If you deal with customers face to face, what does YOUR face say? Does it say: “I love my job and I love helping people” or does it say “I can’t stand dealing with the public and… by the way… you’re bothering me”?

I saw examples of both faces six feet from each other while returning a couple of items at Wal-Mart. As I waited in line, I watched this kindly, grandmotherly looking women waiting on someone. Another customer service person took her position beside this kindly looking lady.

I’ve seen the other lady before. She has an annoyed look on her face and a perpetual snarl. She growled “Next”. Fortunately I wasn’t next. I got the kindly lady whose friendly face reflected her warm, personable demeanor. Her name tag said Elaine, and that she was a 10-year employee.

Elaine made some simple friendly small talk, commiserating about the difficulty of programming a universal remote (one of the returned items) and doing a great job of creating a friendly customer experience.

Nearby, I could hear the other woman gruffly bark “ID” and other requests -- snarl firmly in place – just as I had remembered her being in MY interaction with her months before.

When I see people like this, I wonder:

1) “How can someone hire a person whose demeanor is so repellent or… if they’ve ‘gone bad’ after awhile, how can their boss continue to let them represent their business?”
2) “Why does this person continue working in the service field if they are clearly tired of it?”
3) “Does this person realize how much of the negativity and antagonism they get from customers they inadvertently trigger by their hostile expression?”

If you’re a business owner or supervisor, encourage your staff to reflect on what their faces communicate to customers. If you have employees who sound like the lady with the snarl, have a serious conversation with them about whether it’s time to consider a new profession.

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