If you're too nice to customers, will you drink excessively? Maybe | Gene Marks | Business

How nice should you be to your customers? The answer, according to recent university studies, is a little conflicting.

If you're too nice, you may find yourself excessively drunk. That's the conclusion of a study conducted by Penn State University and the University of Buffalo. The researchers combined with the data of the National Institutes of Health to survey more than 4,500 workers in the field of food and education.

The study found that when workers are having a positive reaction to one of these negative emotions.

Why? No one really knows for sure. But the lead theory is that when they are forced to control their negative feelings at work, they need to be afterwards. "Alicia Grandey, professor of psychology at Penn State, said in a statement. "In these jobs, there's also a lot of positive feelings and negative feelings. Money gives you a chance to get over your natural tendencies, but doing it all day can be wearing. "

Does this mean the next time our employees are getting an earful of an abrasive customer? Well, not so fast.

That's because another recent study, which is conducted by the University of Toronto and the University of South Carolina, is one of the most important causes of nice. Why? It's because our customers expect a warmer relationship with a smaller company as opposed to a faceless corporation.

"We often romanticize small businesses," says co-author Pankaj Aggarwal, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto. "We are drawn to them because they are unique, offer locally made items or create an authentic experience. But because they lack relative power in the marketplace, they have to be their suppliers, their vendors and most importantly, their customers. "

Let's summarize: they are so nice they can tend to drink heavily, and that's not a good thing long-term. But if they are not worthy So what's the answer? How about just being … professional.

I would never ask an employee to be sugary sweet to an upset customer. It not only seems to be disingenuous, but doing so clearly has an emotional impact on the employee. On the other hand, I would never tolerate an employee treating a customer with anything less than professional courtesy. Be firm. Be polite. Be yourself. Just getting in the way of the customer gets what we want