SmallBusinessNewz

One school of thought claims that, when it comes to suggestions, a fresh perspective is often best.  From this stems the existence of consultants, "efficiency firms," and so on.  Another idea is that familiarity results in knowledge, and to capitalize on this concept, an old-fashioned (or digital) suggestion box may be just the thing.

Your employees (assuming you have any) and customers know more than most people about your business, after all, and so might have some solid thoughts as to where improvements can be made.  A suggestion box that one or both of these groups can access seems like a logical outreach effort, then.

After deciding who should be able to contribute, there's just one more big matter to consider: whether suggestions should remain anonymous.  On the one hand, it'd be nice if you could see a complaint and immediately address the issue by talking to somebody.  On the other, people probably wouldn't be using the suggestion box if they wanted to chat.

Then here are some ideas, courtesy of Paul B. Brown, that might make the box more of a success.  For starters, ask people to contribute.  You'll get more ideas this way, and also make people feel like their opinions are valued.

Also, Brown suggests, "Think positive.  Obviously, you won't like every idea.  Even so, you don't want to cut off the flow of ideas."  Or if you get an idea that's good but not great, get a group of people together to chew it over.