Ms Ann Martyn:

When I am training my staff I always ask them to smile pleasantly and say "hello" to customers because they may be the only person the customer will speak to on a given day. After a certain period, they will find out who are the customers who come in every day. We are training young people to have a word with customers and talk about the weather and so on. I always tell them to bear in mind that an old person may not speak to another person on a given day. We must keep rural shops and post offices open.