Apparently workers of the Keihin Electric Express Railway have to go through daily smile scans, a routine designed to increase their customer service aptitude.

Courtesy Telegraph

The system, running on software developed by Japanese company Omron, scans the worker’s face (presumably through a webcam) and creates a smile rating of 0 to 100. The assessment is based on an analysis of the worker’s “facial characteristics, from lip curves and eye movements to wrinkles.”

Obviously, the aim is to get workers to smile more:

For those with a below-par grin, one of an array of smile-boosting messages will op up on the computer screen ranging from “you still look too serious” to “lift up your mouth corners”, according to the Mainichi Daily News [MDN].

Why? Bigger smiles mean a more pleasant impression, increasing the chance happier customers. Service with a smile is a basic tenet of effective customer service.

What do you think? Personally I can believe that Omron’s system is effective. Anyone who’s gotten someone else to smile knows how this superficial adjustment can actually lead to genuine pleasantness inside. Then again, requiring something always has a way of making it a boring chore.

MDN also reports that more Japanese service companies are implementing the Omron Smile Scan system for their staff.

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Post from: The Gadget Blog