Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/754143
SometimesIgetsobusy, I forget to have an attitude of gratitude. I am very grateful for my family, the chamber, our members, directors, staff and all the volunteers that make Red Bluff and Tehama County what it is! Thank you for your never ending effort to make this such a special place. We have many visitors come through our office, and the common theme we here is the friendly people they have come across in our community. Enjoy the upcoming holi day season, and join with me in working on the atti tude of gratitude. My hope for all of us is that Thanks giving is more than a one day event. As a chamber, we are thankful to serve the mem bership and our community. — Dave Gowan Businesstraining Our next quarterly busi ness training will be fan tastic, "Cash Flow Manage ment and Budgeting." The free workshop is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Dec. 6 at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 2810 Main St. Red Bluff. Easy registration, call 8959017 or visit www.bc sbdc.org. Christmas Parade There are lots of great entries for "Christmas on the Farm," the theme for this year's Red Bluff Christmas Parade at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26 in Downtown Red Bluff. Registration for floats and other entries is closed, but the Chamber and the Downtown Business Asso ciation hope you come to this great event. Come out and watch rain or shine, because that is how we roll. Congratulations to the Tehama County Farm Bu reau; the grand marshals for the parade this year. Christmas Breakfast Hosted by Red Bluff Dodge a hot and delicious breakfast and network ing will be served up at the second annual Christ mas Breakfast, at 7:45 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 8 at Red Bluff Dodge, 545 Adobe Road. This event is free to all. Bring a Toy for the less fortunate for the CHiPs For Kids program. Door prizes will be se lected at the conclusion of the event. Employment posters California employers and businesses are re quired to post updated em ployment posters at their places of employment. Please note that there are changes to the poster and all employers will need to have the 2017 poster in or der to be compliant with the law. All employers and busi nesses are reminded that the 2017 employment poster, which contains all state and federal em ployer notices, is available through the Red BluffTe hama County Chamber of Commerce office. The poster contains all required employer no tices on one poster and includes a checklist to en sure poster is displayed ac cording to law. The poster is produced by the State Chamber and made avail able to local chambers. Cost for the 2017 poster is $26.99 for paper and $38.99 laminated, plus tax. Consider adding Poster Protection — $16 nonlaminated, $26 lam inated — for free up dated posters on any law changes during 2017. Contact the chamber at info@redbluffchamber. com or 5276220 to order yours today. Calendar of events All chamber members are asked to help in com piling information for one of the more popular of the chamber's resident and tourist handouts — the annual calendar of events. This 4page listing of events taking place in our area throughout the year is distributed to visitors, local residents, organiza tions, media and publica tions throughout the en tire state. You can help by supply ing the chamber with any information regarding date, location, contact in formation, etc., of any ma jor or traditional events that will take place in Te hama County next year. In addition to major events like the Red Bluff RoundUp in April, the cal endar lists other popular events such as the Farm City Night in November and the Relay for Life in May. In order to make the list as complete as pos sible and not leave any event out, we ask several times for help in identify ing these events with ap propriate dates, etc. So please, if you know of any event already sched uled for next year, call the chamber office at 527 6220, fax the event sched ule at 5272908 or email the event schedule to ja son@redbluffchamber. com so that we can include them in the 2017 Calendar of Events. The deadline for sub mitting items for the cal endar is Dec. 1. Please contact the office if you would like to be a sponsor of this most pop ular publication. REDBLUFFCHAMBER The season of giving thanks With the holidays fast approaching, most com panies have already planned to thank their employees with mon etary bo nuses or gifts, but a success ful busi ness must remember to thank an other key player — the customer. So how important is customer appreciation? As it turns out, it's vital. Ac cording to a study by the Rockefeller Group, 82 per cent of customers will leave because they think you do not care about them. It's important to make each customer feel like they are your only cus tomer, which could lead to wordofmouth referrals, increasing your sales. Customer service is key Showing customers gratitude is a key part of the sales experience that usually determines whether or not the cus tomer will return for fu ture purchases. According to Help Scout, on average, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase and it is six to seven times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one. This means that losing just one customer is costly, and it's critical for businesses to put effort into making their customer experience top notch. The good news for small businesses is that 80 percent of Americans agree that smaller com panies place a bigger em phasis on customer ser vice. And almost 9 out of 10 U.S. customers say they would pay more to ensure a superior customer ser vice experience. Investing in your com pany's customer service may take some time to plan and implement, but in the long run, it will pay off. Not only will you cre ate a culture of gratitude, but it can also positively affect the business's bot tom line. Start from the top down To retain your cus tomers and attract new ones, build a culture of gratitude in your com pany from the top down. Most organizations strug gle with this concept. In fact, according to a Gal lup poll, 65 percent of em ployees say they don't feel appreciated at work. "Too many people leave work every day thinking, 'My boss doesn't appre ciate me,'" said Liz Jaz wiec, author of Eat That Cookie!: Make Workplace Positivity Pay Off … For Individuals, Teams and Organizations. "When the majority of the people in a workplace feel this way, the overall environment is hugely impacted. Pro ductivity decreases, turn over increases, and it can become very difficult to stay afloat, especially in a tough economy." Gratitude in the C-Suite When Doug Conant became the CEO of the Campbell Soup Company, the company's stock price was declining and accord ing to Fast Company, it was the worst performer of all the major food com panies in the world. Conant was in a seri ous car accident in 2009, and while recovering in the hospital, he received many getwell notes from employees around the word. Journalist Janice Kaplan included Conant's story in her yearlong ef fort to learn about the ef fects of gratitude and how to show it more in her own life. While employ ees could have felt obli gated to send well wishes to Conant, it's likely that they were genuine as the CEO had sent more than 30,000 handwritten thank you notes to his employees during his tenure. As an added bonus dur ing the creation of a cul ture of gratitude, Camp bell Soup jumped ahead of S&P Food Group and the S&P 500 in 2009, accord ing to Fast Company. Other leaders have also begun to recognize the importance of gratitude, including Mark Zucker berg, the founder of Face book. Zuckerberg chal lenged himself to write one thank you note every day in 2014, according to the Washington Post. Even though not ev ery business manager or owner has the time or re sources to make big ges tures, there are a lot of other small ways to show appreciation to your em ployees. One example is when an employee puts in a lot of overtime. "You don't have to apol ogize that they worked," Kaplan said. "We under stand that that's some times part of the job. But recognizing it, saying thank you, letting them know that it wasn't for naught really can go a very far way." Building a culture of gratitude can feel uncom fortable in the beginning, but it can mean the differ ence between the success or failure of a company. Start with small, daily acts of appreciation, and soon, gratitude will be come second nature. LisaHansenowns Express Employment Professionals, 243 S. Main St. in Red Bluff and can be reached at 527- 0727. EMPLOYMENT Whythankful companies are successful companies Lisa Hansen The Corning Veterans Memorial Hall, 1620 Solano St., will be hosting a tradi tional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday afternoon. This is a free event and all are welcome to attend. For more information, call 8245957. Children's books sought The Friends of the Li brary is asking for dona tions of quality children's books for its Gift of Giv ing Plan. This is an attempt to stimulate interest and de sire to learn to read at an early age. Some of these do nations will be included in gift baskets given out from local fire departments. Do nations will need to be re ceived by Thursday, Dec. 1 at the Corning City Li brary, 740 3rd St. Hometown Christmas Corning Hometown Christmas will be on Sat urday, Dec. 3. This will be festive funfilled day of ac tivities. A pancake breakfast will kick off the day 710 a.m. at Java Lanes, 2075 Solano St. The craft and gift fair will run 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Corning Veterans Memo rial Hall, 1620 Solano St. Corning Volunteer Fire Department, 814 5th St., will be holding its annual Home town Christmas Spaghetti Dinner at 4 p.m. Then onto the Lighted Christmas Pa rade on Solano Street at 5:30 p.m. followed by the lighting of the city Christmas tree in front of City Hall. Other Hometown Christ mas activities this sea son include the Christmas Business Window Compe tition to be judged on Dec. 16 and the Lighted House Competition to be judged on Dec. 19. Both are free to enter. For applications or more information on how to par ticipate in any of these great events, call the cham ber at 8245550. Canine fundraiser The Corning Patriots have opened a Canine Fun draising Fund, with the purpose of obtaining and training a replacement for Corning Police Depart ment's canine. Monetary donations can be made at various businesses in the commu nity or through Rabobank, 950 99W. For more infor mation, call Patty at 833 0265. For more information about these or other Corn ing Chamber of Commerce events, call 8245550, visit www.corningchamber.org or like the chamber on Fa cebook. CORNING CHAMBER Traditional Thanksgiving dinner planned at vets hall CONTRIBUTED Santa rides aboard a Red Bluff Fire Department truck during a past Christmas parade. RUNNINGS ROOFING and CONSTRUCTION SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 NoMoney Down! 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Visit our Gift Shop YourOneStopConvenienceStore ONE STOP E X P A N D E D Craft Beer Section Full Line Of Top Shelf Liquor 5am to 11pm 714 Walnut St., Red Bluff More Than Just a Gas Station! 525 Antelope Blvd, Red Bluff (530) 527-5272 Locally owned & operated FULLSERVICETIRESHOP 9 locations throughout California & Oregon Tires•Brakes•Alignments•Shocks Celebrating 43 Years Mon.–Fri.8am-5pm•Sat.byappointment Patrick's Pumping SepticPumpingServices Red Bluff, CA Garet Patrick Owner/Operator 530-366-6899 4patricks@att.net Available 24/7 BUSINESS » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, November 22, 2016 » MORE ATFACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4