Good PR Often Begins in Customer Service
But just because you say, “We shall have excellent customer service” doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
Contact
Print I started the week writing about why creating excellent customer service is essential to a well-rounded PR plan. But just because you say, “We shall have excellent customer service” doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Clearly, people must be motivated and made to feel that their role in PR (“isn’t that what the communications people do?”) really matters. Quite frankly, many people, particularly the insiders, don’t necessarily understand publicity. In fact, there are some who still confuse public relations with advertising. This happens frequently where the two departments are fused into one, but that’s another story.
I’m thinking that if you’re going to tell your customer service people that what they do and say matters in terms of helping the company’s image, then you need to develop strategies that will help make this happen. In Engagement is Not Enough, author Keith Ayers believes that whatever companies are doing to engage their employees is simply not enough. In one chapter, Ayers suggests that in order to hasten the process of engagement management must make “everyone feel like an insider.”
This makes tremendous sense to me. It goes back to something I used to write about in the Allbusiness.com employee development blog: you need to make people feel valuable. Once you’ve accomplished that the possibilities really are endless. Ayers tells the universal story of how as a youngster starting at a new school he felt alone when he was introduced to the kids in class. He writes, “The teacher introduced me before class as a new student and, as all the students turned to look at me, one face in a sea of faces stood out. He had bright blue yes, curly red hair, and freckles all over his nose. That red-headed boy’s face stood out because he was grinning from ear to ear.” Later in the day, of course, this kid introduced himself to Ayers and they became fast friends. “He made me feel like an insider at a time when I felt very much on the outside.” Clearly, this kid turned Ayers new school experience into a positive one.
But remember, being friendly isn’t the only way to make someone feel like an insider. One of the most common complaints among employees in and out of the customer service department is not knowing what’s going on in a company. Granted, some things need to stay under wraps, but when people don’t understand how their roles mesh with the rest of a firm’s raison d’etre, they often lose trust in their employer and what follows swiftly behind is a lack of motivation. This is often translated into less-than-enthusiastic exchanges with customers, which, in many cases, is difficult to measure much less identify.
I’m thinking that if you’re going to tell your customer service people that what they do and say matters in terms of helping the company’s image, then you need to develop strategies that will help make this happen. In Engagement is Not Enough, author Keith Ayers believes that whatever companies are doing to engage their employees is simply not enough. In one chapter, Ayers suggests that in order to hasten the process of engagement management must make “everyone feel like an insider.”
This makes tremendous sense to me. It goes back to something I used to write about in the Allbusiness.com employee development blog: you need to make people feel valuable. Once you’ve accomplished that the possibilities really are endless. Ayers tells the universal story of how as a youngster starting at a new school he felt alone when he was introduced to the kids in class. He writes, “The teacher introduced me before class as a new student and, as all the students turned to look at me, one face in a sea of faces stood out. He had bright blue yes, curly red hair, and freckles all over his nose. That red-headed boy’s face stood out because he was grinning from ear to ear.” Later in the day, of course, this kid introduced himself to Ayers and they became fast friends. “He made me feel like an insider at a time when I felt very much on the outside.” Clearly, this kid turned Ayers new school experience into a positive one.
But remember, being friendly isn’t the only way to make someone feel like an insider. One of the most common complaints among employees in and out of the customer service department is not knowing what’s going on in a company. Granted, some things need to stay under wraps, but when people don’t understand how their roles mesh with the rest of a firm’s raison d’etre, they often lose trust in their employer and what follows swiftly behind is a lack of motivation. This is often translated into less-than-enthusiastic exchanges with customers, which, in many cases, is difficult to measure much less identify.
