Episode #66: Hey Leaders, Are You A Scowler Or A Smiler?

We all know first impressions are so important and so hard to unwind. Well given we know that, why are we so hit and miss with the process of forming first impressions. In customer service, the first thing seen should be a big, warm, sincere smile. But is this happening? It could be a big smile in the voice over the phone or in person, face to face. Leaders are often terrible hypocrites. They scowl at their staff, but expect those same staff to be radiating big smiles to the customers. We need to lead from the front and be a smile giver, everyday, every time.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately. Dementia has been diagnosed in more than five million Japanese. Two thirds of those cases are caused by Alzheimer disease. The government estimates that number will increase to around seven to eight million by twenty thirty. That represents around seven percent of the population. At that time, Japanese with dementia will hold financial assets of two trillion dollars. A recent survey by Jin Narumoto professor of psychiatry at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine and three other researchers, found that thirty percent of dementia patients and families have suffered financial losses because of the condition. From 2010 to 2015 there were almost three thousand cases of misuse of dementia patient’s assets, with twenty one billion yen being stolen by their guardians. In other news, A group of researchers based in Japan and the USA believe that administering allergy shots to women during pregnancy could prevent their unborn children from developing allergies after birth and throughout their lives. The shots prevent the production of anti bodies that trigger allergic reactions such as atopic dermatitis, asthma, pollen and food allergies. Finally,Tokyo has maintained its spot as the city with the most Michelin starred restaurants on the planet. It has two hundred and thirty restaurants with the prestigious stars. Paris has ten three starred restaurants nwhile Tokyo has thirteen. Paris has sixteen with two stars and Tokyo has fifty two . For one stars, Paris has ninety two while Tokyo has one hundred and sixty five. If you are a Foodie, Tokyo is the place to be folks!

This is episode number sixty six and we are talking about Hey Leaders – Are You A Scowler Or A Smiler?

Grumpy, angry looking, unfriendly customer facing staff - welcome to American retail from hell! Dale Carnegie's Human Relation's Principle Number Five is "SMILE". It may sound a bit simplistic, but actually the idea is very profound and has a lot of depth. You would never guess that this idea to smile when you meet people, especially when in a customer facing roles, had been around since "How To Win Friends And Influence People" was first published in 1936. Perhaps Japanese politeness has spoilt me, but some customer service is shocking when you travel overseas.

The idea of smiling when you answer the phone, hasn't made it to some of the staff working in major hotels yet either. Very angry voices would pick up the phone and repeat the name of the Hotel. I asked one lady if she was angry? That threw her and she said "no", so I asked her why she answered the phone with such an abrupt, unfriendly, angry voice? Her self-awareness factor was trending into negative numbers, as she was completely baffled by my line of questioning. Maybe I have been in Japan too long, but I don’t think that is it.

Buying food, checking in for your flight, or entering the airport lounge, unsmiling, unfriendly staff assault your senses. No smiling, not even one of those pathetic fake jobs. To top it off, they then produce a section from the training manual and say "have a nice day/flight/whatever”. The incongruency of greeting you with an "I don't care" attitude and their final kind words, has obviously not even been partially explored yet.

Giving your instructions to the cabbie or the serving staff and being greeted with total silence is a bit disconcerting. Do they know what I want, are we clear about what needs to happen next? Why is there no acknowledgement of what you want?

Excuses such as, "it’s America" or “it’s New York" or "it's Chicago" or “ it's the minimum wage syndrome" don't cut it. These abysmal service interactions are a simple failure of staff leadership. The companies employing these staff have poor leadership. Obviously, the people destroying their company’s brand are not being trained properly. There are obvious conceptual barriers at play here about what is important. The message is pretty clear, you the customer are just not important. That fundamental idea flows down from the company leadership. If the leader is an unreformed scowler, then they are sending out a clear message to the team about how to conduct personal interactions. So, don’t be a total non-smiler and expect big smiles on the part of the team. As bosses, we have to lead from the front on this one, so let’s work on that smile.

What a fantastic opportunity for companies to win in the marketplace. The cost of a genuine smile is obviously too expensive for these failing companies. Imagine though, that properly led staff were being trained properly on just this one key thing - smile when you meet your customer. Behind that idea is a whole gamut of attitudes and concepts about the task at hand. These untrained, unskilled people are totally focused on work processes. Check in the passenger, issue boarding passes, hand over the hotdog, head into the traffic to get to the destination. No! No! No! The customer experience is the key, not the work process. Why is this so hard?

Customer service is all biology. Teaching our teams to smile at the first interaction with the customer, sets up an internal chemical reaction that will create the right momentum, to create an experience that adds to the value of the brand and to the revenues of the organization. To do this we need to properly train our leaders to make sure they get it, so they can ensure their staff get it too. This lack of congruency in the service sector is costing firms big money. The up-sell and the cross-sell missed opportunities are frankly scary, pathetic and unnecessary.

So, do an audit of your own team. Brace yourself. Call your own organization at different times of the day, especially around lunchtime, when the chances are high of someone not normally picking up the phone is now your “brand ambassador”. That can be a scary experience and you quickly realize why we need to train everyone to represent the brand. Remember, if we come across someone from your organization and they are impressive, we think everyone is impressive. However, if we come across someone from your organization who is a real dud, we think everyone must also be a dud. Simple but true!

Listen to how your staff answer the phone. Do they say the name of the organization, their own name and do it with a smile in their voice. Observe the customer facing interactions and see if the genuine smile is there or not. Here is a trick - can you train your staff to smile? It is not impossible, but let's get the right people on the right bus and in the right seat, so that the first impression is a big happy smile, because it is their natural reaction. If that is not possible, then work on getting their minds around the idea that a smile is shorthand for what the brand represents and what the organization stands for. Importantly we must explain where their role fits into the whole picture. We can sometimes forget that all of us are in sales. We are selling our organisations to potential clients at every single point of contact. Jan Carlson’s great book “Moments Of Truth” explored making sure each point of contact with the client was being done correctly, building the brand and cementing the customer’s loyalty. We have to get each point working and can’t have weak links in the chain or we make no progress.

I am often critical of the polite but formulistic and robotic service we get in Japan. However, it beats the genuine disinterest of a lot of service staff I meet overseas. As company leaders, I don't think we should be satisfied with anything less than excellent smiles as the first point of contact. Yes, it requires effort, leadership and training, but the majority of our competitors are doing a pretty miserable job, so let's differentiate ourselves and win. If we can get a smile going at the outset a lot of good things will follow and Dale Carnegie’s Principle Number Five “SMILE” can be the catalyst to success. On the other hand, if we can't manage this much, then we had better start asking some pretty harsh questions of ourselves. As leaders, let’s start with ourselves and start smiling at our own team and get the preferred chemical cocktail working for us.

Action Steps

1. Call your own organization at different times of the day to check how clients are being handled.
2. Ensure leaders are explaining to staff that they represent the brand and how they interact with clients makes all the difference to how the brand is regarded.
3. Select customer facing staff who smile naturally.
4. Practice Dale Carnegie’s Principle Number Five - Smile