PORT TOWNSEND — Roderick Davis said he isn’t going to introduce any new ideas to the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce, just implement some tried and true methods to help boost the city’s economy.
“There are only about four new ideas every year,” said Davis, who took the reins as the chamber’s new executive director last week. “I don’t have any of them.
“What I do have is a bunch of simple ideas I have taken from other places that we can use to move forward.”
Davis, 61, of Moses Lake has worked for 15 years for chambers of commerce in Putnam County, W.Va.; Chula Vista, Calif.; and Hermiston, Ore.
Most recently, he worked as a business consultant in Moses Lake. He also served in the Navy for 20 years and retired as a commander in 1989.
Davis succeeds Tim Caldwell, who resigned after 16 years with the chamber to accept a Port Townsend office manager position with Puget Sound Energy.
“The chamber is going to start doing a lot of things different,” Davis said.
“They hired me because they want to go in a different direction.”
The chamber is to serve as a primary information source for the area and to help businesses in the area do more business, he said.
Visitors center
To that end, it is installing a new visitors center at the Haines Place Park and Ride.
Susan Grantham has been laid off as director of the visitor’s center. She will be replaced by two part-time employees, Davis said.
The new management system will allow the visitors center to remain open seven days a week and will save the chamber money, he added.
“The chamber was faced with very difficult business decisions,” he said.
“We needed a new business model, and the solution was to not have a full-time employee there.”
Davis said the building is expected to be ready by Thanksgiving, but he isn’t sure of the exact timeline.
What he is sure of are the new programs the chamber will begin to roll out in the next three months.
Business programs
Davis is implementing several free programs for local business owners to help them better do business.
An E-lert system providing business owners with information on forged checks circulating in the area will be ready this month.
“With the economy being what it is, you see these things happen,” Davis said.
“We will be working with the Port Townsend police to provide information on where these bad checks are coming from, so business owners can be on the lookout.”
In December, Davis said he hopes to introduce a program that will forecast the number of visitors to the town for any given week.
“We can let businesses know how many people are booked in the local hotels each night,” he said.
“If you come to town, and the shops and restaurants aren’t open, then that is not a good experience.
“We want to create legacy visitors who come again and again.
“This way, businesses can plan around the visitors.”
Mystery shopper
Also in November or December, Davis wants to have a mystery shopper program in place to rank businesses on everything from customer service to how clean the windows are.
“We’re going to go in and check how clean the store is, how the customer service is, if the employees make eye-contact and so on.
“We will aggregate the results so individual businesses don’t get singled out.”
Davis said the results will be released in categories so that owners of restaurants, retail shops and hotels could focus on necessary improvements.
Davis also has ideas for increased visitor feedback, visitor appreciation and advertising methods for the community.
“These are all borrowed ideas,” Davis said.
“The only thing that can hold us back is my ability to get them in place.”
Over the long term, Davis said he would like to increase the connectivity between the town and the chamber.
During interviews with the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Davis identified himself as “a tech guy,” touting his accomplishment of bringing wireless Internet to the entire city of Hermiston, more than 650 square miles.
He said he would like to do the same in Port Townsend, and believed such a system could be in place by May of 2009.
Web site
In the interview, Davis also called the existing chamber Web site “disorganized,” and said it was difficult to find.
“We will have a new Web site soon,” he said.
“It’s part of acting as the information source in the community.”
Davis said that, above all, the chamber’s goal is to help local businesses thrive and to serve the community.
“This community is like a rich tapestry,” Davis said.
“There are many different ways to do things.
“This is going to be a challenge, but it’s also going to be rewarding — and it’s going to be fun.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com
