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Who
Stepped In It
How To Not Win Friends and Negatively Influence People: Every business and organization works hard to execute their public relations and marketing campaigns in an effective and cost efficient manner.
If you take your eye off the ball – for whatever reason – during highly-visible endeavors with customers and potential customers, the consequences can be costly. There’s too much competition in all industries; too many people doing it right; and too many ways to get products and services these days to allow for PR miscues.
A printing company in Norfolk is engaging in an aggressive phone/mailing campaign to introduce itself to area businesses. That is a smart public relations move. The brochure, flyer and introduction letter are all well done and impressive.
So what’s the problem?
My public relations agency in Virginia Beach recently received the dreaded “you have a letter for pickup at the Post Office” note. It stated that there was “postage due” causing non-delivery.
Could be something important…IRS, RFP, who knows?
Time was taken to travel to the post office, stand in line, pay the delinquent postage fee, and pick up the document. How many other businesses in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton and Hampton Roads had to do this?
When the envelope was opened it contained an introduction letter from the Norfolk printing company, a brochure and flyer, and business cards.
Wow! My first thought was: Are you telling me we just spent time and money to be pitched by the exact company trying to lure us to do business with them? Strike One.
My second, third and fourth thoughts were: Are you telling me we just spent time and money to be pitched by the exact company trying to lure us to do business with them?
We called the company to make them aware of what happened and that in our opinion an envelope with no return address (Strike Two) that costs someone time and money to pick up, may have the reverse public relations effect they’re looking for.
Our information was met with an insincere “I’m sorry” and no offer to help remedy the situation. (Strike Three)
Every action or inaction a business takes communicates to its stakeholders and potential stakeholders. What they see and hear about your company in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton and throughout Hampton Roads determines their opinion of it. That is public relations -- the relationship between you and your target audiences. Public relations permeates every aspect of your business.
Nobody hits a homerun during every at bat. However, if mistakes are going to happen, they need to happen internally, and not externally and publicly.
Who is the face of your business in view of or on the phone with your customers? Your front-line visibility to the public needs to be as perfect as possible. Front-line employees need to understand that one of their jobs is to connect with every customer by understanding how they think and feel, and what their needs and values are.
If you are stretching your one-person marketing team so thin that he or she can’t put a return address on envelopes, can’t take the time to determine how much a stuffed envelope weighs and costs, can’t provide a sincere “I’m sorry”, and can’t offer to fix a simple but important problem – then you are hurting your business more than helping it.
In this scenario, it would behoove the business owner to outsource some of the public relations and marketing work in order to relieve an overburdened front-line employee. With this strategy, the owner gets decades of public relations and marketing experience at his or her disposal, at a far less cost than hiring another employee. The young marketing professional learns from a veteran. And, should the marketing person leave for another company paying more money, the owner has continuity with the outsourced public relations agency which understands the business and marketing plan. Ground is gained, not lost.
Does your public relations and marketing program help you connect with new customers or are they helping you lose them?
For a no-cost phone consultation, feel free to call David Rourk at (757) 478-0150.
About the Rourk Public Relations agency
Our public relations agency is expert at marketing, marketing campaigns, and PR for clients in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Hampton Roads, and throughout Virginia.
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