Greeting customers with a warm smile and a welcome is a key component of excellent customer service. When wearing masks it is harder to connect with customers in this way so we need to make sure our eyes are smiling. Now a genuine smile would light up our whole face anyway – and I am not suggesting for one minute being ingenuous – however we do need to make sure that our eyes are attuned to our messaging. Models have been ‘smizing’ for years – indeed it was Tyra Banks who coined the phrase back in 2009. Little did she know it would take a pandemic to become a mainstream word.
Q. Has the wearing of masks affected the customer experience at all, and what can be done to overcome the barrier?