Is Sampson County open and inviting to new industry? We’ll find out.
At least, that’s the purpose of a presentation set for 6 p.m. Monday, June 17, in the Sampson County Auditorium.
There, the findings of a customer service analysis examining various departments that most directly impact Sampson’s economic development activities will be laid out by Crystal Morphis, founder and CEO of Creative Economic Development Consulting, LLC.
The Sampson County Board of Commissioners hired Creative EDC earlier this year at a cost of $15,275, plus mileage costs, to conduct an analysis of the county’s customer service, specifically in the Administration, Economic Development, Environmental Health, Tax, Inspections and Planning, and Public Works departments.
Morphis will present her firm’s finding and any recommendations for how Sampson can enhance its efforts to recruit and retain business and industry. Creative EDC used an online survey and targeted interviews with community partners to gauge how responsive and receptive the county is to existing and potential customers.
“We look forward to hearing their thoughts on our customer-facing divisions,” Board chairman Clark Wooten has said.
Such results could also then be applied to customer interactions in the Sampson’s other departments, officials said.
“The level of business-friendliness of a community impacts whether a company locates, a small business grows and an entrepreneur starts a new business,” Morphis stated in a letter to Sampson County manager Ed Causey earlier this year. “In entrepreneurship, we talk about having a ‘culture of no wrong door’ meaning that every door leads the entrepreneur forward. The customer service project in Sampson County gets at the heart of that culture.”
A strong emphasis has been placed on economic development in Sampson, with the county last year establishing its Economic Development Reserve Fund with an initial contribution of $1.5 million and annual deposits of $250,000.
In that economic development pursuit, Causey noted two “critical areas of interest” for Sampson government: the promotion of economic development and the continued enhancement of its overall customer service.
Last month, in a further effort toward realizing growth, the county board hired Global Location Strategies, based in Greenville, S.C., at a cost of $58,000, plus travel expenses, to do a comprehensive countywide site analysis to identify “prime spots” for industry.
County officials said growth is vital to Sampson’s sustainability, imploring that all available resources be utilized and maximized in recruiting industry to the confines of this county — regardless of where that might be.