Japanese Smile Detector Evaluates Smiles, Makes It Better

Customer service employees, for the most part, are doomed to spending their hours wearing fake smiles and cheerful faces.  In Japan's Keihin Electric Express Railway, it gets worse: they make sure that the pretend geniality is as close to authentic as can be with "smile-checking" software.

Part of the morning routine for Keihin employees is to take a picture with the biggest smile they can muster.  The photo is then picked up and processed by the company's evaluation app, which compares each part of the service worker's face with the ideal characteristics of a "high-quality smile".

Grades are given for each part of the face, including eye movements, lip curves, cheek position and facial lines.  The numbers are added up and rated on a scale of one to 100.  Less-spirited grunts with low scores are instructed to keep adjusting their "smiling faces" until the software assigns them a passing score.  Once they pass, they are given a copy of their "winning smile" so they can try replicating it throughout the day.

Can you imagine how a session like this might be like?  "Your eyes are too wide when you smile.  It looks fake.  The software suggests to attempt squinting a little."   That's a scene in a comedy film waiting to happen.

Seriously, though, I'd love to see the same software used across all customer service companies.  Is it a pain in the ass for employees?  I'm pretty sure it is.  Imagine how good your day will be, though, if everyone you dealt with in the service industry had a shit-eating grin permanently plastered on their mug?

[via iO9]

Mood Monitors

Mood monitors — both physical and virtual — are another very successful and highly innovative initiative launched by TCL. The physical Mood monitor is a cute, bright yellow device that allows every employee to indicate his/her mood, by simply moving a hand. The idea is to enable employees to help lift the spirits of a sad or angry colleague and have them lend a helping hand when they see someone puzzled or restless.
Today, every employee at TCL who has a workstation assigned to him/her has a Mood monitor. This initiative has received a phenomenal response across TCL with not just employees, but also visitors to our offices who request Mood monitors to carry back home.
The online Mood monitor, or K-monitor (Knowledge monitor) as it is also known, is a programme that displays a new question on the computer screen as soon a user logs onto the network every morning. Topics range from issues of organisational significance, opinion polls on organisational initiatives and information on various aspects of the organisation, to questions on general awareness, news, current affairs, history and the environment.
Responses received from around 1,000 employees daily are then analysed, and an e-mail with the results of the Mood monitor along with the correct response and relevant informative feedback is sent to all employees.
Employees are also invited to contribute questions to the Mood monitor. Creating awareness about key themes like our CoC, SHE, VMV, community initiatives, products and services, the Tata group etc, this initiative will soon complete 100 questions since the time it was launched.
The CheerRing is a brass bell called that has been hung at TCL offices in Mumbai, Noida, Ahmedabad and Pune. Any employee wanting to announce any positive, good and happy news about a personal, team or company achievement, birthday and fun announcements etc, needs to ring the bell. As we at TCL like to put it, the bell chimes for good times! A direct outcome of this initiative is a surge in energy, excitement and positivity in the office.
TCL also celebrates Diwali, the New Year, birthdays celebrations with a palpable gusto, making the organisation a truly vibrant and exciting place to work in.