Service With a (Tested) Smile

It's said that Michael Jackson’s favorite song was the Charlie Chaplin tune “Smile,” which urges you to grin no matter how bad things get. (The lyrics begin, “Smile, though your heart is aching.”)

For employees at Keihin Electric Express Railway Company in Japan, though, the tune they now run on is: Smile, and do it perfectly.

In this latest techno fix for improving customer service, the company has installed a computer software program called the Smile Scan to make sure their workers put on the best face possible for the public. The company believes it's vital for its workers to smile their best to then in turn “make their customers smile,” according to the Manichi Daily News.

Employees begin their day by grinning into a camera and a computer screen where a smile-measuring software made by Kyoto, Japan-based Omron Corporation analyzes their face, paying close attention to details like “eye movements, lip curls and wrinkles.” The scanner then rates the smile on a scale of 0 to 100. If a person gets a low score, the scanner offers words of advice like, “you look too serious,” or, “lift up the corners of your mouth.” The 530 employees must also carry around with them a print-out of their best smile to remind them of what they should look like.

It might seem like a tactic straight out of George Orwell's futuristic book 1984, but at least they are smiling. Can't fault the effort, can you?