Every day I meet with businesses of varying sizes, industries, structures and challenges. As with most things, there is no easy button for the challenges our member businesses face, but the Columbus Chamber can help.
I’d like to share one of our favorite success stories, which involves connecting two of our members.
When we tell the connection story of and ViaQuest, we typically start the story off with MCR Medical, a first aid supplies wholesaler that had a fulfillment and workforce issue. But the story really begins with the relationship I first built with ViaQuest.
When established social services provider ViaQuest joined the Chamber, their Director of Development, Art Miller, simply shared their story with me. He never once came to me with a list of potential clients or honed in on how the Chamber could help grow their client base. Instead, they spent their first one-to-two years of membership telling me about their business. Art kept me in the loop on new service offerings, highlighted ViaQuest’s strengths and was always willing to talk with other members I thought would be valuable connections for them.
This way of approaching their Columbus Chamber membership allowed me to become an extension of their staff with the ability to offer valuable solutions to the challenges they faced. But, it also kept ViaQuest at the top of my mind while I was out working with other members.
Fast forward to my initial meeting with MCR Medical where the owners shared with me a unique challenge they were facing: they had too much business. One of the reasons they were struggling to keep up was because of their high level of visual product packaging and customer service. Where would they ever find someone that would take the same amount of pride as they did in their product?
It was at that moment that ViaQuest immediately came to mind. Weeks earlier, ViaQuest invited me out to the ribbon cutting of their new Grove City facility that was equipped and filled with a workforce of individuals with disabilities trained and ready to work on projects including kitting, fulfillment and assembly. When I toured the location, I met the staff and knew their capabilities, but I also knew their excitement about having self-sustaining jobs. As I listened to the owners of MCR Medical, I knew exactly who would take the pride in making sure labels were up and the tape was positioned just so.
I couldn’t get back to the office fast enough to call Art at ViaQuest to let him know I would be making an introduction. MCR Medical and ViaQuest corresponded via email the next day, met a week later and began working together that next week. In just a few months MCR Medical’s sales had increased 80 percent and ViaQuest’s new location was almost to capacity with MCR Medical’s orders.
But the connections don’t end there. Stay tuned for a future blog post on the connection story of MCR Medical and Worley Law.
The Columbus Chamber is your hub for business connections. We are here to listen to your stories and to help your business thrive. You just need to call us and put us to work for you.
For more information about the Columbus Chamber, visit columbus.org or contact Christy Bertolo, Member Resource Specialist for the Columbus Chamber at 614.225.6093.
