Communication Audit 2007

So tell us - How well are we communicating with you?

By Marqué Bressler
CBR Director of Communication

As the Columbus Board of REALTORS® continues to evolve, communicating effectively with our diverse membership is imperative. To that end, we kicked off a very important communication study last month.

The Communication Department will be leading this comprehensive review of how we communicate with you -- our members. Not only will we look at the tools we currently use, but we will be looking to all of you for ideas and suggestions on how we can improve our communications.

This project will study the effectiveness of current communications vehicles; identify weaknesses and barriers; measure understanding/ resonance of strategic messages among members; gather ideas and generate recommendations to optimize communications; and establish baselines for future evaluation.

Gill Research, LLC, will serve as outside consultant on this project. Gill Research is a Chicago-based, full-service research and consulting firm specializing in communication audits. Some of their other clients include American Century Investments, Baxter, Delta Air Lines, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Harvard University, Harrah's Entertainment, JPMorganChase, Moody's Investor Services, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Virginia Association of REALTORS, and Wells Fargo.

The main components of this project include an outside review of our current communication vehicles; one-on-one interviews with some members of senior management; focus groups with members (participants randomly selected); and an association-wide online survey.

We finished the interviews and focus groups in August. The information garnered was used to create a survey for all CBR members to take. e-Mail invitations will be sent to all CBR members (whose e-mail addresses are on file) in mid September when the survey is released.

Having the participation of all members is essential to the success of this initiative -- including those who were interviewed or participated in a focus group. So we hope that you will take a couple minutes to complete the survey.

The results of this communication audit will shape strategic changes in the association's internal and external communications policies and procedures. We are committed to using the findings to make improvements.