All smiles are not equal: The roles of smiles in business professional-customer interactions

By J. N. Halm

A smile. The curve that sets everything straight. That’s according to Phyllis Ada Diller, the American stand-up comedian. A smile. Happiness you’ll find right under your nose. So says another American actor and stand-up comedian, Tom Wilson, Jr. A smile. The universal welcome. That’s according to American writer, Max Eastman.

Universally accepted as a sign of positive emotions, the smile has gained a reputation as “the universal language”. It has been found that in every culture, the smile conveys the same meaning. Scientists accept that the smile is really rooted in our biology.

It is therefore not surprising that infants as young as four months old can produce and respond to smiles.

As humans evolved over time, we developed the smile as a common social signal to convey positive emotions and cooperative intent. A smile is a quick way to convey all the positive emotions an individual might be experiencing without having to say all that is on the individual’s mind.

In a world where one had to be sure of the motives of the next person, where one wrong move could result in death, a smile was a shortcut to knowing the difference between friend and foe. That was then. But even now, the importance of the smile has remained the same.

In the world of business, smiles are a very part of the landscape. This is especially true for those who deal with customers on a regular basis as well as for the customers they deal with. The customer-facing professional must not be told to smile. It must come naturally. To win the hearts of customers, it is expected that those who deal with customers must always have a smile. It conveys warmth and friendliness which are necessary ingredients for ensuring that the business establishes and maintains a good long-lasting relationship with the business.

The importance of smiles is not only restricted to the smiles of those who deal with customers regularly. Customers also need to smile. A customer’s smile was proof that the business professional was performing well. Whether selling to a customer or serving a customer, the proof of customer satisfaction was a smiling customer. Service with a smile is almost a universal slogan.

Customer-handling employees are even taught to produce smiles, even when they do not feel like it. Deep Acting has been employed to bring out the best behaviour in customer-facing professionals. Customer service professionals are taught skills employed by the best Hollywood performers, just to ensure that, as they deal with customers, they project the right emotions. That is how important many of the businesses, known for the best customer service, value positive emotions.

However, there is proof that smiles do not always mean that things are going smoothly between the business professional and the customer. A November 2022 study published in the eSignals Research journal sought to prove that all smiles are not created equal. The study was titled “Smiling customer, happy customer? A study of customers’ smiles in salesperson–customer interactions.” The crux of the study was that “a customer’s smile should not be understood as simply signaling customer satisfaction.”

Using video-based analysis of salesperson–customer interactions, the researchers studied interactions between insurance sales professionals and their customers in Finland. Making use of facial expression analysis tools and software that were able to read the microexpressions on the faces of the customers, the researchers were able to come up with some very interesting findings.

The study found that the smile on the face of a customer was not always in response to something the customer found amusing. There are times when the smile of a customer is a result of a thought that is running through the one’s mind. According to the above-referred study, sometimes customers smile because of something that crosses their minds while engaging with customer-handling professionals.  This was referred to as syntactic facial displays, defined as “the smile occurs on the customer’s face before the initiation of an utterance.” This means a customer smiles because of something he or she is about to say, which might not necessarily be because he or she is happy with the business.

The study also found that there were smiles that occurred as a result of the embarrassment the customer was feeling. When a customer is about to make a statement that might not be to the satisfaction of a salesperson. For instance, if the customer is about to turn down an offer from the salesperson, it was not unusual for the customer to display a shy smile.

It is entirely possible that the customer’s smile might be also a result of an action he or she is contemplating. A dissatisfied customer, who has given up on continuing the relationship, might even smile. This will be especially true if the customer is planning to even go ahead to spread negative word of mouth.  Sometimes, these smiles may be subdued so as not to give the intention away.

Talking of smiles, it is important to add that there are those people who we can describe as having a “smiling face”. These are people with a naturally pleasant disposition and are always smiling. As customers, people with that disposition can hide their real intentions. They will be smiling, even when they are bitterly disappointed. They will even be smiling as they plan to take their business to the competition.

In analysing the facial expressions of the customer, it is important to note that analysing the smile alone is not enough to draw any conclusions about what is going on in the one’s mind. It is important to combine facial expressions with other non-verbal acts of communication such as head and eye movements as well as even verbalised pauses.

From the ongoing discourse, it is clear that customer-handling executives must be adept at reading the facial expressions of their customers. As observed by the researchers in the above-mentioned study, “It would be dangerous for the salesperson to blindly assume a positive emotional stance from the smiling customer, as the customer’s smile clearly serves more delicate functions.” It is incumbent on customer-handling professionals to further investigate any facial expressions they notice. Through well-designed questions, professionals can go behind the smiles to find out what is really happening in the minds of their customers.

URGE: Unearthing and resourcing Godly entrepreneurs

…biggest mistakes new entrepreneurs make

Mistake ONE: Not Doing Enough Research

When stripped to its bare bones, all of business and commerce comes down to one thing, and one thing, alone—finding enough people with a big enough problem for which they are willing to pay enough to get rid of. That is the crux of setting up a business. Therefore, the first assignment all would-be entrepreneurs have to concern themselves with is to do enough research on these very important challenges.

• The Nature of the Problem

It is not enough to start a business around just any problem. Many problems have persisted for years because those problems are not painful enough for those with the problem. The problem must be excruciating for those living with the problem to want to do something about it.

• The Nature of People with the Problem

Knowing your customer is more than just a mantra. It is very important to know those the business is going to serve. It is critical to know what makes them tick. It pays to get into the minds of those the business is planning to serve. Setting up a profitable eatery business in a community where people prefer to eat their own home-cooked meals will be a real struggle for that entrepreneur.

• The Solution to the Problem

This is the business’ raison d’etre. It is the unique solution that the business is bringing to the marketplace. The entrepreneur needs to compare the solution to what is already on the market. If the solution is the same as what is already on the market, then there is every chance that the business will struggle to differentiate itself.

• The Cost of Solving the Problem

Many problems still remain, simply because it is going to cost an arm and a leg to solve them. No matter how important solving the problem is, if it is going to cost too much, the business will always struggle.

• The Willingness to Pay That Much to Get Rid of the Problem

Many would-be entrepreneurs become so attached to solving the problem that they forget that someone has to pay for the solution—and the amount the people must spend must be more than the amount spent in creating the solution.

A failure to do good enough research on these important matters is one of the biggest reasons why new entrepreneurs fail within the first couple of years.

URGE: Unearthing and Resourcing Godly Entrepreneurs

A Grit Business Group Initiative

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