A smile is worth a thousand words; a very insightful quote.  I was traveling recently and while on a plane encountered a really nice flight attendant.  She was kind and considerate and always, always smiling.  She was the epitome of the quote above.

This young lady’s smile made a difference for me.  I was on a very early morning flight and had endured a particularly long line at airport security, an indifferent server while getting some breakfast and a crabby ticket agent.  This young lady was able to change all of that by simply being nice, and most of her “niceness” was encapsulated in her smile.  I felt welcomed and genuinely cared for, and this put a smile on my face.

These days it seems making interactions human is in short supply.  Think about it, I am blogging about someone smiling, but when you examine your experiences, how many times do you get a genuine smile from someone who loves helping others?  Don’t you find it memorable when you do?

What’s the lesson here?  Do your employees deliver a human touch?  Do they make your customers feel welcome and cared for?  Are they memorable for their smile?  If they’re not and you are thinking that the training and behavior or cultural changes are just too expensive to consider, think again.  How expensive will it be to do nothing? That’s the better question.