Last week I received a call from a lovely gentleman who wanted to tell me how much he appreciated my article from last week, and how ‘spot on’ he thought it was. He spent a few minutes sharing his story and encouraging me in my pursuits as well.

I shared this occurrence on my personal Facebook page, and one of my friends responded with “So lovely! For someone to go out of their way to encourage another is a challenge for all of us to do it more!”. She, and the gentleman who called me, are exactly right.

It is amazing what simple, seemingly ‘little things’ can do for your business. I have had a few clients say to me recently “I tell everyone that you always reply quickly to emails”, because it impresses them that I do so as a matter of course.

Going out of our way to encourage, thank or assist people is something every business can do. However, let me state clearly: if your only motivation for doing something ‘nice’ for clients and colleagues is because of the benefits you expect to receive, think again! While you can integrate these things into your processes (and while they may benefit your business), unless it comes from a genuine motivation they are not likely to respond positively. That is, they will see through the charade!

An example of a gesture that I think is questionable is the ‘personalised’ birthday card from a large corporation, who you know has no personal contact with you, they simply have your birth date and name on file. Do you hang those birthday cards alongside the ones from family and friends? Probably not! Whereas a handwritten card from someone you deal with directly on a regular basis is much more likely to be taken for what it is: a genuine gesture. So any small business operators reading this, take advantage of your ‘smallness’ and do the little things that big business cannot do.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender