You work tirelessly to understand your customers’ wants and needs — requesting feedback, sending polls, or studying their behaviors.

But the best way to learn about your customers is to simply ask them.

Surveys provide your business with useful feedback that can help you increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and show customers their opinion matters.

The holidays are a time when businesses experience a surge in sales and overall revenue due to consumers buying gifts and holiday goods. This surge doesn’t boost every business, however. While consumers are out shopping for gift items during the holiday season, they aren’t visiting restaurants as frequently. This can lead to a decline in restaurant reservations. 

If you are a restaurant owner, the holidays do not have to be a slow season. Keep business booming by executing some strategic promotions to get more foot traffic. Here are some strategies to try:

Holiday event planning is rarely easy, and it does not always go according to plan. At its worst, it can be like a chaotic construction job that costs more money than expected and overruns its completion date. But holiday planning does not have to be stressful or chaotic, as long as you plan properly and simplify the process. It can run smoothly and even come under budget. In this article, we will provide you with some easy tips to simplify and organize even the most elaborate holiday events.

Have you decided which products you are selling at your new retail store? With so many to choose from and the risk of failure at the helm, this decision can be taxing and feel overwhelming. The right products can catapult your business into profit, but the wrong ones can derail your earnings plans and set you back considerably.

Starting a new venture should be exciting, however, so to help you feel more at ease, consider the following tips while making your final product decisions.

Getting voters’ attention and keeping engagement high during an election is easy. But, once the votes are cast, and the hoopla dies down, constituents return to their everyday lives—and engagement falters. How can you get your constituents to engage with you long after the ballots are closed, and the votes are tallied? How can you figure out what they think so you can best serve them and tackle important issues?

Home is where the heart is and it’s also where people feel most comfortable. When guests stay at your hotel, they are disconnected from these comforts so the more you can make them feel “at home” the more favorable their stay—which results in repeat visits and word-of-mouth recommendations.

How can you make your guests feel more at home? Here are some marketing tips:  

For small businesses, customer connection is vital to growth and expansion. According to a Gallup poll, consumers will spend more money with businesses they feel emotionally connected to.

Are your customers happy with your business and products? Are they satisfied with your product offerings? Are there improvements that will make them happier? If you don’t know the answer to these questions, you may need to conduct a customer survey. 

Part of the growing pains of business expansion is deciding where to invest company resources and where to pull back. And these subtle push and pull movements can largely impact the growth trajectory of small businesses, either positively or negatively.

One such important decision affecting small businesses is when to use interactive voice response (IVR) vs. live agents. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as answering “yes” or “no.” And because it relates to customer happiness, a factor paramount to business growth, it requires a close assessment of several factors. 

Small business owners sometimes think they can't afford high-end technology. In truth, however, technology like interactive voice response, or IVR, has become increasingly affordable over the years. Some might say that you can't afford not to take advantage of this opportunity, and here's why.

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