Business

Englewood Chamber of Commerce

Carol Rauscher, Executive Director - Phone: 201-567-2381
Englewood Chamber of Commerce

What Does the Chamber of Commerce of Englewood Do for You? 

  1. It serves as an added department of your business at the local level to represent you before all branches of government whether it be city, county, state or national. 
  2. It serves as the clearinghouse for all local problems. 
  3. It fights constantly for an equitable tax structure for all sizes and trends of business – to preserve the incentive of our American enterprise system, and to create a growing number of job opportunities. 
  4. It is on constant guard – as your silent police force – to arouse all business whenever any legislative proposals threaten to alter or destroy the principles of our business system. Tremendous pressure groups at all levels of government make this an increasingly critical assignment. 
  5. It serves as your over-all coordinating and collection agency – bringing together the views of all business, local and otherwise, and presenting these views to the proper agencies of government. Only in this way can the “voice of business” be effective. This is also known as “grass roots” opinion. 
  6. It strives constantly to build a favorable business climate – a condition that is controllable if here is understanding, cooperation and faith in our business system. It builds confidence in the future. 
  7. It affords the prestige that automatically goes with the use of the name Chamber of Commerce and what it symbolizes, the benefits so derived being difficult to measure in terms of dollars and cents. 

“These are some of the broader areas that are the fundamental responsibilities of the local Chamber that members and non-members are prone to overlook. If the organization did nothing more, every business establishment in Englewood should lend support by joining.”

The Chamber – Your First Line of Defense 

A recent conversation with a long time member suggested that the membership in general was unaware of one important benefit of Chamber membership. All of us in business know that serving customers and clients is our primary task. If we do it well our reputation grows and if we do not do so, our reputation may suffer. While this sounds like a simple equation, in reality it is everything but simple. 

In its community interface role the Chamber receives hundreds of telephone calls from people who have had business dealings with members of the Englewood business community. These calls customarily are the result of business transactions that the caller asserts was unsatisfactory and at times worse. 

All of us know that pleasing a customer or client is at times an impossible task. We can do our best in both serving and responding and still not achieve customer satisfaction. Ultimately, there is only so much that can be done and this results in an unhappy person looking for an outlet through which to express such unhappiness. More often than not, the Chamber becomes that outlet. 

Calls to the Chamber dealing with claims of service failures usually fall into two groups. The first are those callers who simply want to go on record and vent their unhappiness. The second are those callers who see the Chamber call as their first step in the process of information gathering for use in some type of legal action. Callers in both groups represent at least reputation risk and at worst, real financial risk to the involved business. 

When the target of the call is not a Chamber member the caller receives a polite audience and is then, without attempted intervention, referred to the next step in pursuing their complaint. This next step might well be the Division of Consumer Affairs or the Attorney General’s Office. However, when the target is a Chamber member the call receives substantially different treatment. 

The Chamber treats assertions regarding its members’ service or reputation with the highest level of importance and attention. Every effort is made to draw out the caller so a full understanding of the problematic transaction can be built. In drawing out the caller, the Chamber is keenly aware that what it is receiving is only one side and every story has at least two sides. Still, one benefit to this approach is that it helps reduce certain caller’s distress and in doing so defuses a potential risk-filled situation. 

In cases where the caller continues to feel the need to do more than simply express their unhappiness verbally, the Chamber encourages them to write a formal letter of complaint for the Chamber records, thereby providing a way for the caller to formally “go on record” with a recognized community process to an end that avoids the troublesome intervention of the regulatory authorities. However, for the Chamber the process is not over. We always make you as a member aware of these calls.

The Community Chest Serving Englewood, Tenafly & Englewood Cliffs

The Community Chest Serving Englewood, Tenafly and Englewood Cliffs strengthens the community through philanthropy, partnership and leadership. Since 1933, the Community Chest has raised money from community residents and businesses to support carefully selected and monitored non-profit agencies that provide social services and educational, recreational and cultural opportunities for the community. The Community Chest is an autonomous organization that is run by a volunteer Board of Managers.