{"id":32071,"date":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/smile-and-the-world-smiles-with-you-unless-its-fake\/"},"modified":"2023-09-17T16:41:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T16:41:32","slug":"smile-and-the-world-smiles-with-you-unless-its-fake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/internal-customers\/smile-and-the-world-smiles-with-you-unless-its-fake\/","title":{"rendered":"Smile and the World Smiles With You\u2014Unless It\u2019s Fake"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Smile<\/a>One of our faithful Shepard Letter<\/a> subscribers emailed me a story. He was at a store, and the employee was friendly and engaging. But when he saw her later\u2014when she was off duty\u2014she acted indifferent toward him, almost rude. She wouldn\u2019t even smile, which made him wonder, \u201cShouldn\u2019t people greet you as warmly outside of their work environment as they do while on the job?\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen you hire someone for a job, you should understand their personality. Do they come to the job with the positive attitude you want your customers to experience? Or do they have to \u201cfake it\u201d? The old clich\u00e9 of \u201chire for attitude and train for skill\u201d comes to mind, but I think it\u2019s more than that. You do want to have someone with the right attitude, but more importantly, they need to understand and fit in with the culture and personality of your organization.\r\n\r\nJust hours after I read this subscriber\u2019s story, I was at the airport standing in front of the check-in desk at the gate. The gate agent was busy pecking away at the computer\u2019s keyboard. He never once looked up at me. (Was I invisible?) He then left to go down to the plane. He came back a few minutes later and continued to work, never once looking at me or the other passengers that were now lining up behind me. Finally, I asked him, \u201cAre you the gate agent working this flight?\u201d He responded, \u201cYes, but this gate is closed until one hour before the flight.\u201d\r\n\r\nGood explanation\u2026 but it would have been nice for him to tell me that five minutes earlier. A nice friendly smile along with that explanation would have gone a long way. I walked away and found another agent who was not \u201cofficially\u201d on duty or working my flight, but who was almost overzealously willing to help me. She was very friendly, so I complimented her. I then told her the story about the grumpy agent who wouldn\u2019t even acknowledge me. I could tell that frustrated her, and she confided in me that he always comes to work with a sour attitude. She even said, \u201cI can\u2019t imagine why he keeps this job. He must hate it\u2014having to be friendly to everyone. It\u2019s not who he is.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to hiring people who have to work with others, especially customers, trust me on this. If the job requires friendliness and an outgoing personality, you don\u2019t want to hire someone who has to fake it. It\u2019s just a matter of time before they flip back to a different personality. They may want to put forth their best effort, but if it really isn\u2019t part of their personality, they will eventually revert back to who they really are. People can only adapt for so long.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s important to remember that customers don\u2019t know whether an employee is on-duty or off-duty. But they do know how they are treated. Your best people should have the people-focused gene. It\u2019s about who they are all the time, not just when they are at work and on duty. That\u2019s who you want working for you\u2014and that\u2019s the company reputation you should strive for.\r\n
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