Eight ways to improve relationships with suppliers and customers (even if they live far away)

Whether you run an international business or simply live far from your suppliers and customers, maintaining quality relationships with your company's stakeholders is essential to the success of your business in the short and long term. Keeping your suppliers, customers, and team happy often means avoiding misunderstandings, preventing problems, and streamlining processes that will help keep your business running smoothly.

But when in-person interactions are limited, or completely irrelevant, how should business leaders go about improving those relationships? Below, eight members of the Young Entrepreneur Council share their answers along with information about their own relationship-building strategies.

1. Take the time to connect on personal matters

Be sure to take the time to discuss your family or other personal matters. Going the extra mile this way will help your customers see that your business isn't just about the money; it's about making real connections. If language is a barrier, try to use online communication resources that are popular in your customers' specific country. For example, I use WeChat to talk to Chinese suppliers and WhatsApp to talk to Mexican suppliers. This will help you tailor your communication to your audience and build a loyal international clientele that will take your business to new levels. - Shu Saito, all filters

2. Send engaging newsletters

We are fortunate to do business in the age of digital communications, which helps bridge the physical distance between businesses and customers. But I think the most effective way to improve business-customer relations is to employ a means of communication that was also used in the era of print and analogue: the newsletter. Having a qualified PR or media professional write this for you will pay big dividends, as good engaging content will attract readers and an effective message can be creatively implemented. A section where customer profiles are featured is also a great way to drive the relationship forward, as everyone likes to read about themselves. - Kyle Michaud, Carolina Dozer

3. Take advantage of thoughtful gifts and team retreats

The one thing that worked best for us was making everyone feel as present as possible. In practice, we translate this into thoughtful gifts and team retreats. We have weekly non-work related team calls. During these calls, we have guided but informal discussions from which we learn a lot about our team members. We're lucky to have an agile team, and knowing a level of detail about their lives allows us to create personalized gifts that mean something. Surprising and delighting our team with these small, regular gestures has done wonders for our sense of connectedness. We also regularly host in-person retreats that build on our knowledge of our team's lives, ideas and skills. This allows us to plan discussions and activities that don't seem too generic. -Daria González,