The PR 2.0 Universe Melvin Yuan on 31 Dec 2007 10:45 am
To: Customer Service Manager. cc: CEO; PR Dept.
I am a demanding customer.
Like every other customer, I’ll call customer service whenever something displeases me about a product or service.
But if the problem is not well solved, I’ll e-mail an account of my experience to the customer service manager, copying in the PR manager and the CEO.
Why? Because I know that if the customer service manager doesn’t care about how much impact negative customer word-of-mouth can have on a company’s brand, the PR manager and CEO does! And if customer service won’t hold themselves accountable to the customer experience – and consequently, the company reputation – the PR chief and CEO certainly will!
As a PR consultant, I am closely associated with the clients I serve because my contacts are easily found on online press releases. And I have been personally contacted by unhappy customers whose experiences with my clients’ customer service further aggravated their dissatisfaction. In response, I have stepped in on several occasions to resolve issues that would have otherwise led to letters of complaints in the newspapers or negative word-of-mouth. And, while I don’t have a client-side mandate for customer relations, I don’t think my work was beyond the call of duty. Simply for the reason I stated above. PR is ultimately accountable for all facets of a company’s relationship with the public.
The question I have for experts in Customer Relations is: what do customers expect of PR today? Am I the only one who would demand that they are aware and accountable for sloppy customer service?
In an earlier post this year, I proposed that PR managers should be responsible for orchestrating the concerted PR effort – one that goes beyond mere media and analyst relations, and extends to areas including customer and employee relations strategies.
Do You think the PR manager has a role to play in Customer Service?
on 05 Jan 2008 at 6:08 pm 1.Cindy said …
Hey Melvin, like this very well-written post and do agree with your views. Unfortunately many customer service staff are not really dedicated in their job or understand the impact of their poor ability to resolve problems or discontentment. Perhaps they should all go for some PR training!
on 07 Jan 2008 at 1:03 pm 2.Stan said …
Hi Mel, great insights. The problem is that traditionally, the customer service (CS) and PR dept or function remains very segregated at the moment in most companies. I agree that CS is and should be actively managed by the PR or corp comms guys.
I recalled reading an earlier post by Brian Solis on how he predicts that as the social media landscape grows, CS will become “fused” with PR. I see this happening already in some instances.