With the holidays just around the corner, it's more important than ever to look into how your business handles nurturing its leads.

While there is a special link between fostering goodwill between businesses, partners and customers throughout the year, taking a look at the emotional attachments consumers have to the holidays is a fascinating glimpse into the psychology of a shopper's mindset.

If you've been struggling with finding a test market for improving retention rates or are trying to find fresh faces for your network, there are few better ways to make fast friends than by going above and beyond what is expected of you.