Why kids should be your Frontline staff.
Many of the businesses we assist in Geelong, Ballarat and Melbourne, spend huge amounts of time and money trying to gain and retain customers via websites, social media, newsletters, surveys, events, special offers, networking, blogging, guest speaking and the list goes on and on.
When I ask them what they do to harness the Superpower of their team, they look at me a little confused and ask what on earth do I mean.
We all have this Superpower but often it gets forgotten.
Let’s try out your Superpower now. It’s easy to do. Just turn up the corners of you mouth….and….Smile. Go on, don’t worry about who can see you, just smile.
In as little as 6 seconds a “fake” smile sends a message to your brain that you must be happy. This creates a rush of positive endorphins and before you know it, you will not only look happy, but you will feel happy too. Double win.
Be careful though, if someone else sees you smiling they can become infected with a smile and before you know it, everyone around them is smiling too. Triple win.
Smiling is a universal means of communicating positivity and happiness but did you know that whilst 30% of us smile more than 20 times a day, those with the greatest smile Superpower are children, who smile as many as 400 times per day. Where did all our smiles go?
The health benefits of smiling and laughing are also impressive. In 1971, Hunter Doherty (more commonly known as Patch Adams) created the Gesundheit! Institute. Patch and his team of clown doctors effectively used laughter as medicine and that method has flowed around the world and exists today in Australia as The Humour Foundation
Their research tells us that laughter;
Relaxes the muscles / reduces pain & stress / promotes a positive outlook and a feeling of well-being
Customers are more likely to buy from, do business with and refer friends and family to a business staffed with people who smile – big genuine tooth showing and eyes glowing smiles. And it’s not just the customers who benefit from a culture of fun and smiles. A fun focused workplace motivates employees to be more productive, less negative and have a greater tolerance for and understanding of unhappy customers, unplanned changes and unexpected challenges.
My definition of the Superpower of A SMILE;
A Small Movement Improving Lives Everywhere.
If you want help increasing smiles in your workplace, Chapter F in my book “The A - Z of Service Excellence” is dedicated to FUN. The book contains 250 pages of insights and actions to help your team harness their Superpowers and have your business known for more than what you sell. You will be known for how you make your employees and your customers feel; valued, respected and happy.
In the meantime, rather than hire kids to work in your customer service team, remind your customer service adults to get their smiles out. (If they have a problem with smiling, you’ve got a bigger problem and you need to fix it fast so contact us now.)