How One Chamber Improved Productivity While Saving Money
With close to two decades as a chamber professional, Nancy-jo Manney, President and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, has seen first-hand the evolution of technology in the chamber world.
When she was hired, the chamber’s board of directors was still receiving meeting minutes via fax. The member newsletter was inserted into the newspaper and they were using snail mail for other types of member communication.
At the beginning of the chamber’s relationship with ChamberMaster in 2010, it was important to Nancy-jo that they not start with too much too soon. She began with a basic version of the software and as the staff’s confidence grew, they added modules to further increase efficiency.
“I was very pleased with how the ChamberMaster staff walked me through steps. As a new user, I asked a lot of questions!”
As technology evolved, the chamber began accepting credit cards online. When the opportunity arose to switch to ChamberMaster’s Integrated Payment Processing (IPP), Nancy-jo evaluated their contract with their credit card processing vendor. She determined that even with an early cancellation penalty, the savings benefits by switching to ChamberMaster’s IPP outweighed the cost of changing vendors.
“As a small chamber, price is always a factor. We are saving 1.6% in effective rate versus our previous credit card processing vendor. It’s a significant amount,” she shared.
They have kept up with the constantly changing website technology using ChamberMaster’s pro package web design package. “I love it, I really I do. The more integrated things are, the easier it is for our staff,” Nancy-jo said.
The chamber is also pleased with ChamberMaster customer service and support.
“The staff is so friendly that it feels personal. They’ve always been pleasant to work with,” she commented.