Linking Service Employee Smile Intensity to Guest Success: Role of Guest Emotions

This study looks into employees’ Duchenne smiles, repeated down nods, and the mediating effect of guests’ emotions on guest satisfaction, interaction quality, and word of mouth. Using the method of PLS-SEM combined with machine learning, the research demonstrates that identified non-verbal behaviors facilitate an increase in positive sentiments across guests and a decrease in negative ones. These emotional responses, therefore, enhance guests’ satisfaction and the likelihood of positive word-of-mouth communication. Hence, the present research contributes to ontological insights into non-verbal behavior’s influence on the customer experience and underscores the value of blended quantitative-informatics methods for analyzing service exchanges.