The Horizon
May 2011
CALENDARof events……………………………………………………… June 2011
July 2011
1—Marketing Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
4—Independence Day! Chamber Office CLOSED
2—Public Relations Committee—8:00am at the Chamber
5—Executive Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
7—Executive Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
6—Marketing Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
14—Chamber Board—8:00am at the Chamber
7—Public Relations Committee—8:00am at the Chamber
15–Fundraising Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
12—Chamber Board—8:00am at the Chamber
16—Chamber Mixer—5:00-6:30 pm at Celebration United Methodist Church — 500 Pasque Flower Trail
13—”First Night Out”—6:00 pm at the Brandon Municipal Golf Course
17—Golf and Wine Outing—Noon Shotgun start at the Brandon Municipal Golf Course
20–Fundraising Committee—8:30am at the Chamber
May 2011
21—Chamber Mixer—5:00-6:30 pm at Valley Lanes 900 N. Splitrock Blvd
23—Issues Management Committee—8:00am at the Chamber
28—Issues Management Committee—8:00am at the Chamber
What’s INSIDE
Want to advertise your business/group?
Did You Know? Cutting, Breaking & Mixing it Up!
Calendar of Events Don’t get the weekly email updates? Sign up today or you miss out! Email
[email protected]
funds to each organization in proportion to the number of volunteers provided.
Amazement Strategy #2: Have Serious FUN
Air Fare at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport
“Tour de Kota” Coming Through Brandon!
Photo Courtesy of Argus Leader ‘Tour de Kota’
For $25 any Chamber business or association is welcome to set up items (table will be provided) to advertise your organization. If you are a non-profit member and have volunteers helping at the event, your table is free! The only thing we ask is, if you would like to sell something at your table, please check with Kim at the Chamber 582-7400.
Bright and early on Sunday, June 5th, Brandon will have approximately 1,000 bike riders going through our town on Highway 11 (Splitrock Blvd.) between the hours of 6:00-8:00 am! The Public Relations Committee at the Chamber is work- What: Tour de Kota ing diligently to make the stop a memorath ble one for riders. The economic impact When: Sunday, June 5 6:00-8:00 am this event has on small communities is great and we are planning on capitalizing Where: Brandon Valley High on this in Brandon.
School Commons
We are expecting approximately half of the riders to stop and eat breakfast, and Why: To show off our great community and have a positive pick up a few items from the make shift “Brandon re-STORE-ation” shop we will economic impact on Brandon at have. That’s 500 people spending money the same time! in Brandon in a 2 hour time-span! For more information on this event check How are we going to staff the event? out the website: www.tourdekota.com We would like to share the profits of this fund-raising event with any Chamber nonprofit organization that would provide us with volunteers to help at this event. As this is brand new we do not know what to expect for profits but would fairly disperse
It’s A Girl! Congratulations to Lindsey & Cory Barwald for the birth of Amy Darlene on Thursday, April 21st.
Mark your calendar for these upcoming events!
Friday, June 17th
Wednesday, July 13th
August 5th—7th
Saturday, August 6th
Kim Cerwick, Executive Director Lindsey Barwald, Administrative Assistant
BVACC Staff 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 ~
[email protected]
The Horizon
Welcome to the Family! Chris Limmer, Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.
PAGE 2
Amazement Strategy #2: Have Serious FUN Leaders at many organizations-indeed, leaders at most organizations-pay lip service to the principle that customers “come first,” are the “reason we’re here,” and so forth. Then those very same leaders continue an old habit: ignoring the real-world, day-in/day-out workplace experience of the employees who are supposed to deliver all that great service. It doesn’t add up. American Express’s stated goal is to become the world’s most respected service brand-and Bush and his management team knew that the company’s legacy of service-driven innovation demanded a different approach. They knew that any successful revolution always begins from the inside.
Did you KNOW? A new committee is being created at the BVACC - The Business Resource Committee! Objectives: •
•
Provide business related educational opportunities for existing members. Create a website for potential businesses that provides information on available space, incentives, data and resources.
•
Fill gaps not being addressed by any other organization.
•
Focus on needs of both current and incoming small businesses.
We will keep you informed as more details become available.
May 2011
Bush and his team launched that revolution using a strategic weapon called Serious FUN. The three elements used to define workplace FUN: personal fulfillment in the job; a working environment that respects each employee’s uniqueness; and a sense of escalating challenge that always leaves people looking forward to the next challenge, whether that means the next project, the next day at work, or the next rung of the career ladder. By embracing all three of these values in its call center operations, American Express proves that corporate giants really can create FUN in the workplace. “A lot of people are energized by a challenge,” Bush said, “which is great. But what we found was, for a while there, we were subsidizing poor performers, and that was as frustrating to the people on the team as anything else. By addressing all of that, we’ve created a highly engaged, very assertive workforce that’s committed to both individual development and to achieving the collective objectives.” “A few years ago,” Bush explained, “we went out and we asked our front-line people questions. We asked: ‘What is important to you to drive an experience that would get our customers to recommend American Express to a friend? What is required for you to be successful, for you to achieve your potential, for you to excel?’ That survey mechanism went out to the front-line leadership, and to the people who were actually working on the front lines. The answers that came back covered five major themes. One answer was people wanted to be compensated fairly. Another was that they wanted to be recognized for the important role they play. A third response was that they wanted a career path and they wanted the opportunity to develop as profes-
sionals. Fourth, they wanted flexibility. They felt like they deserved not to be held to a rigid schedule, and they wanted flexible scheduling with their colleagues, so they could swap shifts to meet the ever-changing needs of their family life. And fifth, they wanted the tools necessary to be successful.”
The Horizon
PAGE 3
CUTTING, BREAKING &
“Four years ago, we spent 70% of our training on what screen to find and button to push,” Bush said. “Now we spend 70% on how to service customers and how to work at a company with a service heritage like American Express. Anyone can learn the screens, but we’re not in the screen business.” Since Bush and his team made these changes, American Express has seen a rise in the cardmember awareness of its varied products and service offerings. That improvement has been accompanied by a strong upward trend in customers’ overall satisfaction with the company. At the same time, the company’s call center retention rates have improved. “By understanding that it’s a people business first and foremost,” Bush told me, “by investing in people, by creating performance management systems around those individuals that care for our customers, by defining what is right from a customer point of view and then rewarding the people who deliver on the outcome, we all learned that it’s amazing what you can accomplish as an organization. As we started to develop a more autonomous and empowered environment, I think all of us felt a sense of release. We in management had not really created anything new, but he had unleashed the power of these incredible professionals. Now they’re more than professionals, I think. They now pride themselves in being ambassadors of the American Express Company.”
Source: “The Amazement Revolution” by Shep Hyken
Mixing it up!
Chamber Mixer Comfort Inn April 14
“As part of the recognition of their concerns,” Bush recalled, “we changed the job title. We said, ‘Let’s stop calling them reps. Let’s stop calling them agents. Let’s call them what they are.’ And ‘customer care professional’ seemed to be more accurate as a title. We validated that through some focus groups with our front-line people. And that change in terminology has worked out very well.” Something else that worked out well involved a substantial financial investment: a complete overhaul of the call center priorities, from recruiting to training to compensation, in keeping with the request for better workplace tools and rewards. Bush made sure those changes happened.
May 2011
Spend in Brandon Benefit Brandon
MAJOR STATISTIC: Town Hall Meeting Kristi Noem April 21
91.8% of gift cards purchased have been spent in Brandon with over 99% of those being spent at Chamber member businesses in 2011!
Air Fare at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport The Issues Management Committee here at the Chamber is always looking for areas of interest that matter to the membership of the Brandon Valley Chamber. Through the identification of issues, we have heard much concern about the high cost of many flights out of the Sioux Falls Airport. To get a better handle on what the problems are and what is being done we invited Executive Director of the Sioux Falls Regional Airport, Dan Letellier to speak with us on this matter. A leakage study conducted by Sixel Consulting Group which analyzed local travel agency data along with DOT reports for the time period of Jan. 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009 showed that only 55% of Sioux Falls catchment area passengers are retained by the Sioux Falls Regional Airport. The other 45% of potential passengers are driving to other airports with almost 30% going to Omaha for flights. Although this study is a couple of years old, Dan commented that the numbers have not changed much from then to now. To mitigate these higher costs as well as the leakage of passengers, the Sioux Falls Airport has been working with airlines offering direct flights from Sioux Falls to major destination points by funding the Marketing efforts behind filling these flights. Currently you
can fly directly to: Las Vegas, Phoenix, Orlando, and Los Angeles on Allegiant Airlines; Chicago and Dallas on American Airlines; and Phoenix on American West. Items such as rent landing fees have also been waived for these direct airline carriers. The Sioux Falls Regional Airport is also working hard to recruit new carriers. These efforts have successfully brought Frontier Airlines to the Sioux Falls market which will be offering direct flights to Denver beginning July 4th.
competition between airlines which, in the end, has lowered costs to a few specific locations. The Sioux Falls Airport is also hard at work in air service development through other areas such as attending air service conferences to speak directly to airlines outside of the Sioux Falls market and will be developing an Air Service Development Council who will evaluate effective air service development techniques and recommend implementation to continue the efforts of being more competitive with our surrounding airports.
The increased number of airlines as well as direct destinations has sparked Current Fare Differences
