Ireland was rated first among 69 countries and regions for the friendliness of its customer service providers in 2014, with 97 percent of customers receiving a smile from their service providers, according to the 2015 Smiling Report compiled by the Sweden-based Better Business World Wide, a global mystery shopping services provider.

Greece and Puerto Rico tied for second place with 93 percent, followed by Lithuania with 92 percent.

Croatia is the country with the least smiles, with a smiling index of only 56 percent.

The annual report, the 11th edition of its kind, is a global survey which investigates the circumstances in which mystery shoppers may receive a smile, a greeting or an add-on sales suggestion at various service venues including shopping malls, restaurants, hotels and banks.

The 2014 study is based on more than 1.7 million responses from quality-assured mystery shoppers who offered feedback on the friendliness of services they received at locations they visited.

The mystery shoppers are from professional mystery shopping companies that are members of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, the trade organization for mystery shopping service providers.

Overall, 80 percent of customers received a smile and 87 percent were greeted, while only 52 percent received an add-on sales suggestion, according to the report.

Industries with the most smiles for customers include health and beauty (86 percent), automobile sales and service (86 percent) and finance (84 percent). The lowest scores went to the transport sector, where only 48 percent of customers were welcomed with a smile.

The following are the eleven countries and regions with the friendliest customer service: 

  Turkey

 

2014 Ranking:7

2014 smiling index:88 percent

2013 smiling index:80 percent