A phenomenon is happening in corporate boardrooms. Across industries, I’ve spotted a strange (to me) strategic development: “forced joy.” Whether “moments of connection” at Starbucks, “capture joyful moments” at Tiffany & Co., or some other new policy, big companies want their people to cheer up customers in a branded way. But when the smile is compulsory and performed rather than felt natural, the cost can go beyond operational drag and reputational blips to brand burnout and employee disengagement.
Let’s look at recent examples and discuss why a forced joy policy can hurt a brand.
- Starbucks: In Jan/Feb 2025, the coffee giant required baristas to write something on every to-go cup (positive affirmations, doodles, or even the customer’s name), as part of a branded drive for “moments of connection.” Business Insider
- Tiffany & Co. (in the comment sections): Luxury retailer Tiffany added a “behavior” for staff called “capturing joyful moments” this year. While not as public as Starbucks, online commentators saw a clear parallel as staff were expected to participate in Tiffany & Co.‘s “Tiffany Joy” app which backfired, evolving into a source of frustration as employees faced increasing pressure to engage, highlighting broader challenges in the company’s culture and sales strategy.” Business Of Fashion
Companies in the middle have also joined this cheerleading army (sometimes called “forced positivity”), such as Walmart (behavioral standards, including “seeking” joy), Pizza Hut (micro-behaviors including “smiling”), Airbnb (mission of spreading joy), Baskin-Robbins (“dropping smiles”), and others.
As companies mandate more joy in employee-customer interactions, it’s important to understand that an emotional performance doesn’t come cheap:
Employee burden. The cost is paid by the employee. It’s well known that any forced emotional dissonance has a cost, contributing to employee burnout and turnover.
Erosion of Trust. If you “fake it ’til you make it” with your customers, some of them will notice and feel you’re phony.
Brand Dilution. If every brand is forcing joy, or using it as a performance metric, a critical element of brand differentiation is lost. The effect is more sameness rather than brand equity.* Process Inefficiency. Do you, as a service brand, mandate a scripted behavioral performance while not allowing adequate time or other process efficiencies to ensure throughput and speed?
PR Downside. If employees feel compelled to perform joy, or if a customer reports the policy rather than a joyful intent, your public relations reps will get feedback such as, “Why would anyone hire you to do that?” and other awkward moments. Are you reading this and thinking, “but people really do love it when companies ‘inject joy’ or offer personalized connections?” I get that. But no service is a million-dollar-a-day performance unless your service processes (ex: staffing, skills, speed) have backed it up. However, if all you’re offering is a policy of joy via mission statements, performance goals, or other cheerleading obligations, then you’ve not gone deep enough.
The lesson here: marketing + pr = emotional & operational authenticity.
A Deeper Joy:
Here’s the prescription for offering meaningful customer moments:
Operate authentically with your employees and customers. If employees can feel their own joy, humanity, authenticity, and warmth, so can customers. The brand vehicle is not positivity or smiling; the brand vehicle is the meaningfulness and human-ness.
Invest more than “human” emotion. The staff at the sharp edges (retail, food and beverage, hotel front desk, bank tellers, field service reps, etc.) want to feel like human beings, not corporate robots following mandates. Create the emotional infrastructure to back up your performance expectations.
Don’t ask your customer-facing teams to offer inauthentic performance. You don’t hire and train all that talent to make the customer think you care. Allow the customer-facing teams to be their actual, authentic selves.
Measure emotional value, not actions. You don’t measure success of a show of “moments of joy” with customer visits or to-go cup purchases. You measure success by value: “Did the customer leave the exchange feeling seen?” “Did the employee leave the exchange feeling like they were able to use their gifts and skills?”
In Conclusion:
A decade ago, a McKinsey researcher warned about over-engineering the customer experience: “The challenge with customer experience, then, is in the opposite direction: the risk of pushing ‘customerization’ too far.” Great insight. The same applies to cheerleading corporate initiatives.
Done well, authenticity and employee-customer empowerment ring truer than a million smile grams. Happiness on demand? As McKinsey says, it’s only “feel-good, short-termism,” and that’s a view I support.
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About Rev. Dylan Thomas Cotter: With over fifteen years of expertise in PR and strategy, Rev. Dylan Thomas Cotter stands out as a strategic advisor for elite clients across entertainment, technology, fitness, fashion and beauty. His dynamic life experience enhances his ability to elevate brand messages and drive impactful engagement.
A former adult entertainer, Dylan Thomas is proud gay transgender activist and author that has appeared in Vice, Rolling Stone, Out Magazine, Yahoo! News, Pride.com, Mashable, Inked Magazine, Well Beings News and Newsweek that happily resides in the Hollywood Hills with his partner.
His memoir Transgender & Triggering The Life of Dylan Thomas Cotter is available now at Barnes & Noble, Harvard Book Store, Book Soup and Skylight Books amongst other fine retailers and is distributed worldwide through Ingramspark.