Press Release: The Greater Pensacola Chamber, a business association devoted to promoting and improving the Pensacola Region through economic improvement, community involvement and workforce development, announced the results of its annual membership survey on Tuesday. The survey results reflects increases in overall Chamber satisfaction and members’ likelihood to recommend a Chamber membership, as well as favorable increases in economic development support, networking opportunities and membership directory listings.
“Our member satisfaction rate is the primary barometer for measuring our success as a Chamber; essentially a ‘report card’ of how we’re doing,” said Sandy Sansing, Chairman on the Greater Pensacola Chamber’s Board of Directors.
Results of this year’s survey showed that members were pleased with areas in which they felt were lacking the year prior.
“The great news is that we made a huge jump, but there is still a large amount of work left to be done,” said Greater Pensacola Chamber President and CEO Jim Hizer, CCE, CEcD. “We also welcomed 30 new members in December, which is really unheard of in our industry that time of year.”
Survey analysis was performed by the Studer Group and was presented to the Chamber’s Board of Directors by Quint Studer.
“Overall Chamber satisfaction rates saw an increase of 7 percent,” said Studer. “Eighty percent of the respondents would recommend a Greater Pensacola Chamber membership to their business colleagues, and there is an increased interest in the services and benefits of becoming a member of the Chamber.”
One of the most popular requests identified in the survey results was a desire for Chamber support of economic development, but the Chamber was already well on its way to shifting its priorities, according to Hizer.
As the primary economic development organization in the two-county region, the Chamber, along with nationally recognized economic development consultants, had been developing a “road map” for success, which was unveiled last month to Vision 2015 investors and area stakeholders and unanimously approved by the Chamber’s Board of Directors yesterday. The full Strategic Plan can be found online at PensacolaChamber.com/Strategic-Plan.
As for the jump in satisfaction rates, Hizer said that “members spoke and the Chamber listened” when last year’s survey results were released. The Membership Department took steps to bring back such popular programs as Gopher Club and Lunch with the President, which are some of the Chamber’s most appreciated events, and revamped the website to make it more user friendly and interactive.
“We received feedback from our members and less than six months later had new programming in place to meet their needs,” said Kevin Doyle, Vice Chairman of Member and Investor Development for the Chamber.
The Marketing and Communications Department also overhauled the Chamber’s image with a new brand and updated its overall look and feel with a cleaner, more modern take on the old identity.