How To Get Your Public Relations Money’s Worth

Regardless of what business we’re in, we all want the value – let’s call it “money’s worth” — we paid for up-front at the beginning of any program we undertake. Like, for instance, the money’s worth implicit in the underlying premise of public relations. Namely, people act on their own perception of the facts before them, leading to behaviors about which something can be done. When public relations creates, changes or reinforces that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors affect the organization, the public relations mission is accomplished and your money’s worth received.

Answering Customer Service E-mail: Five Errors to Avoid

We’re turning our focus this new year to customer service e-mail messages, those “answers” we receive in our inboxes when we write to customer service representatives (CSRs) for help. Our research method: Send hundreds of customer service questions and requests via e-mail. We’ve e-mailed everyone — from Fortune 500s to ma-and-pa companies, from public corporations to nonprofits and government agencies. We’ve solicited customer service e-mail from clients and colleagues. What we’ve learned so far: (1) Lots of customer service representatives lack the basic writing skills they need to communicate with customers. (2) Lots of companies are sending out embarrassing, inaccurate, business-damaging e-mail disguised as “help.”

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