Orchestrating a corporate event or convention can be a monumental and overwhelming task, especially when the event is high-profile, imperative for business, or an opportunity to showcase. One of the biggest components of a major corporate event is the catering: from the food to the decor to the furniture, the catering company is arguably the most important part of the event. So which company do you select? Here’s our favorites from around the country:

• New York City: Chef & Company, a Big Apple favorite catering company.
• Los Angeles: Event Solutions, one of L.A.’s renowned catering services that offers a myriad of corporate catering solutions.
• Dallas: Eddie Deen has more than 25 years catering experience in the Dallas greater area.
• Salt Lake City: Culinary Crafts, the premier Salt Lake City catering company.
• Boston: Gourmet Caterers has been known to cater for corporate events with more than 10,000 people.
• Washington D.C.: Ridgewells is Capital Hill’s darling when it comes to preferred corporate catering.

• The average person spends 60 hours on-hold annually (CNN Survey).
• Out of callers put on hold without any music or messages, 60% hang up (CNN Survey).
• Out of callers that hang up after being put on hold, 30% do not call back (CNN Survey).
• Over 70% of individuals that call a business are put on hold (Telemarketing Magazine).
• Up to 20% of callers make purchased based on info they heard while on hold (Telemarketing Magazine).
• Callers who are put on hold with nothing but silence hang up in less than 30 seconds – 90% hang up within 40 seconds (North American Telecommunications Association).

Isn’t it time your business implemented a creative on hold recording?

Life is stressful. And it doesn’t matter what type of job you have; it all equals life stress. If you are in the higher echelons of your business, it comes to you to make sure that your employees are well taken care of, including mental wellness. Because of the stresses of life, sometimes employees just need to talk it out. One great way to encourage this is through enterprise feedback management. This will help your employees talk about what they think needs to be changed. And you will also have the opportunity to fix the situation before it gets out of hand.

Some companies’ turnover rates are incredibly high. A lot of companies’ efforts are geared toward customer or client retention. Here are a few ways that will make your customers stay a little longer–especially if they have to wait on hold quite a bit.

• Hire more customer service: More people available to pick up the phones, the shorter time your customers will have to wait, and the happier they will be. If your average wait time is atrocious, something should be done to help both you and your customer.
• Get creative. Nothing is worse than having to sit on hold with either silence or horrible music and advertisements. A creative hold message should help the time on hold just fly by, while being entertaining. They are more likely to stay on hold to talk to you if they aren’t bored out of their minds.