#PR Isn't About "Happy-Talking" Customers [Abbott PR]

I’m sure it’s happened to you before. You drive by a business, and, perhaps not even noticing it at first, you cringe.  

"It’s funny," you may think to yourself, "but I haven’t been in the place since last November." Maybe you can't even remember why.

One way or another, you were put off by the place, and never went back.

Then you drive by a second business, and you almost want to invent a reason to stop and go back in, even though you may have no business to transact there. 

How does that happen? And (you might be thinking) how can I make THAT happen for MY business?

Some people view public relations as the domain of glad-handing, back-slapping "yes-men" or pretty faces who tell clients whatever they want to hear. But the  truth is, this kind of PR person wouldn’t be much help to the client who cringed, above, or to that client’s business. These efforts instead could be an expensive distraction; or worse, a waste of money. Simply trying to distract customers from a bad experience doesn't fix the underlying reasons for the bad experience. And it won't change perceptions if they have new bad experiences if they return.

Changing a negative reputation into a good one, or at least a neutral one, or reinforcing a business’ already-positive image, is really what public relations is all about. 

In the negative example above, becoming aware of the company's problems - whether it's poor service, shoddy merchandise or even the bad odor of the establishment - by using customer feedback effectively, then making sure that current and past customers know you are aware of their past bad experiences and are taking steps to correct them, are the first steps to changing bad perceptions.

Perhaps a sign out front, reading, "Newly remodeled," touting a new product line, or, even better, new management, would help entice disgruntled customers back into the door. But of course, real changes will have had to have been made. Customers are savvy, and can see through the old "new paint job" or "new signage" approach, IF there aren't real changes made along with them.

An ad in the paper and a mailer to past customers trumpeting a totally new approach to customer service, may help, too, as long as that claim is then TRULY backed up with EXCELLENT service and products and a clean environment when customers begin to return. (Because, again, savvy customers can not and will not be fooled - and you should not try.)

For the business with an already good reputation, but with little repeat business, a company e-newsletter, mailed every other month to regular customers and containing special deals to reward their loyalty may help remind them why they liked the business so much on previous visits. 

A Facebook page is also a great way to interact with customers on a daily basis, posting specials, customer and employee profiles and promoting new services and products.

Special programs to reward regular customers solidify that important base, and increase word-of-mouth buzz about a company. And of course, an effective social media presence on facebook and twitter, with perhaps a video element on YouTube, also backs up a company's reputation and are channels for effective and immediate feedback.

A paid advertising campaign highlighting satisfied customers may also be necessary to let people know that they, too, can have good experiences there. Advertising - online and in print - can also reinforce the good work you've done to improve customer experiences.

All of this underlines the seriousness of the profession of public relations. It involves the art of effective communication, writing skill, and  the ability to determine a course of action that will truly be effective in widely varying situations and appealing to diverse publics.

PR isn’t just happy talk, it’s a profession that helps make companies more successful through an approach of identifying positives and negatives and creating plans to addressing them in a systematic way.

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Stephen Abbott is a public relations consultant and political messaging specialist, and the principal of Abbott Media Group, specializing in helping political candidates, business leaders, groups and start-ups craft effective messages. Visit Abbott Media Group for more information.

4 Ways To Build #Trust With Your Customers [Abbott Media Group]

4 Ways Your Business Can Build Trust With Customers

People will do business with those that they trust. Public Relations can help to build that trust.

There are several ways a business can begin to build trust with their customers and future (potential) customers. Among them are Consistency, Courtesy, Care, and Community Involvement.

Being Consistent is critically important to a business. There's a reason why restaurants, pet stores, hotels, and hardware chains, among others, are so popular. Ideally, they offer consistent service and products offered professionally in multiple locations. Customers know they can get the same products and services offered for about the same price, wherever they go. For some, that may seem "boring," but customers actually yearn for boring over the alternative: inconsistent service and the inability to get their favorite products. Public Relations professionals can guide a business to accept and disseminate internal policies and standard graphics and messaging that will help create a consistent experience for customers.

Courtesy is also an important factor in building Trust. If service is offered in a cold manner, or worse, in a rude manner, the bond of Trust between a customer and a business is broken. This is even the case in a long-term relationship. There's no such thing anymore as a small incident of discourteous conduct. Even one incident in which a customer is treated poorly can ruin a company's reputation in this era of instant online reviews. A Public Relations professional can help isolate and identify areas in which internal standards aren't being met, and can, once those are addressed, help repair and rebuild Trust with customers who experienced a lack of courtesy during a business transaction.

Care is shown in a multitude of ways by a business, and customers recognize when it's not there, contributing to a lack of Trust. Products or services offered in a sloppy, slapdash way can instantly signal to the customer that the business doesn't really care about them. Caring isn't a small thing, it's a major thing, and in fact, should be the top concern of any business. If you're not in business to care for the customer, why are you in business at all? Care can be demonstrated by proper training and internal messaging that makes it clear that business owners have high expectations of their employees. PR can deliver those messages in a compelling and clear way that leaves no doubt that Care is required from everyone.

Finally, Community Involvement can be a tremendous trust-building tool. While some effort should be made not to alienate a customer base with involvement with overtly political or controversial causes, showing concern for one's community is more than a gimmick to grab headlines. Instead, it shows that a business is intimately tied to the community in which they do business, and that they care about their customers' well-being, more than just as a source of cash. Public Relations professionals can help identify community activities that reflect well on a business and help show that concern that leads to stronger feelings of trust with their current and future customers.

For more information about building Trust, visit Abbott Media Group at www.abbottmediagroup.com.

4 Keys to Building a Positive #Reputation [Abbott Media Group]

Your reputation - how you're perceived by others - is bound up in a host of factors, the most important of which your clients or customers are observing when they interact with you, or when they interact with people who have had dealings with you.

And in this Internet age, even millions who have never dealt with you can form an opinion of you based on what OTHERS who have never heard of you are saying!

So it's more important than ever to take control of your reputation and mold it in a favorable way, because uninformed people and forces well beyond your control will take hold of it if you don't. An like a boat that's left un-moored at the  dock, it will be drawn out by the tides and tossed with the winds whichever way they choose.

What factors will help "tie down" your reputation so these capricious winds can't get hold of it?

1. First to consider is the quality of your service or product. No amount of PR can paper over a consistently horrible product. The job of PR isn't to make a bad thing look great, because people can easily see through a snow job. And that snow job boomerangs back onto you rather quickly. But a great product, well conceived, unique and useful to customers, speaks for itself. The core of a good reputation is something of good repute to give to the world.

2. Similar to the first, the second point is to ensure that the way in which you deliver products or services is professional. It's not enough to have a great product or service. If you deliver it without passion, care and true professionalism, it will still be seen as a "negative." Having great food will bring them back to the restaurant. Once or twice. But a rude wait staff will cause them to forgo the experience again, and lead to bad-mouthing online.

3. How you treat your clients and customers is the third point that can make or break your reputation. Not only will an overworked and under-appreciated staff be less productive, they'll fall down on points 1 and 2 - the quality of the product and the professionalism of how it's delivered to the customer or client. You'll also experience heavier turnover of staff, and dozens or thousands of unhappy former employees again will not bode well for your company's reputation.

4. The final point of reputation is how the public perceives the good you do in the community. Good works is a plus and definitely has value in Public Relations and reputation-building efforts. In fact, it's seen by many as the key tool in the tool bag of Public Relations. While it can be over-used and its value overstated, good works done in the community is counted as a positive and helps "move the needle" towards a good reputation. However, as noted in 1 above, no amount of good deeds (charity and other things that are unrelated to your business model) can paper over a horrible product, poorly delivered, by unhappy or disgruntled employees. And doing charity work as a way to paper over some bad press is transparent, and is easily seen for the fraudulent effort it is.

All of these keys to a good reputation work together to create a positive reputation among your "publics." This includes your current customers, your past customers, your future customers, your employees, local and regional news media, these publics and others online, and those these various groups happen to encounter second- and third-hand.

A professional Public Relations person who is skilled in how to build a positive image for you and your business can reach out to these groups, tailoring just the right messages for each.

Let Abbott Media Group's PR division help you present these to publics that need to hear more about what you're doing!

Taco Bell "Shell Licking" PR Crisis Goes Away Only After Better Training

Taco Bell is facing yet another PR nightmare Monday after an employee was pictured brazenly licking a stack of taco shells and then uploaded the photo to Reddit and facebook, where it was duplicated and shared endlessly online. The story hit "old media" throughout the world (here and here and here) almost immediately and spread like a Western wildfire.

The company is just coming off a scandal about its meat's composition, and fast food giant Burger King had a similar incident last year with the employee standing in two pans of lettuce, which was exposed on 4chan.

The dangers of social media are on full display here, and it's another lesson teaching us that mishandling it can get you burned.

Usually a great tool used by customers to show off how they enjoy a company's products, dozens of the "licking" photo were being "tagged" by facebook users with Taco Bell's name, making the photo instantly and repeatedly show up under "Photos of Taco Bell" on the company's official facebook page.

The social media meltdown was being handled gingerly and cautiously by Taco Bell PR people who maintain the company's facebook page.

Typical responses on Monday were: "Hi Jen - We have spoken with the restaurant and confirmed that the shells were never served to customers. This is completely unacceptable and we are taking the appropriate action against everyone involved." and "Hi Kyle - We have 100% confirmed that the taco shells were never served to customers. Plain and simple, this is unacceptable and we are taking the appropriate action against everyone involved."

(Despite skepticism of these statements, they certainly CAN confirm this because these restaurants are completely covered in closed circuit cameras to discourage theft, and in some cases, build a case for firing. Obviously the case for firing makes itself in this situation.)

Both of these are good statements, the only kind a company can really make in such a crisis.

Clearly, there are "haters" online urging this crisis on - as they do with every crisis - posting the image repeatedly and saying they will NEVER eat at ANY Taco Bell again. That seems like overkill and piling on, but it's clear that this has an emotional kick to it that will put many people off Taco Bell and change their image of their product.

The fact is, franchises desperate to cut labor costs helped bring this on themselves. Companies seem far less likely to even bother to train lower-wage employees in basic ethics, due in part to high turnover. The same seems true of food-handling procedures, which is even more frightening. THIS is the result of that lack of training.

NEXT STEPS
PR can never be used to cover up or "make the story go away" without something positive coming out of it. Customers are wise to a whitewash, and are incredibly savvy.

Any PR response MUST include corrective action not just with this franchise, but with the entire company. And it should be a wake-up call for other fast food outlets, too, that a crash course in ethical behavior must be taught to each and every employee, and that enjoying oneself on the job is one thing, but crossing the line with unsafe food handling can never be tolerated.

If I was the CEO of Taco Bell's parent company, I'd demand that all employees be huddled into a meeting THIS WEEK in each restaurant that would start a comprehensive review of ethics and food handling, and begin to stress the seriousness of the situation to each employee. Bad publicity hurts where it counts: In profits. A dip in sales from weeks of bad press will mean a cut in hours at every single restaurant around the country. Actions have immediate consequences.

With a renewed commitment to decent food handling practices, the company may actually do a great service to the industry. A "teaching moment," if you will. It's either that, or this becomes a story that tears down years of good image-building efforts with weeks of bad press. Your call, Taco Bell.