Artificial intelligence|According to the company, during the three-month test period, the smiles and greetings of the store chain’s staff improved 1.6 times. The software has also attracted criticism.
Boring customer service can leave a bad atmosphere, and no merchant wants that for their customers.
One of Japan’s largest retail chains, Aeon, has found a new way to guarantee the happiness of its customer service, which has also garnered criticism.
The retail chain has been the first in Japan to implement the Smile-kun training program developed by the Insta VR company, which uses artificial intelligence to evaluate the customer service’s facial expressions, tone of voice and its intensity.
The program also has a game-like reward system that scores performance and rewards users for development. When enough experience points have been obtained, the user can advance to the next difficulty level.
Aeon says in its press release that the program collects employees’ points so that employees can compare their points between different departments and other stores in the chain.
According to the company, customer service people’s ways of smiling and talking vary too much between people. One’s lips don’t rise enough, and the other’s voice is too quiet, the company writes.
Aeon has said that it wants to standardize the staff’s smiles and thus maximize customer satisfaction.
The company first tested the software in eight of its stores, where a total of approximately 3,400 employees work. During the three-month test period, the staff’s smiles and greetings improved 1.6 times. Next, the program is planned to be implemented in 240 chain supermarkets across the country.
Aeon has been the first in Japan to implement the Smile-kun training program developed by the Insta VR company, which uses artificial intelligence to evaluate the customer service’s facial expressions, tone of voice and its intensity.
One One of Japan’s largest trade unions, UA Zensen, has been concerned about whether forced smiling increases the harassment of customer service staff at their workplaces.
Verbal harassment of employees and constant complaints are a common problem in Japan. The phenomenon is known as kasu-hara.
This year, almost half of the 30,000 people working in the service industry who responded to UA Zensen’s survey said they had experienced harassment from customers.
One of the respondents to the survey described the standardized smile compulsion as a new form of harassment towards the staff.
“Smiles should be a beautiful and heartfelt thing and not treated like a product,” another respondent said.
A Hong Kong newspaper reported on the matter The South China Morning Post.
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