Customer service employees, for the most part, are doomed to spending their hours wearing fake smiles and cheerful faces. Â In Japan’s Keihin Electric Express Railway, it gets worse: they make sure that the pretend geniality is as close to authentic as can be with “smile-checking” software.
Part of the morning routine for Keihin employees is to take a picture with the biggest smile they can muster. Â The photo is then picked up and processed by the company’s evaluation app, which compares each part of the service worker’s face with the ideal characteristics of a “high-quality smile”.
Grades are given for each part of the face, including eye movements, lip curves, cheek position and facial lines. Â The numbers are added up and rated on a scale of one to 100. Â Less-spirited grunts with low scores are instructed to keep adjusting their “smiling faces” until the software assigns them a passing score. Â Once they pass, they are given a copy of their “winning smile” so they can try replicating it throughout the day.
Can you imagine how a session like this might be like? Â “Your eyes are too wide when you smile. Â It looks fake. Â The software suggests to attempt squinting a little.” Â That’s a scene in a comedy film waiting to happen.
Seriously, though, I’d love to see the same software used across all customer service companies. Â Is it a pain in the ass for employees? Â I’m pretty sure it is. Â Imagine how good your day will be, though, if everyone you dealt with in the service industry had a shit-eating grin permanently plastered on their mug?
[via iO9]