CEO Article

CEO’S CORNER Bobby Spiegel

Benchmarking Our Way to Continued Growth

By Bobby Spiegel

Ioften reply to the question ‘How are you?’ with the response, ‘Near perfect!’ My logic is twofold: 1) even if I’m having a bad day, I can use my words to change my mindset (and knowing when someone hears a positive, it could change their mindset as well), and 2) there is always room for improvement. In striving for continued excellence, we regularly seek ways to improve at the CORONA Chamber, especially in member/ customer service.

The CORONA Chamber Board of Directors recently approved my recommendation to hire an outside company, The Loyalty Zone, to survey our membership. A random selection of members across a variety of industries were called and asked to participate in a brief conversation about their experience. Our goal was simple: to find out where we stand with our members, and what they’d like to see more or less of. By understanding individual levels of satisfaction (or dissatisfaction), we would also be able to ascertain what percentage of our members were championing us in the community, what percentage felt neutral about our services, and what percentage could be (sub)consciously detracting us from our goals.

Over 100 current members and 30 past members were successfully surveyed. Each was given the opportunity to share comments openly, while having the ability to remain anonymous. Insights like we received from this survey are “business GOLD”. While we regularly analyze our digital footprint, there is no substitute to being able to hear directly from businesses. 2022 CORONA Chamber Board Chair Palbinder Badesha said, “Knowing our members would receive a personal call really impressed me. We often get inundated with emails, so it was refreshing to find a company that would take the time to get to know our team, what we hoped to gain from the data, and then represent us well on our behalf.”

If we want more members recommending us to their friends and vendors, then we need to know what makes them continue to reinvest with the Chamber. By conducting this research, we were able to identify what detractors exist and how we can tweak what we do to raise the experience across the board.

This is something ALL business owners should keep a pulse on, and there are many ways to go about it that don’t involve hiring a market research firm. Are you paying attention to your conversion rates? Unsubscribes? Client engagement? Quantity of quality referrals? Sometimes we learn more from what’s not being said. It all depends on what is (or isn’t) happening in/for your business and what your goals are, but that’s where we can help.

If you’re looking for ideas or ways to learn more about YOUR customer base, contact us and we’ll set up a meeting, or we can refer you to our partner, SCORE, for free one-time or ongoing mentoring. SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is not just for startups!

So, what’s next for the CORONA Chamber? We are reviewing the data now, identifying key areas for improvement, and putting together a plan for taking those steps to better serve our members. We want to leave our mark, challenge ourselves to strive for more, and continue to provide excellence for our members. We’ll be sharing more over the next few months as we adopt some changes.

In case you haven’t been told yet, today is YOUR day. It’s near perfect, and I know YOU are ready to take on the world. If you need help, the CORONA Chamber is just a call away, at 951-CHAMBER.

Metrics from our survey by The Loyalty Zone were shared as a net score, calculated from three categories of member attributes: promoters, passives, and detractors.

Getting Money into the Hands of Small Business

CORONA CHAMBER PARTNERS WITH CALIFORNIA PAID FAMILY LEAVE GRANT

The CORONA Chamber is pleased to announce its partnership with California Paid Family Leave Grant (CPFLG). CPFLG allows eligible small businesses in California with 1-100 employees with at least one (1) employee utilizing California’s Paid Family Leave program to apply for grants up to $2,000 per employee to offset the increased costs associated with the employee out on leave.

California’s Paid Family Leave program allows California workers to take paid leave to bond with a new child (through birth, adoption, or foster care) or to care for a seriously ill family member. Beginning July 1, 2020, this paid leave expanded from six (6) to eight (8) weeks. Additionally, California’s Paid Family Leave program also expanded the twelve (12) week non-paid protected leave to all businesses, regardless of business size.

Businesses impacted by California’s Paid Family Leave program will have increased costs such as training and upskilling existing staff to cover the duties of the employee on California’s Paid Family Leave; hiring and training additional staff to cover the duties of the employee on California’s Paid Family Leave; and marketing, recruitment, and other reasonably foreseeable training costs.

For more information, eligibility details, and to apply, visit CaliforniaPFL.com or call (818)989-0300.