When spare Hoover parts become PR

Hi everyone, it's good to be back. After the family were struck down with swine flu I took on a Florence Nightingale role and nursed my heart out for 10 days.

Anyway, during my time of being housebound; well pretty much quarantined, I took the opportunity to catch up on all of those domestic jobs that just stay on the to do list for ever.

One of those long overdue nagging to do's was the repair of the Hoover.

We purchased said Hoover some years ago, and really, it's never worked very well. It tends to blow out clouds of dust, leaving the house smelling musty and really defeating the object of vacuuming in the first place.

So I called up the Hoover parts line, cringing as someone answered, I was already slightly embarrassed about calling having had this small waste of space for so long.

So I apologetically explained the problem, noting several times that I knew I really should have returned it when we first got it. However, I was stopped in my tracks when the helpful customer service woman replied politely and efficiently 'don't worry madam, let me take your address and we'll send you the replacement parts straight away'.

Are we so, so bad at customer service in this country that we just can't cope with a satisfactory reply? I didn't quite know what to do with myself. And, low and behold, the very next day a courier arrived with the parts, and our Hoover now works like a dream.

I have to apologise for the post about Hoovering, not the most sexy of topics, however it did make me think how important customer service is to our PR strategies.

If you look at your last three customer interactions, what went well? And what didn't go so swimmingly?

Note down a positive and a negative for each and use them in the following ways:

Positives

- Are these in your elevator pitch, USPs, mission statement, on your website?

- Are the positives things that really make your business stand out from the competition and make your business what it is?

- Can you use those qualities/people to improve other areas of your business?

Negatives

- What can you do to avoid this issues arising again?

- Can you compensate those customers for those issues?

- What can you learn from these mistakes and how can you improve your business from what you've learnt?

Customer service, good and bad, generates word of mouth. As a nation we love to moan about poor service, so unfortunately if you get it wrong, it's not just one customer's loyalty that you influence.

On the good side, it is rare to get service that goes above and beyond, so word will spread. And in the age of social media it doesn't just spread over coffee, check out Twitter for mentions of your business, Google your company name and see if anyone has blogged about you. I'll bet that if Hoover are up with their social media strategy they'll pick up on this.

For those that know me well you'll know that I am a complete and utter Waitrose addict; and that's purely down to their customer service. They consistently impress me; double your money back if you return an item you're not happy with or money off vouchers if you didn't get a chance to use yours before they expired and so on. And I regularly rave about them - on and off line.

So if you are making time for some PR or marketing for your business this week, make some time to review your customer service strategy and start thinking of it as part of your overall PR plan.

New to Twitter: I love a list, and a Twitter list, even better

Over the summer months I gave a couple of talks at Oxford networking groups on social media, and Twitter was a big part of this.

It was a great opportunity to introduce small businesses who may have previously dismissed the tool as a frivolous waste of time, and explore some of the possibilities it can bring:

- Introduce you to the wider business community in your area and build brand awareness

- Help you to find new resources, tools and services that will enhance your business

- Alert you to opportunities to get involved with interesting projects

- Position your self as an expert in what you do and raise your profile

- Extend your customer service offering

- Promote events, special offers and incentives

- Build up the human element and personality of your business

So these are just a few. Over the past few months it has been really rewarding to see many of the businesses I've spoken with pop up on Twitter, and start using it to make connections and move forwards.

Now, Twitter has launched a list facility which makes it even easier to find relevant people to follow, and share those who you follow with others.

For example, I've set up a list for my favourite suppliers (called favourite suppliers!), which means that anyone looking for website designers, graphic designers, photographers and so on can follow everyone on my list in one click.

You can see the lists option next to your following and follower stats on the right hand side of the screen.

Further down the right hand side of the page you can create a list for yourself and pass on the people that you find interesting to follow.

Have a look also at the lists you've been added to and see who else is on that list. Lists are a great way to find people in the business community around you, find suppliers, follow businesses within your industry sector and reach out to more people.

Remember to think big! When you tweet you're reaching much further than you think. As many of the businesses I've got to know have - get the quality of your posts up, give people some food for thought, free advice, new news and you will rapidly increase your Twitter circle, and the potential for your business suddenly becomes vast.

Thanks for reading as always.

What did you do today dear? I lurked in some chat rooms....

The term chat room has come to mean a lot more these days, with many business sectors adopting the format to host business related discussions.
Gone are the days where chat rooms were solely for dating, or uniting unusual interests…

Today pretty much every industry profession sports a wide variety of forums or chat rooms available for people to share knowledge, ask for advice and gain opinion on a range of matters.

I really recommend taking some time to investigate these types of sites as they can offer a fantastic opportunity to share expertise and generate additional interest in your business.



Forums could be particularly useful to you if you’ve explored other social media platforms and not found that they fit with your business, time or style.

Three areas where forums can be used:

- As a PR I often go on to PR and Marketing related forums and offer advice to those looking to write their own press releases, secure some press coverage, or write new copy for their brochure or website. I don’t do it to persuade them into becoming a client, I do it to offer help and support, because I know I can go to similar sites and ask for advice and receive a hugely helping hand in return. As many people who run a small business will know, the sharing of this type of support is absolutely invaluable. Indirectly I receive requests for more information about my services from others who have read the posts and whether it’s just a bit of guidance or a request for a quote, it’s a great way to expand your communications.

- An optician client of mine is interested in using forums, again not directly to gain clients as he’s not a nationwide operation. However in his situation it’s a great way to find out what questions people have about their vision needs and which areas are poorly addressed online. This serves as an opportunity to tailor the information and advice on his own website to the types of areas people are interested in.

- For those in heavily regulated industries such as finance or law, some additional research is required. Remember that you are always responsible for the advice that you give online, the same as if you were face to face with a client. Read the small print of the forum you’re interested, contact the moderators to find out what you can and can’t do. Once you’ve checked it all out, these types of forums can be a great place to offer your expertise, and if you find it is well received, why not use it as a stepping stone to contact your local business supplements or magazines to offer advice on a regular basis to readers.

So if you do one small PR activity this week, spend some time researching business forums – Google your industry profession + forums and see what you come across. Be guided as to the popularity of the site by the number of posts and number of people currently online. Also, the forums on LinkedIn are a good place to start.

Register and lurk in the background for a while – it’s perfectly acceptable!!! Once you get a feel for the people, the regulars and the topics of interest, start posting responses that you feel will help people out.

And remember, just like all of the other social media tools – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – this isn’t about sales – you’re not there to sell, you’re there to help, support, gain trust and build your reputation as an expert in your field.

Finally, online conversations in chat rooms are often picked up by search engines, so just remember that you need to be happy that whatever you say could come up when someone Google’s you – if you don’t agree with a discussion, walk away and find a more engaging topic to participate in.

One small end note; as the popularity of this type of online discussion grows, so does the technology available. Coveritlive.com for example allows you to embed a real time chat platform into your website or blog so you can host live discussions. If anyone would be interested in a live chat about PR or anything related let me know!

The rise of social media in PR and business communication

Ingrid Semanikova recently joined Warrilow PR on a freelance basis having just graduated from Thames Valley University.

Ingrid wrote her dissertation on social media, so it is a pleasure to welcome her as a guest blogger on the subject.

In recent months there has been significant growth in interest in the micro-blogging social media service Twitter among PR professionals. Why? Because it’s about communication, interaction and engaging.

PR, in very simplistic terms, is about the ability to communicate a series of messages to a target audience.

There are many directions that could be taken and many audiences every company needs to communicate with in order to succeed, including potential customers, existing customers, employees and others. Good PR practitioners do not only communicate their messages, they listen to their stakeholders, monitor what is being said and done and respond accordingly.

Where other activities such as marketing and advertising are normally shorter term campaigns with one clear target, to sell, PR enables companies to have ongoing conversations with their target audiences where they can demonstrate their knowledge and expertise of products and target markets.

While advertising and marketing are one way monologues about the benefits of certain product or service, PR being a two-way conversation actually helps to identify what matters to customers. This can be then reflected in an organisation’s overall strategy.

The evolution of technology combined with the natural human desire to converse has brought about a real change into the way businesses and individuals communicate and relate to others.

The work of the PR industry, in building and sustaining reputation while spreading awareness, therefore has to adjust.

For businesses the immediate challenge is to identify processes and procedures that will enable them to interact online as members of specific communities, while simultaneously maintaining their role as guardians of reputation. This is not a challenge that will be overcome lightly, requiring commitment to deploying time and resources. But it is not something which can be achieved without becoming immersed in this post-Web 2.0 environment, and the implications of failing to face these challenges adequately could ultimately prove more time-consuming and costly.

If a growing number of customers now seek information online, then a business needs a successful approach to online PR. Those turning away from online PR and social media, whatever their motivation, risk becoming ignorant of their target audiences, but also turning down the opportunity to create word-of-mouth endorsements.

Social media are communication tools with a truly global reach potential. However, there are rules to be followed in order to succeed. These are not defined by the business community, not even by those who develop and sell the technology itself, but by those who use it.

Of course there is a lot more to say on this topic, and that's what I intend to do here. In future posts I plan to examine Twitter and social media in more detail.