Can You Really 'Hear' a Smile?

A smile is a universal communication tool, but is it something we can 'hear'? And how can we use this for better customer service?

How we communicate is critical when it comes to building relationships with clients or friends, and whether we are learning how to put live chat on website platforms or we are speaking to customers over the telephone, there are a lot of subtleties in how we communicate. If you want to offer a great customer experience, you cannot underestimate how they perceive you, especially when they can only hear your voice. This is why a smile can make a massive difference, but why is this?

Smiling Makes Us Feel Good Inside

Luminaries such as Charles Darwin have spent a long time studying the benefits of smiling, and if we smile, it doesn't matter how we impact others, in fact, it can have an impact on our abilities to do so much more. Happier employees are, in fact, up to 20% more productive. If we are happier, and we view challenges more positively, by smiling, this will have a greater impact on our ability to complete the tasks.

Customers Can “Hear” You Smiling

If you are communicating with a customer over the telephone, do not underestimate the subtle changes in your tone of voice. Human beings can differentiate intonations in your voice, not just between smiles and non-smiles, but among different types. This is because smiling affects how we speak, and customers can actually identify the type of smile based on the sound.

How We Can Help Our Employees Feel Better by Smiling

It takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown, and from the perspective of any contact centre agent, the reality is that if they've been told that they need to smile, this could potentially remind them of being at school, so it is a good idea to coach people to understand why they should smile. While we are hoping for an increase in productivity, there are a number of health benefits of smiling and laughing, including the following:

• It lowers your blood pressure.
• It makes you more approachable.
• It can tighten your facial muscles.
• It reduces pain.
• It actually makes you happier.

When we are encouraging people to smile more, a deep-rooted reason behind this is when we are communicating with others we are going to elicit a far more positive response. For customer agents who are struggling across the language barrier, a smile is an amazing tool, whether it is seen or not. Babies produce smiles before they know how to talk, and smiles are a unique expression recognised across every culture. As there are so many different cultural expressions deemed offensive, if we want to build a bridge with a customer or anybody, a smile is the most effective tool we can ever use.

Can you really hear a smile? Even if you are communicating over the telephone, the line is poor, there are language barriers, and the customer at the other end is irate for a number of other reasons, a smile can help infinitely, and this is why if you are learning how to put live chat on website platforms, the way your staff communicate will do so much.