Improving Customer Relations With The Practice of Gratitude

How successful would your business be without its customers? Not at all successful – it just wouldn’t exist. Your customers are the very lifeline of your business, whatever you’re selling. They enable you to do what you want to do, so it’s absolutely vital that they feel valued and that their perception of your business is a positive one. The most effective way to achieve this, and to ensure long-term success, is to incorporate the practice of gratitude into your day-to-day actions and interactions.

Gratitude – the quality of being thankful – is one of the most powerful and effective marketing tools and business strategies available. It’s completely free, accessible to everyone and suitable for all types and sizes of business. A positive and thankful attitude is scientifically proven to improve personal and professional relationships, and it can immensely improve our own emotional well-being, mindset and perceptions. Yet, for some reason, gratefulness one of the most under-appreciated and neglected tools – there’s a lack of gratitude for gratitude. 

Building Lasting Relationships

We live in a largely materialistic society in which many individuals have a sense of entitlement, thus ingratitude often prevails and spreads like wildfire. It’s a contagious, toxic mindset and attitude, and one which should be avoided at all costs if your objective is success. But gratitude is also contagious. An appreciative, positive attitude will elevate your mood, increase your energy levels, enable you to better deal with disappointments and challenges, help you to recognize valuable opportunities and make you more personable and appealing to others. As a result, customers will be more likely to trust you, buy from you and remain loyal.

Expressing gratitude to your customers, and consistently reminding them just how important they are to you, is key to cultivating lasting relationships and attracting new custom. It’s all about the experience, so you need to engage and connect with customers to create a positive experience and foster long-term loyalty. If you take them for granted, or put all of your focus on the customers you don’t have, you risk losing the ones you already have and the referrals they could bring. Negativity begets negativity; positivity begets positivity. Use your energy wisely.

How To Start Practicing Gratitude

Gratefulness is not something that comes naturally to many of us. It requires genuine effort in the beginning, but it will soon become second nature if you stick with it. Before too long, you’ll begin to notice a positive change in your own attitude and wellbeing, thus you’ll be able to communicate more effectively, establish valuable relationships and sell better. Nothing bad can come of it, so you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The best way to get started is to keep a gratefulness journal. Each day, simply write down one or two things you are grateful for, no matter how small. If something doesn’t go according to plan, don’t focus on the negative – examine the situation, think about what you can take and learn from the experience going forward. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your general outlook, productivity and relationships improve as a result of this change in attitude and perception.

Contributed by Rachel Craig, Head of Digital Content at 1st Formations Limited, the UK’s most high regarded company formation specialists. An expert in the industry, she provides small business advice and guidance on corporate regulation and taxation. Follow Rachel on Twitter.