Member Profile Brings New Opportunities to Burlington Chamber of Commerce

This article is based on an interview with Executive Director, Scott McCammon of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce by Editor George Appleton, Appleton Communications and accurately relates her comments and sentiments. Printed in Business Bits'N'Pieces Magazine October 1995

The Burlington Chamber of Commerce had a problem earlier this year. It realized some of its programs were not meeting the needs of its more than nine hundred members.

It hired The Cassels Corporation to find out exactly out what the members expected in return for their annual fees. The Chamber received its report several months ago.

Executive Director Scott McCammon says, "The Cassels Opinionnaire, www.opinionnaire.ca, has allowed the Chamber to reflect on everything we're doing for our membership. The survey allows the Chamber to really look at every single program and decide should it be done tomorrow? Just because we did it yesterday does that really mean its something that is valid for the future."

McCammon says the Chamber has sought so much information before. He says, "For any organization to be truly successful, any member based organization, it has to take time to understand the needs of its membership just as any business needs of its clientele."

The survey is being used to create a formal marketing plan for the Chamber. It is the first time the Chamber will have had such a plan on paper.

Bruce McDougall is the chairman of the Chamber's Program and Marketing Committee. He says the Chamber has had to face a new business reality. "Business in general has changed. Customers and clients are looking for more value added. The membership is looking for more ways on how to conduct business and network within the Chamber itself."

The data raised by the membership survey has been used to create the Burlington Chamber's first set of formal goals and objectives. They focus on the Chamber playing a larger role in the community. McDougall says they want to increase the Chamber's revenues. "The goal is to increase membership 10% this year."

McCammon says he is very happy with the Cassels membership opinionnaire survey. "It has given us an opportunity to look long and hard on every aspect of our operation and make sure that it is clearly focused on what the members want. We've made some changes and that's going to allow the Chamber to be more member focused, more customer focused and more efficient."

McCammon says the Cassels Corporation was not the only company they considered hiring. However, he says, he like the way they did business. "I was really impressed with literature I saw coming across my desk originally and I was impressed with the follow-up calls just to see if I received the literature and what I thought about it. They answered my questions concisely and intelligently. I also checked on some of the companies they had done business with and everyone was thoroughly impressed. I was also encouraged by the work they had done with non-profit associations."

McCammon has only praise for the man who runs The Cassels Corporation, Bob Cassels. "Bob is not only a true professional that lives up to his word. For us, he went beyond all expectations. Bob has not only delivered the type of results we wanted from the survey, he has helped us with the analysis of results and to our surprise and delight Bob has helped us with the implementation phrase." www.opinionnaire.ca