Customer care doesn’t end after a sale. Finding the right talent and being flexible about where they work will save rental costs and help retain valuable employees. Embracing new technologies, including artificial intelligence, is unavoidable, but comes with risk of fraud.
Those were some of the insights shared with more than 100 business professionals at the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce luncheon held at the Miami Lakes Hotel on Main on July 9.
Tico Casamayor, the Chamber’s president of public relations, posed questions to panelists Felipe Basulto, market president, TD Bank; Nancy Batista-Rodriguez, chief executive officer, Outpatient Services, Baptist Health and Fred Senra, partner, Miami Lakes AutoMall, a past Chamber president.
They discussed challenges for small firms and how to prepare for the next decade.
“My philosophy in business, and I’ve always been in a retail business for the most part … is that all of the customers are golden,” Senra said of the message he emphasizes with employees. “That’s where the gold is. Without customers, there is no business. Without customers, you don’t have a job!”
Senra said he knows generations of families of car buyers and described helping one who called him for help to resolve an issue. Senra was enjoying time off in the Keys but solved the problem for the client.
“That is how the business grows, if you do things the right way,” Senra said. “You cannot shortchange the people. That is the biggest sin a business owner can do. … Whether in banking, the hospital or health business or the car business, that’s how it works. Being a good server.”
Basulto said it was “critical” for bankers, and law and insurance firms, to support their customers so that they can concentrate on producing their product or providing their service.
“We’re in this with you,” Basulto said. … Let your partners help you fulfill your dreams.”
Batista said “elevating patient care” has led customers from other areas of the county to use Baptist’s new emergency center in town.
As for artificial intelligence (AI), she said patients will seek the same basic information about hours and other topics, and that “AI is helping to take care of a lot of it.”
She also praised AI for forecasting patient volume, and cutting the time needed to create presentations.
“When you look at the opportunity of technology and especially when you look at small businesses that have less resources, it is important,” Batista said.
Basulto called the capabilities of AI “astonishing” and “the most significant disrupter we’ll see… AI’s [current] restrictions are that it only does as good as the information you give it.”
One of TD Bank’s biggest concerns is fraud, he said.
“…The amount of fraud that we see is significant,” he said. “They can duplicate your website, your mobile banking to make it look a certain way. It’s about verification, confirmation.
“I cannot begin to stress the fact: Protect your technology, protect your passwords, have secret codes with your family, all these different things,” Basulto said.
Business owners must embrace new tech tools, Senra said.
“You cannot run a business today the way you ran it 50 years ago and expect to be successful,” he said.
Also in attendance were Miami Lakes Council members Juan Carlos Fernandez and Angelo Cuadra Garcia; Laura Ratliff, vice president, Commercial Division and Philip Wyllie, leasing director, Commercial Division, for The Graham Companies.
The next luncheon is set for Aug. 13 at the hotel. Guest speaker will be James Kohnstamm, director, Miami-Dade County, Innovation and Economic Development.
Networking is at 11:30 a.m. and lunch begins at noon. Buy tickets at miamilakeschamber.com.
Photo: Leaders of the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce with guest speakers who participated in an executive roundtable and shared advice with audience of business professionals. From left, Tico Casamayor, president, Public Relations for the Chamber; Felipe Basulto, market president, TD Bank; Nancy Batista-Rodriguez, chief executive officer, Outpatient Services, Baptist Health; Fred Senra, partner, Miami Lakes AutoMall and Ray Palacios, president of the Chamber.