Return on Relationships: The metric every business leader should be tracking in 2024

New research from Gamma reveals the tactics successful businesses are using to stay ahead, with psychological insight as to why they make a difference

• Research demonstrates correlation between strong business relationships and commercial success.
• Businesses which reported growth in revenue over the last 12 months overperformed on factors including effective problem resolution, good personal relationships with clients, and providing valuable advice to clients.
• Internal factors also play a role, with businesses prioritising culture more likely to see revenue increase.
• Gamma has designed a measure to calculate Return on Relationships (RoR), to help businesses assess the strength of their relationships and pinpoint how they can maximise this value.

London, UK - March 21, 2024 - New research commissioned by leading UCaaS provider, Gamma, has demonstrated that despite challenging market conditions, there is still room for businesses to thrive. Human factors are revealed to be central to commercial success; with almost three quarters (72%) of business leaders believing that good rapport is more important than price and capabilities when choosing a partner or supplier.

Most businesses recognise the importance of relationships, but not all are delivering on this. For those who practise what they preach, strong relationships are a key predictor of business success. When comparing businesses whose revenue had grown in the last twelve months versus those whose revenue had declined, there was a clear gap in performance on the reported strength of relationships between customers and colleagues. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of leaders in growing companies felt they had strong relationships with clients, with 64% saying the same for colleagues, compared to 61% and 52% respectively in businesses experiencing declining revenues.

When evaluating business success, research revealed that businesses who reported a growth in revenue over the last 12 months were performing best across:

• Delivering effective problem resolution (74%) 
• Providing consistent high-level products and services (70%) 
• Building and maintaining good personal relationships with clients (69%) 
• Offering valuable advice to businesses (68%)  
• Respondents whose revenue had declined in the last 12 months agreed that more client feedback (48%) and a greater focus on customer service over profit (37%) would help them to form better relationships with clients.

There was also clear connection between success and culture, with successful businesses more likely to rate their workplace’s culture highly in comparison to those who had not performed well (67% vs 55%), and three-quarters (75%) agreeing that strong relationships with colleagues are equally key to business success. With half of business leaders (51%) acknowledging that staff churn was a factor in losing clients, and over a third (37%) of total respondents admitting they are considering a career change in the coming year, greater emphasis on building positive working relationships should be a priority for businesses in 2024.

In response to these findings, Gamma has identified a metric which tracks this correlation between strong relationships and revenue growth; ‘Return on Relationships’ (RoR); and has built a calculator to help businesses evaluate their performance.

Dr. Charlotte Armitage, a business psychologist, explains the value in good business relationships from a psychological standpoint:

“Relationships form the basis of our existence as humans, we are inherently social beings and require meaningful connections for survival. To maintain our own psychological and physical safety in the world, we choose to interact with those that we feel safe and secure around. Therefore, creating secure and meaningful relationships with employees and customers positions an organisation as a place that both parties wish to remain a part of.” 

Psychology can also help us create better relationships. Dr Armitage explains why businesses should prioritise trust to maximise their RoR:

“Trust is fundamental in any relationship and takes time to build. To develop trust, individuals need to feel safe, and that you are stable and predictable. If you can offer this predictability and remain consistent over time, demonstrating integrity when needed, it forms a good basis for a trusting relationship to be built.”

Andrew Belshaw, CEO at Gamma, comments:

"Connectivity isn't just about technology; it's about people. Successful businesses thrive when their communications have genuine human connections, leading to meaningful customer experiences. Our research clearly shows that success is closely tied to investing in strategies that build trust and confidence among colleagues and customers. It’s an approach we have been living and breathing for years, in our own relationships with our customers and in the solutions we offer them. Return on Relationships (RoR) is something we take very seriously because we understand that good relationships make good business sense."

Methodology  

Gamma partnered with Opinium, an award-winning strategic insight agency, to survey 800 senior decision makers at companies with over 10 employees in the UK, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. The sample was distributed evenly across each region.

The full research report, titled “Return on Relationships: The extraordinary value of humanising business communication” can be found here.

About Gamma  

Gamma communications plc is a leading supplier of Communication Services in the UK, German, Spanish and Dutch business markets. It is admitted to trading on AIM and employs over 1,800 people. With a range of UCaaS, Mobile and Connectivity services, Gamma provides robust and secure solutions that enable organisations to communicate, collaborate and offer a better customer experience.

Gamma’s largest market is in the UK where the company’s network-based services are supplied to SME, Public Sector and Enterprise markets through a network of 1000+ channel partners and its own direct sales and support capabilities. Gamma is expanding its UCaaS presence in Europe with a family of businesses focusing on digital automation, delivering Gamma-powered services to SME customers largely via a network of channel partners in Germany, Spain and the Benelux region. 

Gamma’s vision is for a better-connected world in which we can work smarter for the benefit of business, people and the planet by developing a strong and sustainable pan-European product set, building a leading position in the UCaaS and CCaaS markets.

For more information about Gamma and its comprehensive range of services, please visit www.gamma.co.uk.

About Dr Charlotte Armitage  

Dr Charlotte Armitage is a business and media psychologist with over 20 years' experience. She has worked for the National Policing Improvement Agency (College of Policing) in occupational psychology, assisting with the design and delivery of police examination and training processes. She now works across the corporate sector as a business psychologist and psychotherapist, delivering psychological interventions for enterprise-scale organisations such as HSBC, Barclays, Deloitte. She is also on the registered list of mental health professionals for all major broadcasters.