The best gift you can give your customers consists of two words: Thank you.

According to a new study from Michigan State University (MSU), satisfied customers who were acknowledged by a company president for filling out a satisfaction survey increased their patronage to the business by more than 50 percent.

“Sweetening the pot with rewards really didn’t matter,” said Clay Voorhees, MSU associate professor of marketing and lead author of the study. “These findings suggest that simple, sincere gestures are enough to drive feelings of gratitude among consumers.”

Voorhees and his colleagues focused their study on restaurant customers, tracking their visits for 12 months after a thank-you email was sent from the company president upon completion of a satisfaction survey. They found that repeat visits increased 50 percent for men and 57 percent for women.

“In the restaurant industry, where 5 percent is a big deal, 50 percent blew our minds,” Voorhees said.

Also, the size of a customer’s party increased, with an increase of 79 percent for women and 42 percent for men.

“So it wasn’t just that they came back,” he said. “They came back and brought more people with them.”

The key is not to send an immediate automated response.

“Delaying the acknowledgement is critical to ensure it comes across as being more personal and sincere,” Voorhees said.

(photo credit: MjZ Photography via photopin cc)

Our drive to improve ourselves moves into high gear as we look toward a new year. And one of our first places of improvement starts at work, where we should always seek to better ourselves.

According to Kitty Boitnott, PhD, NBCT, a certified life strategies and stress management coach, there are immediate ways we can be better employees. She lists them in “5 Bad Work Habits to Break in 2015” on the website Careerealism.com. Here are three of her suggestions.

1. Be on Time
“It is much better to be known as the guy (or gal) who is always 10 minutes early for everything as opposed to being known for always being 10 minutes late for everything,” Boitnott wrote. “Being late is disrespectful of the people who are waiting for you.”

2. Avoid Office Gossip
“People may enjoy your stories for a while, but eventually they will start to wonder what you are telling other people about them given your penchant for not being able to keep a secret or hold a confidence.”

3. Stop Saying “It’s Not My Job”
“While it may be true that a particular job that you are asked to perform is outside the actual letter of your contract, by doing it anyway you demonstrate that you are a team player.”

Check out the article for the other two suggestions, and please let us know how you plan to improve your career next year in the comments section.

(photo credit: Whiskeygonebad via photopin cc)

The Bleacher Report released what’s sure to be a much debated article: “The 25 Best Cities to be a Sports Fan.”

“We broke each city down into eight categories: the number of teams there, the success of those teams in the past five years, how nice the stadiums are, fan passion, how good the media is, [star power], tradition, and general fan experience,” reporter Matt King wrote.

Here are the top nine cities to get you started.

1. Boston
2. Los Angeles/Anaheim
3. Philadelphia
4. Dallas
5. St. Louis
6. New York
7. Seattle
8. Pittsburgh
9. Chicago

Please visit the Bleacher Report for the rest of the list and to see if your city made the cut.

(photo credit: andrewmalone via photopin cc)

The 5th Annual Lights All Night Festival just packed 40,000 citizens of EDM nation into the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. Al Rojas, assistant director at the convention center, invited IAVM’s magazine team to attend the 2013 festival where we saw first-hand the attention placed on the safety and security of everyone involved in the event. Last year, Rojas commented that knowing a festival’s history is key to being a prepared host:

“The event staff looks at previous show reports and interviews with venue staff. The 2012 event was held at Dallas Fair Park and Daniel Huerta (IAVM member) and his staff were very helpful in the planning process. They also interview the event’s promoters to determine estimated attendance, arrival pattern of attendees, and the flow of attendees in the event. In addition, meetings with Dallas Police, Dallas Fire & Rescue, and event security were conducted.” (From the IAVM blog on 12/23/2013)

Knowing the unique dynamics of an event like an EDM festival is essential and results in a few customized procedures. Ingress at Lights All Night seeks to ensure that every attendee is screened consistently, and includes a few unique items that cannot be brought inside the venue. The Dallas Morning News recently shared the following list of banned items from the 2014 event:

• Pacifiers
• Vapor rub
• Large chains
• Massagers
• Spiked jewelry
• Kandi masks
• Dust masks
• Totems “of any kind”
• Stickers
• Stuffed animals
• E-cigarettes
• Open packs of cigarettes
• Open packs of gum
• Unsealed cosmetics, chapstick, and eye drops
• Over the counter meds
• Perfume
• Marker pens
• Spray paint

Read more about the 2014 Lights All Night festival.

(Photo: Lights All Night 2014 / Highland Concerts)

It’s the last week of January (sorry, we mean December; we got way ahead of ourselves), and we, too, have the listicle bug. It’s that virus that infects all blogs and websites and forces them to post their top 10 stories of the year. So, instead of fighting it, we’re giving in and posting the blog posts that mattered to you. And by mattered, we mean the ones that received the most page views from Jan. 1 to Dec. 29, 2014.

1. International Stage Management Day is October 10
The day celebrates all the work that stage managers do.

2. 13 Traits of a Good Employee for Managers to Consider
Every Chipotle employee must have these characteristics before being hired. Does your venue have a similar list?

3. E-cigs, Venues, and Vaping Policies
The e-cig debate has created some great conversations about managing their use in venues.

4. Project Tango Plans to Make Your Venues More Awesome
Google’s new research project will help venues show off their potentials much more easily to clients.

5. Meet the World’s First LED Basketball Court
Nike built the court in a facility called the House of Mamba in Shanghai to help Kobe Bryant teach young basketball players his moves.

6. Ebola and the Venue Industry
IAVM is actively monitoring the impact of recent Ebola incidents.

7. Watch: Coca-Cola Excels at Improving the Guest Experience
Rival fans at San Siro Stadium in Milan were greeted with a unique vending experience that required them to send a bottle of Coca-Cola to an opposing fan.

8. Mystery Shopping at AT&T Stadium
Our mystery shopping mission was to roam the stadium and secretly observe the AT&T Stadium staff.

9. Are “Haters” Your Best Employees?
According to a new study published in Social Psychology, “haters” may be better employees because they spend time on fewer activities.

10. OK, Google Glass
The staff at the AT&T Performing Arts Center is incredibly excited to dive into the unknown world of wearable technology.

Thank you for reading, contributing to, and supporting the blog.