One of the things that use to be prevalent everywhere in business years ago was the concept of the suggestion box. Today it is very rare to see these out in any type of business, rather we ask that our customers and employees send their suggestions in emails. The New York Times suggests bringing back the suggestion box and I have to agree.
Even today with all of our technology people are automatically intrigued when they see a suggestion box set up in their company, this tells them right off the bat that you are personal. They figure, someone has to sit down and read all of these suggestions at some point and respond to them.
Set up one person in each level of employment in each department to handle the suggestions for that particular sector, that way no one will get the wrong impression of their suggestion and or complaint being mishandled or ignored. This person can handle the contents of the box once a week, once every two week’s, once a month and so on depending on their work load and time frame.
Make sure that leaving complaints and suggestions is made easy for your employees as well as customers. Don’t put rules on the box such as certain days and times that suggestions or complaints can be left. Keep a separate box for complaints and suggestions, this way there is no room for them to be mixed up or lost.