benefit throughout a team and business environment.
It pays for managers to monitor not only the customer facing "smile index" across their team - but also the number of times they smile themselves, the number of times they make their team smile, and the number of smiles that are exchanged between team members.
We may spend hours and hours researching ways to improve performance by just 1 or 2 per cent - but have we overlooked the power of a smile and the positive impact on performance that can be delivered by a happy team? The benefits are obvious when we start to think about it, for example, people who smile are viewed as more approachable and as a result both their customers & their colleagues will be drawn to them. Also, when we smile it puts us (and those around us) in a better mood because smiling is contagious and can relieve tension. And an added benefit is that people who smile a lot are seen as positive, confident, successful people who are often mistaken for being much younger than they actually are!
So next time we review our business plans for 2011 we should remember to include the power of a smile - it could be a key ingredient of our success.
Jason, Great article about how powerful the smile can be. It is often unused in today's customer service. I posted a similar post last week about the customer service I received. If the manager would have read this post, they would have been ready to win. Keep up the good work, thanks for your time and content. http://voicesofleadership.blogspot.com/
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