Eye contact and a smile.
During the career phase of your life, employers have instructed you as a first step in ‘greeting’ engagement to make direct eye contact and smile. This is the physical indicator of inviting customers in, relaxing them, and communicating ‘you are welcome and we want you here’. Honestly, I sometimes giggle at the presentation because it reminds me of my favorite song verse by the Smashing Pumpkins – “disarm you with a smile”. Also, it’s the way that serial killers greet their victims in movies and tv shows.
Aside from those disturbing similarities the first step in a proper greeting is universal. Researchers have found eye contact to be an essential element of human interaction and shown to have effects on attentional and cognitive processes (Mauersberger, Kastendieck & Hess, 2022). Direct eye contact can evoke positive affective reactions (2022), just as not making direct eye contact can indicate displeasure. It can be upsetting to customers when there is no direct eye contact, and I have experienced customers’ misperceptions conceived from no eye contact. It is never a good experience. Mauersberger et al (2002), conclude that obstructed eye contact can increase negative impressions of disgust, signal disinterest or disengagement.
Businesses are acutely aware of the importance of customers being acknowledged in the most basic human behavior. It is not enough to look at the other person; a smile must accompany eye contact. Smiling can be an influencing tactic to generate positive interaction leading to purchasing. As the initiator of the engagement, you are directing the behavior amongst yourself and the customer. In concert with you the customer will mimic what they see – smiling and making eye contact. This process is referred to as mimicry. Mimicry is “an automatic but goal-dependent process that both fosters and depends on an affiliative link between mimicker and mimickee” (Fischer & Hess, 2017). The goal is to have an exchange to which you successfully close a sale, and the customer obtains their objective want and/or need. Though transactional, this process is the start of creating an experience for customers.
Creating a customer experience is therefore a personal social interaction. In successful social interactions people want to feel understood, liked, and cared about which require emotional mimicry (2013). Customer Experience is fulfilling such needs with the initiation of eye contact and a smile. My most memorable and successful transactions, engagements, and sales began with me looking directly at customers and smiling at them. I am acknowledging the customer, and the customer reciprocates as they too want something.
Tips to help you with this step:
· Make it a mantra
· Imagine your favorite person, love-interest, spouse
· Have fun with it, (I use it to make funny comments or compliments)
· Fake it till you make it
Cultivate a culture of emotional mimic behavior – that will lead to successful transactions, brand loyalty, and positive workplace environment by demonstrating direct eye contact and smiling. It doesn’t matter if you are an associate or management. During times at work when you are not feeling it, it will help you feel better. You never know when your smile and eye contact will make someone else’s day. Eye contact and smiling are beneficial to everyone. Just be careful someone might think you are a rockstar and serial killer.
References:
Hess U., Fischer A. (2013). Emotional mimicry as social regulation. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 17, 142–157. doi: 10.1177/1088868312472607, PMID: [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Fischer A. H., Hess U. (2017). Mimicking emotions. Curr. Opin. Psychol. 17, 151–155. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.008
Mauersberger, H., Kastendieck, T., & Hess, U. (2022). I looked at you, you looked at me, I smiled at you, you smiled at me, The impact of eye contact on emotional mimicry. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 970954. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.970954
