When I was in graduate school my roommate and I spent a lot of time eating at fast food restaurants.  This was natural since neither of us could cook.  One thing we noticed in all of our trips was that the vast majority of employees clearly hated their jobs.  Everything from their posture to their facial expressions told us they didn’t want to help us.  And so, we would joke about the “job satisfaction levels” of a clearly unhappy employee.  And yes, this is what you do when you’re in graduate school.

But those jokes always stuck with me.  Even to this day whenever I encounter an employee who clearly hates their job I think back to those times.  It made me start to realize that you will never be truly successful in something until you make it meaningful to you.  In fact, those trips are probably the first stages of what’s become MeaningToWork.com!

So how do companies improve the customer service of their employees?

Well one company in Japan is taking “service with a smile”  to a whole new level!  They have introduced the idea of “smile police“.  Yes, you read that right.  Smile Police.

Using a computers to scan someone’s face, software determines the “quality” of the employee’s smile.  For people who fall below a pre-established line, they get additional smile training.  The idea is simple: if you have a better smile you’ll be more customer friendly.

On the surface level this is entirely true.  By nature we respond more warmly to someone who gives us a genuine smile.  And if someone in customer service seems to care about our problems, our satisfaction with the whole process will be higher.

But do Smile Police actually improve customer service performance, or does it end up being a distraction?

To be honest, I can’t see how employee’s would perform better under these conditions.  You can not bring meaning to work by forcing people to smile.  They will not be more competent or more motivated because you are measuring their smile.  In fact, things like this usually drive down employee satisfaction and employee commitment.  Which, in turn, drives down employee performance.

Technology is great and wonderful.  It can be used to improve working conditions and productivity.  But it can also be used to stifle passion.  The reason smiles work is because a genuine smile reveals passion and empathy.  When you are enthusiastic about your work, you will smile naturally.   Forcing you to smile does not make you want to work – it makes you want to be fake.

Humans are remarkably good at detecting genuine smiles.  We know when it’s genuine, and when it’s forced.  If companies are serious about their customer service problems they should remove the barriers employees face when solving problems.  Not spend their money on teaching fake smiles.

photo provided by stock.xchng