By Jo Mixon
What’s Happening at the Chamber of Commerce?
When I came to work at the Chamber in May 2011, there was a very simple generic way of tracking and documenting the calls and visits made to the Chamber. The result of that was x amount of phone calls and x amount of walk in visitors counted. Being a marketer, I felt that it was very important for us to capture a more detailed accurate summary of the business referrals we were giving out on a day to day basis to our members for several reasons. One being that our businesses could see proof of numbers, that it is a great benefit to them to be members of the Chamber. So I came up with a more in depth form of tracking and we have spent the better part of 2011 and every year since then, tracking, in great detail, all of the inquiries that come into the Chamber of Commerce office. It gives us much better documentation of the referrals sent to our members. These inquiries are either phone calls, inquiries sent to us through our web site, or actual foot traffic through the front door of the Chamber.
We have further broken each into categories as to who calls, emails, or walks in the door and what they are requesting. (We keep notebooks with the numbers for those members who will find it interesting.) We’re finding that even in our off season times of the year, the Chamber still has a good volume of calls and walk-in inquiries. Obviously the numbers spike higher in the summer and winter seasons, but add to this total our website inquiries and it looks promising to me that Angel Fire is attracting visitors on a steady stream, even in our “off seasons”. Granted not as many during a non-snow winter, but they are coming to visit.
In this manner, we keep up with the direct referrals we send to our member businesses, and we also have a misc. category. This is because some of the calls we get really keep us on our toes! I wanted to share a few examples:
In early August one year a lady called to tell us that a big black steer was walking down the street and backing up traffic on the road to Taos Pines and would we do something about it?
Another lady wanted to know if we had Lime’s disease in Angel Fire because she had acquired a tick while out hiking and wanted us to tell her how to remove it from her groin area.
A lady called early one September asking when the leaves were going to change. We told her the approximate time per past experience. She then said that she was coming several weeks earlier than that date and wanted to know if we could please make the leaves change at that time.
We got a caller looking for someone who he had been friends with for a lifetime but didn’t know where the friend lived… could we be so kind as to find him?
Another lady called on New Year’s eve one year wanting a pastor who would marry her and her fiancee at midnight, that night… which we found!
Remember when there was a topless cleaning service in town (for a very short time) and the Chronicle ran an article about it on their front page? A man then called us to ask if clothing was optional in Angel Fire… “you know like is Angel Fire a nudist colony or something?” Yikes!
When Johnny Depp was here filming the Lone Ranger, we received a letter from a lady asking if we would tell him that she had been trying to contact him for years and she knew they were soul mates. She also included unclothed photos of herself for us to pass along. We did pass them along… to the local authorities.
We got a call from an elderly gentleman who wanted to know if we could tell him where his ancestors were buried… he thought it was somewhere in Black Lake, but he couldn’t remember.
A young man came into the office and wanted to know how much he would have to pay on a traffic ticket he received. We told him there is usually a number on the back of the ticket where he could call… he said, yeah but I really don’t want to talk them.
A part time resident called wanting to know the exact date the hummingbirds would arrive because she didn’t want to put her feeders out until the day they arrived.
Caller: Would you please come pick up our trash, it is over flowing out on the driveway.
We get many calls from people wanting to know what the weather will be like during the Christmas holidays or spring break or the exact dates the leaves will change in fall. And we get a few telling us if we would move the elk crossing signs from the highway the elk would not be able to cross the road to cause accidents!
I’m not sure why we get some of the serious yet hilarious calls and questions we receive other than the Chamber is known to have the answers. Hmmm, sometimes we just google it! But no matter the content we are happy to take the call, happy to visit with our tourists and happy to answer the questions to the best of our ability!
If you are not yet a member of the Angel Fire Chamber of Commerce, we would love to have you join. Come by, have a cup of coffee, and let us explain more of the benefits of our membership. We are proud to be a service oriented Chamber for the businesses in our membership and we are very proud to promote Angel Fire and the Moreno Valley. I personally believe there is no where better to live. People spend thousands of dollars to vacation with us, we have the privilege of waking up to this beauty every morning! And now that we’ve packed away our skis and snowboards and unpacked our golf clubs, bicycles, hiking/running shoes and fishing gear. We cannot tell you how excited we are to be in Angel Fire!
To keep up with dates and times of events happening this summer visit www.angelfirechamber.org, www.angelfireresort.com, and www.angelfirefun.com. We all keep running Calendars of Events. Between the three websites, hopefully we’ll cover everything that is happening. And please forgive me if I’ve missed anything. If you want your events added to our calendars, email manager@angelfirechamber.org. Send flyers in jpg format.
Whatever you choose to do, or if you choose to do everything, be safe, have fun, and breathe in the fresh mountain air! We hope to see you this summer in Angel Fire!
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