Business Lifestyle

In your business, whether you deal with your customers over the phone or in person, the single most powerful thing you can do is smile.  Now I know this sounds cheesy and frankly too easy to be true but it’s the truth!

When you are interacting with someone else, a genuine smile does so many things!  It builds rapport and trust and makes the person you are speaking to have more favourable feelings about you.

For those of you who deal with customers face to face smiling has been proven to build trust.  Research has also found that people tend to respond with a smile, it’s truly contagious!

If you only interact with customers via phone, don’t discount the benefits of smiling.  Studies show that people can tell if you are smiling when speaking to you on the phone.  It changes the tone of your voice and makes people respond more positively to you.  (HP.com, discovery.com)

For those of you who only deal with customers online or in writing, keep smiling anyway, there are health benefits!

Now not just any smile will do, it must be as genuine as possible (or appear to be).  Some tips I found at philstar.com:

• A slow smile is more credible, especially women (think Margaret Thatcher)
• A big warm smile brought on slowly will do wonders, it appears sincere and personalized
• Flooding smile – instead of spreading your lips into an instant smile, look at the person for a moment, take them in,  then let a big, warm, responsive smile spread over your face – it will engulf the person in warmth, making them feel truly welcome

Ted.com had this fantastic quote, and video:

“When you smile you don’t only appear to be more likable and courteous, you appear to be more competent.” (Ron Gutman)

http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_gutman_the_hidden_power_of_smiling.html

So want to build that rapport with your customers to keep them coming back?  It can all start with a smile.

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