Ever wondered how you can grow your business without spending any money? Maximising your business’s performance is all about innovation, finding new opportunities for efficiency, staying on top of your administrative obligations and efficiently managing paperwork. It’s also about developing loyal staff, suppliers and customers. And, it turns out that a great way to build loyalty is to write an old fashioned letter of thanks! Surprised? That’s hardly surprising. New research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds that people significantly underestimate the positive impact that a letter of gratitude has on its recipient. According to Chicago Booth Professor Nicholas Epley and University of Texas at Austin’s Amit Kumar there is a wide gap between how little senders think their letters of gratitude will affect the recipient and the high level of happiness that recipients feel when reading the letter. A series of four experiments found that letter writers significantly underestimated how surprised recipients would be about why the letter writer was grateful, and overestimated how awkward recipients would feel. Additionally, the letter writers underestimated how positive recipients would feel. The researchers also found letter writers were unnecessarily concerned about choosing the right words to express their gratitude – recipients were simply happy because of the warmth of the gesture. A simple letter of thanks to staff, suppliers and / or customers can be a powerful tool to improve personal and professional relationships… it can also motivate loyalty, increase productivity, improve your company’s work culture and enhance your brand. Maximise your performance While Ayers Group wont write your letters of thanks, we will help you maximise your business performance by taking care of your contractor management, PAYG obligations, finance and novated leasing, and even migration services. We can also connect you with experts in accounting, finance and more. With over 20 years’ experience in business, we’ve got the skills to help you grow your business’s profitability. Talk to us today. Reference: faculty.chicagobooth.edu/nicholas.epley/KumarEpleyGratitude.pdf