Jensen Wang has been selling ice cream for 22 years. But don't be fooled into thinking he's in the ice cream business.

"I tell my employees, 'We're not in the ice cream business. We're in the happiness business,'" said Wang, owner of the Baskin-Robbins franchise on Gordons Corner Road in Manalapan.

That's the theory behind the $70,000 to $80,000 Wang and his wife, Ronda, recently spent giving their store a face lift, making it the first Baskin-Robbins in the state to sport a new look that focuses on making the ice-cream parlor a more interactive experience for customers. For example, Wang has tried to turn sundae-making into a spectator event and added a foot rail at the base of the counter so children can more easily step up and peer into the tubs of ice cream within.

"The big change for us is becoming more interactive with the consumer," said Lou Beccarelli, director of franchise services for Canton, Mass.-based Baskin-Robbins, which is part of Dunkin' Brands Inc., the company that also owns Dunkin' Donuts.

"I think they were probably prompted by Cold Stone Creamery and MaggieMoo's over the years," said Lynda Utterback, executive director of the National Ice Cream Retailers Association, a trade group.

The fast-growing Cold Stone Creamery has placed an emphasis on providing a show to their customers, so that they can watch their desserts being assembled.

The renovations at Baskin-Robbins will lead to similar spectacles, Beccarelli said.

"It used to be that you would order a sundae, and the first thing the employee would do is turn his back to you," Beccarelli said. Now, the employee stands behind a glass-encased counter and fixes the sundae right in front of the customer, who can watch the whole thing.

There are other physical changes, too, including a new logo and signs that playfully incorporate the number 31 into the letters B and R. When the chain started in 1945, brothers-in-law Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins hit on the idea of offering 31 flavors, one for each day of the month.

Ice cream is big business. Consumers spent $13.3 billion on ice cream in parlors and restaurants in 2004, the most recent figure available, according to the International Dairy Foods Association. The average American eats about 21 1/2 quarts of ice cream a year, according to Marti Pupillo, spokeswoman for the group.

Getting people to switch from one brand to another can be difficult, so business owners need to offer something more than the promise of good ice cream, said Utterback of the ice-cream retailers group. "With ice cream, people are pretty loyal to the brand they usually take," she said.

That's why part of the Baskin-Robbins renovation involves not just the physical layout, but also employee training, Beccarelli said. For example, employees are encouraged to engage the customers in conversation and offer them a free taste of the flavor of the month, he said.

"We want it to be a more fun in-store experience," Beccarelli said. "We want to have a little more flair."

So far, 238 of the approximately 1,000 stand-alone Baskin-Robbins stores in the United States have been redesigned, and the rest should be done over the coming 18 to 24 months, Beccarelli said.

The renovation work at the Manalapan store is the biggest face-lift the store has had since the Wangs opened it in 1984. So far, it's proved popular with customers, Jensen Wang said.

"They like the setup, especially the rail for kids," he said. "They can stand on the rail and see the flavors."

As for whether the changes will result in more dollars coming in, that's hard to predict right now, just a month after the work has finished. "In a couple of years, ask me then," Wang said.