"Wait, don’t ask that guy, but ask Ammar", that’s what I found myself telling my
when he was about to order something to drink from a passing-by waiter while we were chilling out on the swimming pool of our club, he replied sarcastically, "Why Ammar specifically?, it is so crowded and its not an easy job to find that waiter again", I told him but that guy is very mean, he treats us as if we killed his mother, but Ammar is always smiling" again he reacted sarcastically "Ok ya Man". Couple of minutes and Ammar showed up, expectedly smiling, "How can I help you"?
Ammar is a very poor, simple man, 40 something but he looks younger because he is always smiling, he is serving on the swimming pool of our club, this area is very crowded during summer, all families escape the hot whether and go to chill out on the swimming pool with their noisy kids. During summer time, there are always hundreds sitting there when the night falls, and only 3 waiters serving the noisy hundreds of people, Frankly speaking, it is very tough job, 10 hours of running while serving the noisy crowds, who are a part of the irrespective culture that prevails nowadays, often treating waiters in a bad way, giving them orders, shouting, screaming, but unexpectedly, the smile never leaves Ammar’s face. This smile is very powerful; it has a very strong effect on humans, it stimulates a positive relationship between two persons, even without any word, just smile, and a positive relationship is about to start. Ammar is being liked by all club members, they call him by name , when you sit on the swimming pool of that club, you are most likely to hear the name "Ammar" every two minutes called by a table to serve it. I like the guy, I don’t know why, but that’s it, I like him, I feel comfortable when he is the waiter who serves me, that’s indeed the power of his smile because that’s not only my feeling, but all other members feel the same, as a result, Ammar is making very good tips because of his powerful smile, he knows nothing beside that smile, his job doesn’t require special skills, except taking your order and getting it as is, his smile is getting him both love and money, it is a very powerful exercise, isn’t it?
Moreover, it is something that was mentioned by Prophet Mohammed SAW by word to add to its importance another dimension, which is more precious, more valuable, divine value, it links your simple smile with your happiness in the lifeafter, when he said:
"It is a deed praised by God, smiling to your brother".
When Prophet Mohammed says something, we should give it extra attention, because surely it is a very precious advice, which aims at better quality of life. Indeed, smiling should lead to a better quality of life, because as we mentioned earlier, it stimulates positive relationship between two persons, imagine a smiling society, what will be the outcome, surely a better quality of life to all. This might sound utopian; landing down to the real life is something different, because there are many factors which prevent people from smiling and stressing on their nerves to the maximum, especially in our third world countries. By the way, I have no idea what the expression of "Third World" means, where is the second world? On the business side, Majority of companies are still not considering the smiling factor of their front line staff which I see catastrophic. In today’s business environment competition is fierce, Companies are doing their best to gain new customers and retain their current ones, investing heavily in Marketing Communication activities but unfortunately ignoring the importance of customer service, which will surely knock all the Marketing activities down.
If you aim at increasing your customer base and increasing your retention rates, then customer service excellence should be a primary objective, Consequently, the smiling factor is not an option anymore, it is an integral part of your customer service programs, never underestimate its power, it is very powerful, and at the same time costless.
Teach your front line staff to smile, push that culture in your organization, smiling is not a standalone factor, but it is linked to internal motivation, Teach your managers how to motivate their subordinates, good motivation will facilitate smiling, never expect your staff to smile in front of customers while there is a demotivation culture spreading all over the company, even if it happened couple of times, it will not be a sustainable culture. Your staff is human, just like your customers; never expect them to smile with customers and your managers are not smiling with their subordinates. Today, be determined to spread the smiling culture in your organization, make it a business objective, assign the job to the HR and the Marketing departments and measure results. Three months ago, I read surprisingly a piece of news that states that the Egyptian government decided to invest heavily to make their governmental employees "smile", I am glad that finally, they discovered that their employees never show a smile, but I am afraid of the deep misunderstanding that they fell into which is pushing someone to smile disregarding all surrounding factors, governmental employees are very hard to smile by a training program or by some materials to be read and Ooooops, a smiling employee is the expected result. Guys you are dreaming, in order for your employee to smile, the minimal requirement from you is to offer that employee a human working environment,
90% of the governmental working environments are inhuman, that’s the minimal, no need to mention all stress factors that employee faces since his wake up till the end of his day, passing by the inhuman lack of water to the poor quality of transportation, to the lack of an office fan in a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, to the animalistic treatment by bosses, its an overall package, if you really work on all other factors to make your employee smile, that would be a real achievement, and the whole country will smile because the governmental employees constitutes nearly quarter of the population.
Finally, humans need to see a smile on your face, never underestimate the power of that smile in fostering positive relationships on both the personal side and the business side and moreover, the divine side.