Hays Chamber restarts referral program

On this episode of the Post Podcast Hays Chamber vice president of membership Rhonda Meyerhoff and vice president of marketing and communication Mariah Legleiter stop by to share information about the relaunched Chamber referral program.

 

Transcript:

EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.

 

James Bell 

The Hays chamber has relaunched their referral program Vice President of Marketing and Communications Mariah Legleiter along with Vice President of membership, Rhonda Meyerhoff stopped by to share the details on this episode of the Post Podcast.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Some might have heard, we just finished up the coupon book in print.

 

Mariah Legleiter 

Yeah, hopefully in the next few hours. Actually.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Yeah, out in October, later this month. This is October, isn't it?

 

James Bell 

Yeah. We're just getting into it. It's the fourth. I had to look, I had to look, I don't know,

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

I missed the changing the month.

 

James Bell 

How involved you guys were the calendar change? You didn't even know it. Sarah, you're working them too hard. Oh, my goodness. That's gonna be so exciting. Because there's, I don't, you know, as somebody that works in publishing, and now it's digital publishing, so it's a little different. But there's nothing I don't think more exciting than when you hand off something like that to the printer. And you're waiting for it to come back. Because you know, there's gonna be a mistake. There's always a mistake. Yeah. And you're gonna see it. As soon as you pick it up. You're like, dang it. There's my mistake. But then you're also going to be like, Look at what I did. Yeah. Look how cool this is.

 

Mariah Legleiter 

Yeah, I think that was my first my first experience without the Community Guide last year was yeah, it was an amazing feeling. Yeah.

 

James Bell 

About turning, turning an idea into a real physical object. Yeah. You just, I mean, you can do stuff online all day. And it feels good. That's great. But getting that thing in your Yes,

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

yes. Yes. i My first mistake was revealed on my first project back in 1981. And it had gone through several edit things. And like you said, opened up the box, and there was the word that was misspelled. So yeah, I just know that now. I'm not perfect. Try as hard as I made to make everything right. But I think this coupon book may be a first extent. Well, your guide was good. So yeah, I think it'll be great. So we're excited. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, these are some of the reasons to why our members are really proud, James, to belong to the the chamber and be a member of the chamber for these different various opportunities. Because in in our book, if they were not a chamber member, then then they weren't allowed. Yeah, yeah. And, and many of them, they're, they're really so happy about their chamber membership, that they end up talking to other businesses about it, and that it's an opportunity to for them to gain much by by joining the chamber, so we decided that we wanted to revitalize the referral program. Very cool. Yeah.

 

James Bell 

Who doesn't love a referral program? That is like the most effective marketing you can really have? I think,

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

I think so too, is word of mouth. Yeah. Yeah. We know that. That's great. So yeah, if the the business analysts say, what's a business that's not in town, let's let's go CQRS talks to U V. W. And you see, W decides to that they want to join the chamber, and we know that QRS talk to him, then, yeah, there's some referral money in there. And it used to be that that was going didn't have quite the same as a reward as what it is now that we're going to give it's $25 and chamber checks. I realized $25 isn't going to make you rich, but who doesn't like some acknowledgement for their efforts? Yeah. And just the fun of receiving something that maybe you weren't planning on meeting your budget? You know, gosh, we have we have some people that I would anticipate are probably worth quite a bit. And they get tickled pink over a $25. Yeah, chamber check. Yeah. So it's, it's a good way for us to, to acknowledge that our members are doing that, you know, we want them to know, we're paying attention and, and show our appreciation for what they're doing. That all helps the chamber to grow. And also, it's paying them I guess, for some extra work that they're doing or maybe sometimes it was an uncomfortable conversation that they had. That's right. Yeah. So yeah, we're getting bring back that referral program. And, you know, James, there's lots of reasons for people to be happy with a chamber. You know, one of so many times when people think of the chamber they think of all the events that We do. And yes, those of yours

 

James Bell 

do a lot of

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

yes, we do. Yes, we did

 

James Bell 

talk about some of those here in a little bit. Yeah.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

And so that then other businesses will say that they can't go to all those events. So there's no reason for him to belong to the chamber, which is nothing really farther from reality. When you stop and look it, let's just take childcare task force of Ellis County, for example. You know, even though I may not have children that need daycare, if I'm running a business, and I find out that there's going to be more people working through a childcare effort promoted by the chamber, that means more expendable income. And they just might spend money at my store my business. And so it, it's kind of a revolving circle with that. So that advocacy that we're out there, we're doing, we'll go on to Ellis County Commissioner meetings, the city of Hays meetings, school board, the single board meetings, helping Ellis now what we did here in Hays to help advocate for a school bond chatting with Victoria on different things that we might be able to help them with as well. There's a lot of advocating going on. And that's the number one reason why chambers were actually formed was for them to get together as a pool and to advocate for causes that were going to help their businesses. So that's huge. Yeah, that that visibility, then that you get with those free benefits, inviting people to chamber chats, or to the ribbon cuttings, or the groundbreakings or the catching ups, I most always tell our businesses that are going to schedule one of those, please invite the individuals that you want to make sure that are here, you might have some customers that are not directly related to the chamber, that if those are people that you would like to have, send them an invitation column, let them know that you'd love to have them there. Because that celebration, although it's a chamber celebration, it's also the business member celebration. And so it's fun for them to have the people in their lives that were important in making their business what, what it is? Sure. So lots of reasons. Gosh, what's another one where I look here? We

 

Mariah Legleiter 

have a lot of development opportunities, too. So there's there's tons of learning opportunities where you can get a competitive edge over non members with exclusive training opportunities on all kinds of hot topics. I mean, we have one coming up, but Mike Hankey seminar that we have that we've kind of partnered with the I'm going to get that wrong western Kansas Human Resource Management Association, I think. Right. Yeah, it's something that we we kind of approached them about and

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

it was actually Heartland credit. Oh, okay. Yeah, we found out about Mike Hankey through that. Okay, yes. And they said, This is somebody that you need to bring to town. And he's going to talk about setting yourself apart in the job market as an employer that's trying to hire people. So

 

James Bell 

talking about an important skill right now. Yeah. Oh, my God. Absolutely.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

So at the Chamber, we're not just sitting around talking about it. We're actually trying to do things to help our businesses with those different aspects, you know, so he'll do a seminar on Thursday, the 27th. And we'll talk about that probably more with another segment. And then on the 28th, he's going to, he's going to talk to our members at the luncheon about, you got to know how are you going to keep them? You know, that that whole piece, and they're both very, very important pieces, you know, I'm of the firm belief. I'm 63. James, and I'm so proud to say that, that in my career, there's a lot of things I've learned that I think I can always learn more, or sometimes you'd go to those events, and it gives you more energy, again, to go back and, and do or you forgot about something you were doing it worked really well. So maybe this can help you to remember what those things were. And so I think everyone can benefit from from this education experience. And yeah, we have other places where MDC through Fort Hays, there's a special discount on training, if you're a chamber member for any of their training. And so yeah, different opportunities like that.

 

James Bell 

Even here on the morning show yesterday, we were speaking with a couple of the leadership Hayes class guys, they're doing the Green Ribbon haze, which I thought was such a cool program and they mentioned this is a chamber this come out of the chamber. Yes.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Isn't that a great program that they're done? Anyone, man? Is it? Is it going to end up being a podcast or anything?

 

James Bell 

If it is? Yeah, you'll see it on post here. Probably next couple days.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Oh, that's great. I would really encourage your listeners to go and see what they're trying to do. And I think it can help make a difference for things. So to schools. Yeah. And so it is great. And that, yes, like you said, that came out of the chamber. And then we go ahead. Oh,

 

Mariah Legleiter 

I was, you know, something fun that I didn't realize until, you know, working at the Chamber is that we found a statistic from American business magazine that says 63% of consumers are more likely to buy products and services from companies that are members of a local chamber, I think is a super strong and important number. I mean, that just shows you know, the the trust and the the relationship that you can build with the consumers, just by being a member of the chamber by being a member of the chamber.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Yes, absolutely. So yeah. And then you did you talked about that credit, credibility, yeah, members, perks and those learning opportunities, you know, and those connections, we do have opportunities for you to build really strong connections, absolutely. Through those events, that's one of the main things that those events can help you to is for you to build connections, you may have the opportunity to talk with someone that you couldn't get in front of otherwise. And so now, it's just really, really strong.

 

James Bell 

Yeah, you know, I remember from my time in the business world, one of the things that was a huge lesson for me, was learning how many people didn't know what was going on in our businesses, like if we were we'd have a special and we would think that we were saturating, we'd be sending out coupons and doing door knockers, and we thought everybody would know, and then come to find out later, we do surveys, and it'd be like 10% a percent, you can always get that word out there. And again, that word of mouth is so valuable to spread whatever message it is whether you know, it's new specials, or new products, or sales, new opening, whatever it is,

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

on the mouth, and even our newsletters. Members are welcome to put inserts in our newsletters, business connection section is for businesses that have something special going on and anniversary or, you know, some news that they would put in and so, yeah, lots and lots of opportunities to get your name out. Oh my gosh, our team members, actually once a quarter can email all the other chamber members just gets their name out in front of them. And, you know, over 400

 

James Bell 

of them, right, a high, close to 500. justifies

 

Mariah Legleiter 

the 500 real valuable.

 

James Bell 

Oh, my hands on that list. What are we gonna do? We're gonna sign up, right? Well, yeah, contact

 

 

Rhonda.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Yes, absolutely. So, um, I was gonna go somewhere, and it's gone. I guess. That's part of being sick. I know what it was. When I graduated in 1981. James, it took seven touches. So a mailer, a radio, AD, a T TV, whatever, it took seven touches for an individual to even consider doing business with your company. That's for them just to consider. That's not saying they will. That's for them to consider. And that number is now 12. Whoa, yeah,

 

James Bell 

I thought I'd go down.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Look at look at all that's out there. Yeah. That's trying to get people's attention. Suppose

 

James Bell 

that's true. Yeah. We've always got some chirping or beeping at us emails pop in and all kinds of crazy.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Absolutely. And it's good to have a spread of all those mediums. So yeah, we're just one other opportunity for your business to get their name out there.

 

James Bell 

Love it. Well, guys, before we run out of time, we better talk about the weekly events because I'm sure you guys have some going on. There's always some going on down chamber.

 

Rhonda Meyerhoff, vice president of membership 

Absolutely, absolutely. This is you know, low week

 

Mariah Legleiter 

we were used to,

 

James Bell 

it'll be like, Oh, I can see there's like a 404 thing. Yeah,

 

Mariah Legleiter 

it is kind of you know, we were joking earlier about being so busy. We are so busy today that we actually have something going on right now. So we have a catching up event with the USD 489 Foundation for Educational Excellence is going on right now at the Rockwell Administration Center. And then on the fifth, just tomorrow, we have the Hayes young professionals is having a lunch with leaders at noon at Paisley, pear wine bar bistro and market. On the sixth. We are having Earth H yp is having their network and Engagement Committee meeting at 1205 at the Welcome Center. And then on Friday, we'll wrap things up with our chamber chat with options downtown at Union Pacific Park. And now it'll be at 9am on Friday.