When the going gets tough, many offices enter a heads-down mode in which any deviation from seriousness is taken as a distraction from the task at hand.

However, according to research from the London Business School, Wharton, and MIT, amongst others, laughter in the workplace can actually bring incredible benefits to productivity in a business environment.

Regular laughter has been shown to relieve stress and apathy, causing a boost in creativity, attention to detail, and collaboration amongst colleagues.

So how, then, can more humor in the workplace be encouraged without annoying the busybodies who tut at the first sign of office giggles?

According to the book The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny by professor Peter McGraw and journalist Joel Warner, there is a formula that may help what would otherwise be subjective humor become a more inclusive, universal joke that everyone can get in on.

They name the theory “Benign Violation” and witnessed it in effect in a diverse range of environments, from comedy clubs across the USA to remote forest villages in the Amazon.

Benign violation involves provoking laughter when it is “unsettling” or “wrong” to do so yet is also “safe” and “acceptable.”

While this may have many variations, the general gist is that an assumption has been made but discovered to have been a mistake in which the general audience may find a pun, innuendo, or prank to be laughed at.

This is, of course, context and audience dependent, but finding some way to bring joy and laughter into the office environment has a wealth of positives for an effective workplace.

Your business can be discussed in a multitude of different ways, and it’s best to know these ways so that you can use them.

The one you’re probably most comfortable with, a review, is information about your product or service left by a past customer. These can, of course, be good or bad and are left on a third-party website such as Google, Amazon, or even Facebook. They’re powerful because they’re customer led. You have no power over the review someone is going to leave you except for the customer service you give them at the time, so make sure it’s good!

Testimonials, on the other hand, are collected by the businesses themselves and usually proudly displayed on their websites or social media pages. They’re all about the “who.” Ideally, you want someone who is a celebrity or highly respected in their field to stake their name on your service.

So, what are recommendations? They’re often asked for by people in a community from someone whose opinion and expertise they trust. By impressing these people, you’ll find yourself with an influx of new customers.

How to collect each of these? For reviews, simply asking your clientele to leave them will help. Have an online presence so that they can find you easily.

For testimonials, build a good rapport with your repeat customers, and for recommendations, think about setting up a referral system so that word of mouth offers them something as well as you.

For each feedback option, the best thing you can do as a business is go the extra mile. Offer good customer service and take pride in your work.

Before we drop some tips about how to land, keep, and conquer repeat clients, let’s define them. To be clear, anchor clients are not the same as recurring clients. Clients who subscribe to your services or are members of websites like Patreon and Kofi are recurring clients, the slightly smaller fish in the business pond.

Anchor clients sign on for multiple big projects over an extended time period. If you offer PR services, for example, they may come to you for each major campaign.

Why are they important to have?

They help you look for other clients that benefit your business. When you can be sure of a large income coming from one client, you can selectively fish for more projects without becoming too hungry.

Anchor clients also allow you to build a niche and rapport. The more you work with one client, the better you know them and the better you’ll work together.

So you’ve found an anchor client. How do you keep them?

The simple answer? Overdeliver. And not just once. Every single time. Let them know that you’ve got their best interests at heart and you care about the work you’re giving them. If they feel valued, they’ll want to keep working with you and perhaps even introduce you to more clients.

Unfortunately, thanks to careless bosses and big companies that have no intention of learning from their employees, a team-building workshop sounds synonymous with a boring seminar, a trust fall, and slightly warm sandwiches. Because of this, many companies have decided to forgo team building altogether.

This is a mistake. Team building can make communication better, increase collaboration between workers, and also ease conflict. But it doesn’t have to be like a scene from The Office in the office.

Leave the trust falls behind you

Trust exercises seem to be the go-to for businesses that think they need a little help gelling their team, but it’s not usually a lack of trust that creates the tension. Most of the time, your workers will have trouble connecting because they don’t really know each other. Instead of a big day out where nothing gets resolved, try initiating a small social once a month where each of the team members’ interests gets explored. Perhaps start a suggestion box for new things to try. Has someone always wanted to try salsa? Rock climbing? Beach volleyball? Try them as a team.

Move outside the office

Seeing your team outside of harsh overhead lighting can work wonders. Friday-night drinks work for a lot of companies, and they could work for yours, too. Get people talking about something other than deadlines, and their communication will flow better during the 9-5.

Show them you care

Is it a holiday? A birthday? A company milestone? Splash out a little bit of cash and show your employees what they mean to you. If you’re wondering whether or not your business can afford to “splurge” on your employees, think of it more as an investment. Team building doesn’t end with management; it ends with the entire brand. If your employees feel cared for, they’ll care for the work they do for you. At the end of the day, your brand is another member of the team.