There are 4 types of business relationships you must cultivate and grow that play a key role in the success of your business.
And just like your relationships with family, friends, and partners, life is better when these relationships are strong and healthy.
Employee Relationships
The first of the 4 types of business relationships you must create is with your employees.
After all, they are the most valuable asset of a business, but only when they are happy in their work. Becasue happy employees are more motivated, productive, and committed.
However, the opposite is true if they’re not!
Employee relations aim to develop trust, appreciation, respect, and transparency between employees, employers, and managers.
This relationship touches every aspect of an employee’s working life – contractual, practical, emotional, and physical.
The HR department typically manages this relationship. But, in small companies of only a few people, this role usually falls to the business owner.
Tips for maintaining good employee relationships:
- Get to know your employees on an individual basis
- Make employees feel like stakeholders and critical contributors
- Provide continuous feedback, both positive and constructive
- Be open to receiving constructive feedback
- Learn what your employees value most and provide it
- Give recognition and reward employees for good performance
- Invest in your employees’ professional development
Customer relationships
The 2nd 4 types of business relationships are your customer.
You need more than a great product or service to win your customers’ hearts, minds, and wallets. Today customers expect more.
They want a fantastic buying experience, and they want to feel appreciated and valued. And that`s why customer relationship management is now a big focus for businesses.
Customer relationship management is the ongoing efforts of a business to meet and exceed customer expectations, with the ultimate goal of turning them into lifelong, loyal customers.
Loyal customers spend more, buy more – and buy more often. They also promote your business to their friends and family.
However, to build a base of loyal customers, you first have to develop strong and meaningful relations with them.
Developing solid and meaningful relationships starts when a prospective customer comes into contact with your business and continues through every subsequent touch point of the customer journey and after they have made a purchase.
Tips for developing great customer relationships:
- Put the customer at the heart of everything you do as a business
- Ensure your staff live and breathe customer satisfaction
- Identify friction points in the customer journey and eliminate them
- Optimize the customer experience at every touchpoint
- Continuously temperature check customer satisfaction
- Provide non-transactional value, such as educational newsletters
- Reward customer loyalty with exclusive discounts and offers
Investor & Bank relationships
Most businesses require financial backing from investors or banks. And maintaining a healthy relationship with your financiers is critical to growing and developing your business.
A healthy relationship ensures you have financial support in good and bad times. Beyond the financial, your investors and bankers can also provide guidance and expertise to help navigate and guide your business so that it reaches its full potential.
Some businesses make the mistake of seeing their financiers as ATMs and come to them with a cap in hand. The problem is they don’t want to feel like cash machines; you must make them feel like part of your team.
Tips for building good investor and bank relationships:
- Set calls or meetings with your financiers at least once per quarter
- Send personalized birthday and holiday greetings
- If you have business issues, let your lenders know straight away
- Make sure your financial reports are accurate
- Regularly invite your banker or investors to visit your business
- Treat your investors as business partners
- Ask for their feedback and advice
Supplier relationships
Whether your business is product- or service-based, it depends on suppliers and vendors to operate and run smoothly.
However, some business owners think they’re the top dog in the supplier relationship.
That`s not how you build your supplier relationships.
Your suppliers are strategic partners in your business, and you should treat them as such.
If you foster good relationships with suppliers, your business will reap benefits such as reduced costs, extended credit lines, prioritized service, faster turn-around times, product line development insights, and much more.
The key is to find great suppliers that you can trust and who will help your business grow. Once you find them, your aim should be to build a long-term relationship that benefits both your business and the suppliers.
Tips for fostering long-term supplier relationships:
- Pay your suppliers on time
- Set clear service level expectations from the outset
- Treat your suppliers as business partners
- Be reasonable and fair in your business dealings
- Remember, your supplier works with you, not for you
- Understand and meet contractual obligations
- Deal with issues early and professionally
4 types of business relationship conclusion
How you approach the 4 types of business relationships with your employees, customers, suppliers, and lenders will play a key role in determining if your business runs smoothly and reaches its full potential.
But, like with other relationships, these relations will only be healthy and strong if you work to nurture and cultivate them.
