To not reprimand staff for not smiling?

I don't see the comment as showing teeth, more of an approach, so not as warm as you'd expect perhaps.

And it is very cultural, as in different cultures have different rules for interaction. We all know how in the US it would be considered rude to not say “have a nice day” in so many settings. In France the Brits perceive rudeness. The French seem to think it is rude when we do not enter an establishment saying “bonjour’. I have been in Croatia several times. The first time was when it was still Yugoslavia, most recently in 2019. I recall feeling like I had offended those who were serving me. No smiles or small talk at all.

So I get that it doesn’t come naturally to some people. This is learned behavior. Sadly in hospitality part of the job is to try to make people feel welcome.

To the OP I think I would raise the issue at staff meeting/training level. Talk about what makes the establishment special and welcoming. Once you have highlighted the behaviors you want from staff you have a way to give feedback.

Or an entitled dick owner who thinks he has the right to dictate what you do with your own face.

Isn’t it basic manners to smile when you greet someone, though, whether you are in a customer facing role or just saying hello to an acquaintance in the street!

People don’t have to walk around with a fixed grin on their face all day, but I would expect, if greeted by anyone in a shop or hospitality setting, male or female, for them to smile as they did so, or at the very least to not have a scowl/sullen/miserable look on their face 🤷‍♀️

This isn’t gender related in the slightest and ridiculous to say it is

anyone man or woman in a customer facing role is expected to be welcoming and engaging that includes body language and facial expressions

No reminder required,I find the expectation by men for women to smile at them bloody weird. They are positively raging if you don't fake laugh at their cringe jokes too

This:

We've got to a stage where people are so frequently making excuses for others dis-social or unpleasant behaviour that you're made to feel like someones done you a huge favour just by considering others; having some manners or acting in a professional manner.

Then we wonder why everyone seems antisocial and entitled and it's because of this slow erosion of expectations over the last decade or so.

I find this attitude very irritating actually, when staff do their job in a way that feels like they're doing you a favour. They might serve you with no attitude to make you feel happy to buy there instead of elsewhere, like asking for anything else feels like you're disturbing them.

I might be old school but people in any type of customer service should be approachable, pleasant to talk to, willing to help, and - in a single word - make you feel WELCOME. They should prefer to hire people like this, with a positive attitude to people. They are paid for this, to offer a service, not just to handle stuff.

I hate when I go to buy a coffee for example, and there's no warm human interaction. I also think that for people working there it makes your day better if you feel that your job makes customers happy.

In a hotel especially, when you walk into a reception, the first impression is fundamental. A warm welcome and the degree of service they are happy to offer make the difference between a cheap place and a five star hotel.

I think it's not fawning, it's being professional, and part of the profession in hospitality is offering a friendly welcoming, make your day special, a place to remember, and what you will mainly remember is not the beds or furniture but how you have been treated overall.

I'm sorry but I don't understand why it is so difficult to encourage your stuff to make clients feel that you are happy to see them, and do the work for them, you are there exactly for this. It's called hospitality business for a reason.

I think it's part of the training and it's not humiliation to make a client feel you're happy to serve them. I understand some might take advantage but there are ways to dismiss such clients.
Possibly you must have a love for people to work in hospitality, a certain type of personality.

Rather than reprimanding I would call it training your staff to offer the best unforgettable service in the business hospitality.

Beatings will continue until morale improves

Only at Christmas were we forced to smile (hospitality 2001 - 2012:)
Up
I even got an award from the hotel group for going to work with a sore throat in 2003

Well, I cant help thinking of the hilarious quip which goes something like 'punishments Will continue until happiness improves'😱🤣

Your smiling complaint reminded me....

I had a very high-profile customer on a call, ask me to get around a payment he was obliged to make. I was perfectly polite, explained why I couldn't and offered an alternative (which admittedly he would have still had to pay, but a little less money), wrapped up the call and got on with my day.

About an hour later, the MD came down to our floor in a flap and took my very confused manager aside to have a word with her.

It turned out that the high-profile customer had called the complaints department and created a right stink until he could speak to the MD, told him that I had an 'unsmiling voice' and a very negative attitude that came across over the phone.

He framed it as 'feedback', but kept saying things like 'she's the contact point for your company, she represents you, if I were in your shoes, I would have a long think about how you are being represented'.... and so on.

I was so damn lucky because we didn't have working call recording at the time, but my manager happened to be live listening in and was sitting with me during the call, as part of our monthly quality review. (back in the old days when you used to jack in to the phones and a double headset to live listen)

She confirmed that his 'unsmiling voice and negative attitude' was inherently subjective and influenced by the outcome of the call. I remember that she went on to say that she didn't believe the complaint reflected a failure in service delivery, but a misdirected unhappiness with the call's unavoidable outcome.

He didn't like the outcome of his escalation to the MD and absolutely threw his toys out of the pram, and it became very obvious that it wasn't a legitimate complaint but entirely retaliatory because somebody had said a very mild and very customer-focused 'no' to him.

Very nearly got me fired, from a job I really needed to make ends meet, for just not liking a fully appropriate customer-focused 'no'

The OP admits the woman has RBF. That can come across as unfriendly. There is an expression and tone that is welcoming and that doesn’t sound like it.

However OP is choosing to assume the customer is a misogynist. It’s certainly an interesting way to manage somewhere

Actually no - a lot of people who are unhappy cba to post a review.

I read something about the ‘Gen Z Stare’. If it is true then it looks like we all need to get used to less than friendly staff!

I think in your shoes I would try to subtly watch her interact with a few customers and assess objectively whether she comes across as welcoming overall - leaving aside the specific smiling issue.

If she does then I’d say this complaint is a one off and leave it. But it’s worth a look to see if there is an overall way she comes across that could be worked on.

I honestly don't understand why single reviews are taken so seriously. You've had one single review about this issue. If no one else has taken the trouble of writing a review about this, it's fair to assume that the vast majority of clients are happy with the welcome given them. There's really no need to pander to every single negative review, which is highly subjective anyway.

Well considering OP describes her as having a resting bitch face

my guess is the greeting face of the company is stood there with a face like a smacked arse
to welcome you in

but rather than putting resting bitch face or face like a smacked arse he said she wasn’t smiling

its pretty standard in any customer facing job to be smiley and welcoming

That’s quite the stretch. If he wanted to publicly shame her he would have mentioned it to her at the time. Should people not complain about an inadequate welcome? Or is it just that men can’t complain?

The clue is in the name, ‘hospitality’.

He felt she was unwelcoming. But because she is a woman and he was a man, everyone is assuming it’s misogynistic.

this reminds me of once I had a guy ask me out when I was on kiosk in a supermarket. I believe I had been smiling, I was very smiley and chipper at work just to bear the boredom of the job.Maybe he took it as flirting or whatever and the smiles stopped when he held up the line trying to persuade me to give him my number.

he went directly to customer services and the magazine spoke to me saying there had been a complaint I had been rude and abrupt with him.

I’d had a few incidents in my life where smiling had been interrupted as an invitation to men. I remember thinking what the fuck am I supposed to do either way I’m upsetting customers!?

so if it’s something like this definitely back your staff member. It also may be age dependent, this was a regular problem for me when I was young and slim (and dare I say attractive) but now I’m older and fatter and tired with no makeup anymore it’s no longer a problem. But as you say she’s generally not a smiley person I would frame it as training for everyone that appearing to enjoy your job and the interactions it’s important part of customers feeling welcome.

It wasn't, it was an older male.

Of course there are many ways to be unwelcoming. And there are many reason to feel unwelcome. And many people will feel unwelcome despite dest efforts to welcome them.

But in the context of this scenario it was an older man complaining about a woman not smiling at him enough. And complaining on a public forum which is just lousy. I'm suprised he lacked the self-awareness to realise how it would be interpreted by anyone reading it. The OP shouldn't add legitimacy to his complaints by giving the staff member anything approaching a reprimand.

Hospitality is usually low pay and antisocial hours, short notice rotas... often the staff can't afford to eat at the places themselves. I have worked in bars where a pint would be the best part of my hourly wage. Terms and conditions often aren't great. The idea that you are expected to be constantly "on" to not only do the job role well but also beam at the sort of older man who tries to pull rank and publicly shame a woman - who OP says is competent, polite and helpful - for not smiling at him enough during a 5 minute interaction is insulting.

That’s the nature of customer service though. The employee has to behave in a certain way but sadly the customer doesn’t.

I really don’t care that you don’t believe me and I didn’t say he was giving excellent customer service just like the OP didn’t say whether the woman was giving excellent customer service.

men get pulled up all the time. I’m sorry it doesn’t fit your narrative

It doesn’t have to be a huge false grin, but greeting someone with RBF isn’t conducive to hospitality

I do think that in the hospitality business or indeed anywhere public facing it’s a two way thing. Yes staff should also be welcoming but as a customer I feel I should make an effort too, to be polite, appreciative and respectful. Too many people think they don’t need to be.

It's interesting that all your staff are women.
I've worked in customer facing jobs and to not greet customers with warmth is unusual, to say the least. Men were also expected to greet customers appropriately (we were a diverse workplace with women AND men, crazy).
ETA Is the staff member from Eastern Europe or Russia? I think culturally they are less smiley. But they can!