To not reprimand staff for not smiling?

Or maybe he should just spend his money somewhere else.

I was returning something at M&S the other week. The sales person never smiled and barely acknowledged me. She went away to check something and came back exactly the same, no smile nothing. It was awful. I didn't complain as life's too short but I worked frontline NHS whilst grieving my mum and my husband during their final illnesses and after. You really do need to fake it sometimes and actually if you do you often feel better.

It is the sort of thing where you address the whole team and just as a reminder of how smiles matter.

Many people expect American style waiting. Hello, how can I help you, my name is this, blah blah. And feel service is lacking when the person waiting is not like this. It may be the complainer was like this and had these expectations.

European service is far more formal. Where the competence of the service is what matters. Not so much the smiles. They won’t tell you their name either. But it is revered far more as a career and as a real skill.

What the approach is of the catering/hospitality venue you work at only you will know. How relaxed or how formal.
But a good mix of the American and European style would seem a balance to work for in the UK depending on your venue.

With a resting bitch face.

Customer service with a resting bitch face isn't good customer service.

Ignoring the fact he said he didn't feel welcomed again?

Why?

It's not helping the OP at all if you don't consider everything she's said.

I’ve been to places where the staff are “not welcoming enough” and it can feel like they don’t even care about your custom. Like you’re an inconvenience.

This reminds me of when I was a young woman and one of the things that men would shout at women just going about their lives and refusing to engage with them as you simply walked down the street was "Cheer up love, it may never happen so come on give us a smile". The male thing of feeling entitled enough to demand that the mere fact that they existed meant you should greet them with a great big grin. I used to respond with "But it has and I am on my way to the funeral"

Counts for more than you are allowing

and the OP immediately said it didn’t feel
right - all the customer could say was he didn’t get a smiley enough service 🤢

I think if you work in hospitality, part of making your guests feel welcome is greeting them with a smile whether you're male or female. If I go into a restaurant, I always smile and say hello, I've got a reservation for X and I would expect the person greeting me to smile and be welcoming. I don't think there's anything unusual about that.

Love it!

im sorry everyone who is stating that the industry is in trouble - it doesn’t mean women have to pick up the slack

• more pressure

totally wrong

That doesn't mean she did on this occasion.

Which is why the OP needs to have a quiet word with a neutral mind, to hear the woman's side of it.

I wouldn't say anything, wouldn't tell her off. If she was polite, did her job, smile is a personal thing. Perhaps said customer should've been a better customer and made her feel like smiling.

The OP has said the women provides good customer service

Did you work for NatWest? We had little notepads with that printed on and a big smile picture. 🤮🤣

Please don't tell all the staff. Scatter gun management is so poor and breeds resentment. There's been a specific complaint about one person, so speak to them about it.

I have yes, more than once.

However, you keep leaving out the 'welcoming' part and (like the OP) you're just concentrating on the smiling.

They're both part of the same package.

However, if the OP remains determined to see this with blinkers on, she's unlikely to get to the bottom of it.

Hopefully she'll have a quiet word with the staff member, show her the review and ask for her side of it.

Have you ever heard of a customer complaining because the man who served them well in every other respect didn’t smile?

I very much doubt it

absolutely hate being greeted by a sullen, resting bitch face employee, who acts like they are doing me a favour by serving me. Or even worse, on their phones or ignoring you

this isn’t what the OP has described - she has said the member of staff provides good service - it’s more about the elderly gentleman wanting the women to smile

Most staff are pulled up (or spoken to) when they get a bad review.

If a man gets a bad review for not smiling and not making a customer feel welcomed, then of course they're going to get pulled up on it.

At least they have in just about every place I've worked.

OMG hospitality businesses are being crippled now and fighting over ever £1 in a customer’s pocket. If someone comes and spends their hard earned cash they deserve a big smile and a warm welcome. It’s in all your interests as customers have a lot of choice about where they go.

Same, I did many years in hospitality. Smiling and a friendly greeting is essential for a positive customer experience. The best boss I ever had (my first boss) at a cake shop/cafe would always say to both the male and female staff ‘dazzle them with your smile so that they decide that today is a great day for cake!’. He treated us with so much respect, and always stood up for us against difficult customers.

I absolutely hate being greeted by a sullen, resting bitch face employee, who acts like they are doing me a favour by serving me. Or even worse, on their phones or ignoring you. It completely ruins the experience and I often don’t go back. Sometimes I just say ‘I’m ok thanks’ and walk out and don’t bother.

As more things move online, and the cost of living gets worse, retail and hospitality will need to make sure their customer service is up to scratch at all times.

You could even start a conversation on smiling and how the women feel about it

I remember a thread where an OP
made a similar complaint as a women about other women in a store - when the people on thread picked it apart the OP had built up the visit to the shop and was putting pressure on the women to welcome her as she was having a bad day!

If I'm paying today's sky high prices I expect a smile not just efficiency.

When I think of good customer service I think of getting the right information - being dealt with swiftly and efficiently - not one iota of a smile is necessary

this is so misogynistic if you ask me - imagine a man doing the above - no smile needed

I think it would be mean to single someone out for the way they look. We can’t all smile all the time. Many of us have a resting bitch face.

On the other hand a PP has said well that the issue is to be welcoming. I think that this would need a half day on customer care and what we all want when we’re seeking a service in the service industry. Your staff are, of course, customers themselves outside work so it’s a useful exercise that everybody can think about. I remember very well indeed when I had my first customer care training. I thought it was a load of total bollocks as a concept but, I must admit that over the years since I have very much come to see the point.

In my view that would be the most tactful and the more productive way of dealing with this and would help the whole team.