Proactive public relations have become vital in today's more competitive than ever business environment. One of the easiest public relations tools for you to implement is to make sure that you work hard on your customer service. You need to work hard to make every customer experience a good one so that your existing customers will return to you and keep buying.
As you will no doubt be aware, the purpose of this article is to talk about customer service and how you can use it as a proactive PR tool. Here is what you need to know and do.
Don't just listen to what customers are saying, actually care about what they say and act upon it- All of the standard definitions of public relations now talk about two-way communication between customer and business. If only it were that easy. It is easy to let customers email you back but great customer service means actually giving a damn about what they have to say. You need to actually hear what customers are saying and act upon it. Just do it.
Remember that great customer service is talked about- If you go above and beyond with your customers they are going to get excited. Chances are that some of them will become raving fans. Great customer service is talked about, average customer service is not. Do something different and people will talk about you. You need to offer that extra customer service training in how to use your product or make that follow up call to see how everything is going.
Go where your customers are and make everything easier for them- You need to know where your customers go looking for information. The first stop is Google. You need to make sure that your website is Search Engine Optimized so that it appears higher in search results. This may not be enough. If your customers are on FaceBook you need a FaceBook fan page. If your customers are on Twitter you need to have a Twitter profile.
Proactive public relations require you to go out, to reach out, to your customers. You can no longer just rely on them coming to you. Great customer service means letting them contact you in ways that is convenient for them. Do something different and you can be really successful. Don't just be the same as everybody else. If you go above and beyond with your customer service people will talk about you and you will get more customers. This means that you will get more money!
