From good business relations spring all the benefits of running a reputable and successful operation. This is not only referring to the important customer-supplier relations but also those with colleagues, suppliers and even your competitors. The ways these relations are handles will decide how far your business will go.
Excellent business relations, the kind that brings profits, don’t materialize out of nothing. It takes hard work, patience, attention to detail and more intuitive actions than can be mentioned in this simple article. Following are a few of our choice strategies in obtaining profitable relations with your business associates:
Interactions Are CRUCIAL
In order to build your relations, you must make sure you give them their due importance. This means engaging all your associates thoughtfully and positively. The same goes for those leaving a “negative” feedback as well as those leaving positive comments. The way you respond to your worst antagonist can have far reaching implications.
Having your social media presence well appointed is the first step. Social media platforms allow your valued customers to post or tag your options. When this happens, don’t hesitate; not only are your future customers about to watch your response, but your competition and colleagues too. Think of the impression a timely and business-minded response will make.
Be on The lookout for Criticism — In All Its forms
Some of the most scathing criticism can hold the keys for tomorrow’s success, if the response is right. Criticism doesn’t always come in as a complaint; it could be as subtle as a returned product. This is where looking for patterns in goods being returned and widely accepted. If your sales and inventory data are integrated properly with a cloud based inventory management system, for example, you will be able to clearly see where you are hitting the mark and which products need to be tweaked for maximum profitability.
Be Generous — Inside and Out
A positive work environment and reward system will overflow from your working staff onto your customers with only positive results. This can be an increasingly difficult practice to apply, especially when the results it provides begin to flow in and the company begins to get large indeed. Suddenly that individuality is lost and your business is in danger of becoming “well-established”.
You will retain your high-quality relations if you don’t let this happen. The best way to maintain the “customer first” mentality is to cultivate it within your workforce with plenty of positive reinforcement and generous rewards systems. Employees feeling the warmth of your generosity will develop a passion for service and the only way to express it will be with tip-top customer service.
This is not a quality that can stay hidden for long. Once word of superior services gets around you will be hard-pressed to keep up your generosity with the throngs of customers you will begin attracting — but stick to the code and greater rewards will follow.
