A Simple Smile is the Key to Business Success

The mantra for a business should be service with a smile. Highlighting this simple business technique, a new study states that a smile and a friendly greeting can make customers feel more loyal toward small independent companies.

Researchers from the Kingston Business School came up with this conclusion after examining the retail behavior of 2,006 consumers and the business practices of 1,216 decision makers in both small and medium-sized enterprises.

On examining the data the researchers noticed that the most common reason for customers to feel loyal toward small independent retailers was their friendly approach and services that were offered with a smile. The pleasantness of the experience has a huge impact on the customer's overall experience. It is important to remember that the customers prefer to be treated in a manner they are accustomed to.

On comparing a small independent shop to a huge corporate retailer, it was seen that three in five people are willing to offer more for a product from an independent shop and prefer to deal with one too.

"Small and medium-sized enterprises are in a unique position to embrace these traditional values of personal customer contact and loyalty and should build on their natural competitive advantages to make a real difference to survival and growth," lead researcher Professor Robert Blackburn said in a press release.

They were not surprised to know that more than a third of loyal consumers were repeat customers due to the better service and one in five valued businesses remembering their usual order.

Among the business respondents, just a third of them were interested in retaining or building on their present customer base as their main priority and increase their business over the year.

"While the majority of decision makers recognise the importance of personal relationships with customers, they are failing to develop their own customer loyalty strategies," Professor Blackburn said. "This shows a worrying loyalty gap among British small and medium-sized enterprises, where they could be failing to capitalise on their capability to provide customers with a highly personalised service."

Just ask yourself, the times when you bumped into grumpy sales assistant, did it ruin your experience of the brand. The answer is definitely a yes and you would never consider visiting the store again. As simple it can be, a smile does alter people's perception and their experience of a brand.