The Horizon
April 2011
CALENDARof events……………………………………………………… May 2011
June 2011
3—Executive Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
1—Marketing Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
4—Marketing Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
2—Public Relations Committee—8:00am at the Chamber
5—Public Relations Committee—8:00am at the Chamber
7—Executive Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
10—Chamber Board—8:00am at the Chamber
14—Chamber Board—8:00am at the Chamber
18–Fundraising Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
15–Fundraising Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
19—Chamber Mixer—5:00-6:30 pm at Home Federal Bank 1305 E. Cedar St
16—Chamber Mixer—5:00-6:30 pm at Celebration United Methodist Church — 500 Pasque Flower Trail
26—Issues Management Committee—8:00am at the Chamber
17—Golf and Wine Outing—Noon Shotgun start at the Brandon Municipal Golf Course
30—Memorial Day—Chamber office closed
23—Issues Management Committee—8:00am at the Chamber
April 2011
What’s INSIDE Welcome to the Family Ten Customer Service Tips Did You Know? Cutting, Breaking & Mixing it Up! Amazement Strategy #1 Calendar of Events
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Chamber Banquet Highlights John Small from Sunny Radio emceed the Annual Banquet, held Thursday March 24th at the Holiday Inn Express and brought plenty of laughs throughout the evening. President, Paul VanDeBerg, went over some of our plans for 2011. He briefly highlighted the Chamber’s goals as he went over the Strategic Plan the Board has been working on since October. Executive Director, Kim Cerwick, touched on the success of the Brandon Bucks Gift Cards. Sales of the gift cards in 2010 were double the amount of certificates that were purchased in 2009. With the addition of ChamberMaster we have also had more traffic to our website with people looking not only at our members’ pages, but at the Hot Deals and job postings that our members have to offer.
The Business of the Year award went to the Brandon Edge. They are a group that puts on many community events and have taken over some events previously put on by the Chamber, most recently the Santa Stops. They work very hard at having a variety of family friendly events available for the residents of Brandon. Jill Meier was the recipient of the Member of the Year award! She is the Public Relations Committee chair and takes the majority of the wonderful pictures that you see not only in the Horizon but on our website and in our print materials as well. The Chamber Achievement Award was presented to Greg Carmon. He received this award not only for his contributions to the Chamber but to the community as well.
Kim Cerwick, Executive Director Lindsey Barwald, Administrative Assistant
BVACC Staff
And last but certainly not least, 2010’s Chamber President Kevin Thelen was presented with a plaque in honor of his service and dedication to the Chamber.
Our keynote speaker, Jeff Eckhoff, Executive Director of the Lincoln and Minnehaha County Economic Development Foundation gave accolades to the leaders of our town on how well Brandon is growing and all of the great things that are being done to create new business.
Mark your calendar for these upcoming events! Town Hall Meeting
Kristi Noem Brandon PAC
Thursday, April 21st
Friday, June 17th
Wednesday July 13th
Saturday, August 6th
President, Paul VanDeBerg, Alliance Communications Vice President, Anthony Siemonsma, Edward Jones Secretary, John Small, Sunny Radio Past President, Kevin Thelen, First National Bank Jeff Bowar, Sanford Health Harry Buck, Town & Country Realtors Sandy DeZeeuw, Home Federal Bank Laura Kuehl, Bethany Meadows Steve Tripp, McKinneyOlson Insurance Beth Wooten, Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites
BVACC Board of Directors Horizon is an official publication of the Brandon Valley Area Chamber of Commerce www.brandonvalleychamber.com (605)582-7400 ~
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The Horizon
Welcome to the Family!
PAGE 2
April 2011
Ten Customer Service Tips For Customer Loyalty Month
The Horizon
PAGE 3
CUTTING, BREAKING &
April 2011
Mixing it up! “Know What’s In Your Backyard” Performing Arts Center April 1
Brosz Engineering, Inc.
Customer Loyalty Month is every April. So, in honor of Customer Loyalty Month, here is a “Top Ten” list of customer service tips.
9th Annual Golf & Wine Outing Friday, June 17th Call the Chamber at 582-7400 to register your team today!
Did you KNOW? You can get the perfect gift for every Grad and Teacher at the Chamber office! Brandon Bucks Gift Cards are easy to purchase and easy to use! They are welcome at any retailer where you see the sign: “Use Your Brandon Bucks Gift Card Here.” They can be purchased in any amount you need from $10 to $1,000! You can register your card to protect the balance in the event your card is lost or stolen. You can also check the balance or transaction history of your Brandon Bucks gift card online. Brandon Bucks Gift Cards can be purchased at the BVACC office.
1 Give your customer a membership experience. You don’t have to call them members, but treat them special. 2 Make the customers’ problem your problem. By solving their problems and needs, you create a partnership. 3 Create a brand promise that is so strong and compelling that it makes your customers think of you more as a partner than as a vendor. 4 Get employees excited about working for you. An enthusiastic and positive work environment is felt by the customer. 5 Make sure you have the right people in the “customer facing” jobs. Consider moving the ones that aren’t customer focused to other positions inside your organization. 6 Send thank you notes. 7 Consider a thoughtful gift for your customers. Not one that is expensive, but one that is unexpected, memorable and appreciated. 8 Look at your customers as a community. Engage in conversations with them and listen to their ideas and suggestions. Make them part of your process for improvement. 9 Teach everyone in your organization that when it comes to customer service, everyone needs to be a leader – and they should lead by example. 10 Make it personal. People like doing business with people they know, they like and they trust. Take time to personally reach out to your customers to get to know them better and find out what they really need. Source: “The Amazement Revolution” by Shep Hyken
Legislative Wrap-up March 31
The following article is the first of seven articles we will be sharing over the next several months. We hope that you find these business strategies to be thought provoking and a possible tool for your business.
Amazement Strategy #1: Provide Membership Don’t Think of Them as Customers– Think of Them as Members
“By putting the ‘member since’ date on our American Express cards,’ Jim Bush told me, “we create membership, and membership is something that our cardmembers treat as a badge of honor. It’s not elitist. It’s inclusive. It means they are appreciated, that they have the right, and expect, to be served in a premium fashion. As long as we treat them like members in high regard, we believe cardmembers will maintain their relationship with American Express. Our job is to continue to service the needs of all our customers who rely on us as a premium service experience organization.” “In fact,” he continued, “we don’t really think of ourselves as a credit card company at all. We actually view ourselves as a premium service company. We are really in the services business. We happen to facilitate payments. But it’s the experience around those payments that makes what we do unique and special for our cardmembers.” Offer Members Exclusive Amenities
A central part of the membership experience at American Express is being offered amenities that nonmembers don’t have access to. “With the goal of membership in mind,” Bush explained, “we offer the finest, most powerful re-
wards program in the world, with a host of rewards that emphasize the importance of membership.” Thos rewards include access to fine dining through some of the company’s premium card offerings, the ability to get tickets for exclusive theater engagements, and access to airport clubs for frequent travelers. Hundreds of other such amenities are tangible benefits of membership. And the sheer range of benefits American Express offers day after day, around the world has been impossible for other players in the credit card industry to duplicate. The right amenities can take the membership experience to another level, one that makes your enterprise unique. Invest in the Membership Experience
Jim Bush repeatedly emphasized one point during our interview: American Express sees delivering premium service to its cardmembers not as an expense but as a critical strategic asset, one that pays back handsomely in both the immediate future and the long run. Accordingly, the company welcomes opportunities to invest in improvements in the quality of its membership experience. “Service is the most powerful competitive advantage we have,” Bush told me. “service is not a cost, it is an invest-
ment. It’s a growth engine for our company. Service is one of our most powerful channels of growth opportunity. Service is value creation. Service is using human interaction to enable mutual benefit, and not only are we willing to make that investment, we are really proud of our investments in service. In an age when service is perhaps at its lowest ebb, when there’s basically a vacuum, regardless of where you go in the world, we’re proud of the role we can play to fill that void. From our perspective, there’s no time better than the present to capitalize on our greatest asset-by investing in the level of service that supports the experience we deliver.” No, this isn’t just talk. When it comes to investing in the membership experience, Bush and his leadership team have been instrumental in making absolutely sure that American Express puts its money where its mouth is. As you will see when we examine the next Amazement Strategy, FUN, Bush and his team engineered a complete overhaul of the enterprise’s training, recruitment, and customer service functions to lead an internal Amazement Revolution that has paid handsome dividends in the marketplace. Source: “The Amazement Revolution” by Shep Hyken
