Customers needs are changing and small businesses have the answer!

Work Smart Not Hard Tip No. 45 in a series written for Indie Cambs

At the start of each new year we’re bombarded with the same questions: “What do you want this year? What are your goals? What are your resolutions? What will you achieve? What will you do differently?”

“Cultivate honourable relationships” is one of the best new year resolutions I’ve seen and it really made me stop and think. As world events continue to remind us, life is what happens while we’re busy making plans and with so much out of our control it’s understandable that many of the business owners I know have said they want to focus on being less busy and more effective, and for their work to have more impact.

We’re all suffering to some extent from the interruptions to supply chains, the effects of tariffs, tax changes and loss of reliability. We’re also experiencing the decline in reliability of products and services that we engaged with in good faith. We’re so used to being frustrated and disappointed that when something works the way it’s supposed to we’re surprised.

What this does is give our small, independent businesses a huge advantage.

When we recognise that almost all of our customers or clients are affected by the same things that bother us, and many have a lot less control over their lives than we do, we can step in and make any contact they have with us shine like a beacon of reliability and stability and most importantly, let them know they matter. They’re not just another nameless, faceless consumer, a source of profit, they’re someone we know and value and we can show that, in us, they’ve found something good they can rely on in an unreliable world.

It is incredibly difficult to do things differently when the world demands more automation and less personalised service but the need for building human connection is more important now than ever. Creating genuine, trusted partnerships with our customers is the starting point of creating honourable relationships.

Our work is about people and many people are having a hard time so the smart way to work is to do all we can to make people feel better by letting them know they matter.

If you want to know how do this in your business, get in touch!