Sales are negatively impacted when employees show too much emotion, positive or negative
A new study has found that smiling too wide might effect a business’ bottom line. The survey showed that salespeople that display emotions at high intensity, whether positive or negative, are perceived as inauthentic by customers, a reality liable to weaken satisfaction with products and their use if not prevent sales altogether.
Historically, “service with a smile” has been an accepted business practice, with some corporations even requiring employees to expose their pearly whites to consumers. However, the study—conducted by Dr. Cheshin of the University of Haifa; Dr. Adi Amit of the Open University of Israel; and Prof. Gerben van Kleef of the University of Amsterdam—found that while a modicum of expression could raise the probability of making a sale, too much emotion has an adverse effect.
“It’s a question of being genuine and building trust. When there’s a high intensity of emotion, like a large smile, or an over-enthusiastic sales pitch, it seems that you are faking,” Dr. Cheshin explained to The Media Line. “Selling a television, for example, shouldn’t cause a salesperson to get too excited and if so, it simply seems like the person is putting on a show.”
The researchers examined elements including the pitch and speed of a salesperson’s speech as well as the nature of the language employed. Notably, the academics arrived at the same conclusion for face-to-face interactions and for sales made over the phone or by email.
In terms of methodology, Dr. Cheshin described one experiment carried out in the Netherlands which he considers the most impactful. “We passed out fliers advertising a new service for a free DVD to match your personality. Test subjects then filled out a survey about their personality and what movies they liked. Unbeknownst to the participants, they all received the same ‘Western,’ which was nobody’s top pick. The subjects were then told to rate the quality of the service.
“When the positive intensity [in the follow-up emails] was high,” he continued, “including multiple exclamation marks and ‘emojis,’ the service was rated lower. People responded better when they received communications that contained less emotive language and even low levels of negative intensity, such as phrases like ‘I’m sorry this may not be your preferred product.’”
Anat Rafaeli, Professor of Behavioral Science at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, praised the findings, telling The Media Line that, “we hear a lot about fake news and now this [study] is exploring the idea of fake emotions. Emotions of other people absolutely influence our behavior. When they that are too intense on behalf of a salesperson,” she elaborated, “they are going to be interpreted as inauthentic. It is clear that when people express extreme positive emotions, they are subject to scrutiny.”
The conclusions drawn may cause the retail industry to rethink its approach to customer service, possibly going to far as to replace the traditional “ear-to-ear smile” technique with the contemporary adage, “keep it real.”
(Benji Flacks is a Student Intern in The Media Line’s Press and Policy Student Program)