{"id":31911,"date":"2019-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/the-power-of-a-smile\/"},"modified":"2024-01-18T20:01:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T20:01:05","slug":"the-power-of-a-smile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-relationships\/the-power-of-a-smile\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of a Smile"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\u201cSmile and the world smiles with you.\u201d That is part of a longer quote attributed to Stanley Gordon West. It became the topic of conversation while on a New York subway with my daughter, Alex, when I noticed her smile at someone who, in turn, smiled back. I complimented her on the small but kind gesture, and it started a great conversation about life and customer service.\r\n\r\nNow, some of you may be thinking, \u201cBig deal. It was just a smile.\u201d But it is a big deal. Alex shared the story about where she learned about the power of a smile.\r\n\r\nBack when Alex was a teenager, she attended the annual convention of the National Speakers Association<\/a>. There was a youth program that featured the top motivational speakers in the world. One of them was my friend W Mitchell<\/a>, an amazing man who has overcome incredible adversity. First, he had a motorcycle accident where his face and a good percentage of his body was burned. Then he was in a plane crash that put him a wheelchair for the rest of his life.\r\n\r\nThe way Alex remembers it, Mitchell told a story about how he didn\u2019t want to go outside. After the motorcycle accident, he was uncomfortable about how people might react to seeing his face. One day he mustered up the courage to walk outside. He saw a little girl and was terrified he might scare her. She looked at him and smiled. He smiled back. That little girl\u2019s smile meant the world to him.\r\n\r\nAlex said, \u201cAfter hearing his story, I started smiling and saying good morning or hello to everyone.\u201d She told me how every day when she takes the train home from work there is a homeless man who is always asking for money. Hardly anyone looks at this man as they walk by him. Alex said that the first day she saw him she smiled and said, \u201cHi,\u201d as she walked by. On that day she was wearing a coat with a leopard pattern, so the man responded, \u201cHello girl in the leopard coat.\u201d Thus began a daily ritual. Every day she would smile and say hello and he would always respond the same way.\r\n\r\nShe mentioned that she does that same thing at work. As she walks by a colleague, she always smiles. She almost always gets a friendly smile back.\r\n\r\nThat day, as we were shopping, I noticed sales people that weren\u2019t smiling or making eye contact with their customers when they walk into their stores. I couldn\u2019t help but think of the missed opportunity to set a more positive tone and create a better human-to-human connection.\r\n\r\nThe point is that a smile<\/a> is a small gesture, but a powerful one. It takes little effort and doesn\u2019t cost anything. You just have to get in the habit of doing it. It\u2019s powerful at work and in your personal life. When you get into the habit of smiling at others, you\u2019ll start to notice how many people smile back at you.\r\n\r\n\r\n
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