One may reasonably assume that employees should emphasize creating a pleasant and entertaining experience during an interaction that will elicit positive customer emotions, such as feelings of joy. This practice is especially important in the case of hedonic services, such as winter parks, which are used as the service setting for the present study. Winter park services can be characterized as pleasure-driven enterprises, and an important goal for the customers is to have a great time and a joyful experience (e.g. Bigne´ et al., 2005). It is important, therefore, that a service provider of hedonic services has as a primary goal to induce the customers with a feeling of joy when interacting with its customers. It is also reasonable to assume that service employees who are particularly helpful, and who show empathy, as well as being very friendly, may induce greater levels of stimulation and pleasure. Research shows that a simple smile from an employee can in itself produce a higher level of customer satisfaction (e.g. Søderlund and Rosengren, 2008). Previous research links service providers’ smiling faces and happy voices to the inducement of joy in an observer (e.g. Adelmann and Zajonc, 1989; Lundqvist and Dimberg, 1995). Thus, the present study assumes that customers’ general perceptions of their interaction with the service providers in a winter park is linked to customers’ feelings of joy. Based on the previous theoretical framework, the present study poses its second hypothesis: