Vail Valley Partnership (VVP) conducted a survey of its members in April 2014 to examine the following:
Thank you to those in the community who took the time to complete the survey (and thank you to Andrej Birgulin who produced and managed the survey). It is appreciated as we are committed to constant improvement to better meet the needs of the business community. The member survey acts as a guide to inform us of areas that our members find important, as well as how we can better meet our mission to create and manage collaborative programs that encourage economic development and result in increased destination tourism in Eagle County.For those not familiar with us, Vail Valley Partnership is the regional community development organization, dedicated to the economic vitality of the Vail Valley. We support local businesses. We unite key stakeholders. We lead collaborative efforts throughout the community.
Impressively, we had broad support from different business sectors that make up our business community. The survey had representation from 16 of the 20 NAICS categories presented, with the greatest number indicating Accommodations and Food Services (20%), Other Services (20%), and Professional, Scientific and Technical services (Percentage?). About half of the businesses began operations before 1991 and 64% before 2001. Only 7% of the businesses have been in operation less than two years. Over half of the businesses have been members of VVP for more than five years and close to a third indicated membership for than 10 years.
Satisfaction with VVP was high, with 89% indicating they were satisfied with staff and 85% indicating they were satisfied with the organization overall. Over half (55%) used the most positive rating for staff and 28% used the most positive rating for overall satisfaction. Additionally, 79% of respondents thought that it was at least somewhat important for local businesses to be members of VVP, with 46% giving the highest rating possible.
Respondents were asked to rate nine facets of membership on both perceived level of importance, as well performance. We’re doing something right because the survey shows that our members believe we have positive performance on all nine facets of membership (networking & events, engage & support community, economic development outreach, signature programs, marketing & media benefits, destination marketing, member savings, group sales & leisure sales). Networking and Events received the highest performance rating and also a relatively high importance rating. Engage and Support the Community received the highest importance rating and also a relatively high performance rating.
Regarding VVP’s website (vailvalleypartnership.com), almost all (90%) respondents indicated visiting at least once in the past year. About 12% visit once per month and another 7% visit more often than that. Mean ratings of utility of different website features, based on those that had enough familiarity to provide a rating, showed that the Calendar of Events comes in at the highest. Other relatively high ratings were obtained for the Staff List, Weekly Newsletter Archive, Business Directory, Member Benefits, and Research and Statistics.
Vail Valley Partnership is dedicated to ensuring local business success and fostering regional economic vitality by offering local business tools & resources, promoting the Eagle River Valley to destination guests and initiating economic development efforts.
The importance of this focus was spotlighted by the member survey. The overall results show that respondents are, as a whole, satisfied with VVP and feel very positive about most of the facets of membership. We recognize there is also room for improvement on several facets, and we’re committed to making the improvements needed to provide the highest level of service to the business community and to our members.
When businesses succeed, we all succeed. Business vitality plays a major part in the overall success of our community and we’re committed to helping our members succeed.
Chris Romer is president & CEO of Vail Valley Partnership.