PR is good for motivating your employees as well as for gaining customers

Guest blog by Pete Jenkins of e-Advantage Solutions Ltd

A recent study shows that 69% of European workers are ‘not engaged’ or are ‘actively disengaged’ by their work (Blessing White, 2013, p6). In the field of human resource management employee engagement is considered an extremely important force in managing and eliciting positive staff responses and driving their motivation. Employee engagement relies heavily on organisational citizenship, personal commitment and job satisfaction.   

The build-up of a brand by a company through its media presence and marketing/advertising affects the relationship between the employee and the company as well as the relationship with consumers. One can see an increase in the importance employees attribute to the brand. This has a positive influence on their awareness about competence, autonomy and commitment that gives them confidence to don the role of brand representatives for the company.

Any organisation today relies on PR and consumer advertising (including other methods than paid-for) as an effective marketing tool to reach as many stakeholders as possible. Though the marketing department’s main focus may be directed at the consumer, you may be surprised to learn about its cascading effects on the company employees as well. In other words, consumer marketing/advertisements and publishing have a major influence on employee performance and their sense of organisational identification (OI). 

So far, little research has gone into this area of the effect of an organisation’s PR and marketing/consumer advertising on its staff and employees. However, some recent studies are now revealing that there is positive employee reaction to these media efforts of the organisation and that this can have a telling effect on organisational identity of the employee. Studies conducted on groups of employees and their reaction to campaigns created by the company have provided heartening results on the employees’ personal bonding with the marketing and advertising and thus the company. This shows a positive side of consumer marketing on the employees.

All PR is good PR… or is it?

It would be a mistake to believe that all news, marketing and advertisements about your company can elicit the same positive reaction from the company’s employees. Their perception of the effectiveness of the campaign will be key in establishing their pride in and identification with the organisation. 

To summarise, PR, marketing and advertising are useful tools in aligning your employees with the company brand and play an important role in getting them on board. You can even get these benefits early by involving employees in campaign design and discussions at an early stage in the process and it sets the ball rolling for particularly fruitful employee participation and favourable reactions. Organisations would do well to evaluate employee reactions to press releases and adverts through an internal campaign first.

Getting news and information about a company into the local, national and online media is a sure-fire way to get their employees on board and earn their sense of loyalty, personal participation and commitment in advancing the interests of your organisation.

About Pete:

Pete is founder and managing director of gamification consultancy e-Advantage Solutions Ltd. Pete is Entrepreneur in Residence at Brighton Business School, University of Brighton and is Chair of GamFed (International Gamification Confederation) and a Researcher on Gamification in Human Resources at CROME (Centre for Research on Management and Employment).

His practical background at e-Advantage Solutions is in implementing CRM systems, and motivating staff to use them. For the last 2 years e-Advantage has been the UK Partner for Zurmo CRM, a gamified CRM, as well as consulting on gamification strategies for organisations in the financial services and infrastructure industries, along with a few smaller but interesting companies and charities.

At the University of Brighton and CROME he lectures on Gamification and Entrepreneurship, and is running the first Undergraduate and Post-Graduate courses on Gamification for Business available in the UK.

As Chair of GamFed he is aiming to spread the word about gamification and to foster best practice within the gamification industry. 

http://www.e-advantagesolutions.co.uk/

The difference between good customer care and bad

Today, as they say in footballing circles, has been a day of two halves.

I have received some of the worst customer care ever - and then, to reinforce my faith in human nature (even corporate nature), I had some first class customer care.

The first involved a matter which had been going on for almost a year. OK I have to admit I was responsible for some of the initial delay but after that the company messed it up all by themselves.

This was a case involving some really important issues so the detail on all the paperwork had to be right. It was quite a complex case but on every single piece of paperwork, something was wrong - a name here, an address there. Each time it was pointed out to them, we were promised it would be rectified and each time it was but with the addition of another error.

At one point it seemed almost impossible to believe the catalogue of cock-ups the company was making. It beggared belief in this day and age of the spell check, let alone competence and intelligence. 

Where one or two meetings were needed, five or six had to take place. As a consultant, I should have been charging them for my time!

There was a final fundamental straw which broke this camel's back and I lodged an official complaint. Nearly three months on, I think, and you'd imagine we'd have a written reply to my request for confirmation that the paperwork throughout had been done correctly and we had a full copy of each document.

But no, what I did receive today was a call from a gentleman who had been delightful at the beginning but was now patronising, rude and downright argumentative on the phone. When I pointed out that - ahem - I was the actual client who had paid their fees and (a) I was not happy, (b) I didn't like being spoken to in that manner and (c) as he hadn't been involved after the initial stage and admitted he knew nothing of what had gone on after, he was unqualified to make any comment. He said he was merely ringing up to find out how I was - most strange after nearly a year - and that I had jumped down his throat. As he didn't let me finish any of my sentences, the boot was definitely on the other foot. 

I tried to let him know that as a senior person within the company, he mus surely want to know that the service itself didn't work (thus believing I was putting some other poor soul out of similar misery in the future) but he just wouldn't hear what I was saying. A typical example of a man shouting over a woman, thinking her to be a fool. When I asked who was the principal of the company, he fobbed me off with the name of an administrator, thinking I wouldn't notice. 

A shortsighted move, for sure. Will I refer business to them? No. Will I recommend them? No. Will I ever use them again? No.

The man's answer to me was that the business had increased some six-fold in size. Actually, companies should ensure their base service and capabilities are in place and working perfectly before expanding because if they can't get it right when they're small, what chance do they have when they're bigger?

By comparison, and coming close on the first call's coat sleeves came a call from a large company. This young man had taken our query first thing this morning and needed to pass some information on to another department to get us an answer. He called around midday to say he hadn't been able to get through but he didn't want us to think he wasn't on the ball.

The second call was to tell us he'd been trying all afternoon but as today is an extremely busy day (Cyber Monday - quite understandable), he still had no news for us. He gave us a Plan B and said he'd check on our case first thing in the morning. He was at pains to say how much he wanted to give us great customer care - and it was appreciated.

So, companies of all sizes out there - please note the difference in PR profile, company reputation and downright good sense that can be garnered through your approach to customer service and dare I say it - customer care. Everything will be affected from your shares, your bottom line, your staff to your raison d'etre - your customers.

A plea to my many friends in the media

OK, so I’m on my high horse again. This time, it’s aimed at members of the media – journalists, sub-editors, editors and managing editors. Maybe teachers and headteachers too.

I cannot pick up a newspaper or magazine, or look on-line or on screen at media websites without there being a plethora of typos and grammatical errors. And before anyone comments, yes I have been guilty of these myself even in this age of the on-line spell check.

But the media (in any guise) should, at the very least, take special care to be accurate, not only in content but in spelling and grammar. After all, adults and children look to the media to set a good example.

Sub-editors are paid to check copy and headlines. I appreciate there have been cuts in resources in recent years, but come on! Do your jobs properly and be paragons of virtue.

Here’s a great example spotted recently:

What hope do we have for the younger generation if the BBC (not guilty in the case above, by the way, but certainly on its websites and on some of the sub-titling on its websites) and its many media colleagues can’t get things right – or simply can’t be bothered?

Young journalists these days come straight out of schools and colleges where spelling and grammar seem to be old-fashioned and unnecessary; but I still feel we should hang on to some semblance of standards in a world where text-speak is in danger of taking over and some of the most peculiar street words are finding themselves in new versions of dictionaries.

So my plea today is for editors and advocates to get to grips with this phenomenon for lack of education, laziness and inaccuracy before standards drop any further.

Is it really important? To me, yes it is.

If you agree, do let me know.

Taking ownership of a busy work schedule

You may have noticed, dear reader, that I haven't blogged for a while. That's because I've been busy. Too busy to do my own blogs; busy doing so for others!

I have the typical 'builder's syndrome' - you know, where the builder's house needs doing up but they just don't have the time. 

Surely, I hear you say, you should be on top of your own blogs so you can show clients how wonderfully you do it. That's all very well in theory but in practice? Not so much.

So, it seems, "write a blog post" has reached the top of the priority list - at last. Which can only mean one of a few things: (a) I am so well organised that everything else is done; (b) I'm putting off vital things and choosing to write this instead; (c) I have no work; or (d) I need some light relief on this Monday afternoon.

Actually it's more that I've shamed myself into doing it. If, as a PR professional, I can't find ten minutes to sit down and write a blog, it's very sad. Of course there are days when I can just sit down and write all sorts of things very easily, after all it's my job - and others where the words just won't come. Then writer's block becomes something I want to lay my head on and wield the axe myself.

Source: creativemarbles.com

It's true that we really do have to take ownership of a busy work schedule to make things happen. I have 'to do' lists all over the place. Some have pretty colour-coded meanings and I feel deeply satisfied if all the yellow tasks are completed on the day they're meant to be done. Today is almost one of those days. There are fewer yellow squiggles showing than there were first thing, so I feel justified in taking the time to do this post.

Those who know me know that I frequently say: "Nobody goes to their grave wishing they spent more time at the office". And so, on the days when it seems that ten minutes out of a busy schedule is completely out of the picture, I must learn again to take a deep breath and make sure I find the time to smell the coffee, daffodils or whatever else floats my metaphorical boat. 

Will I go to my grave wishing I'd written more blog posts? What do you think?!

What a crazy start to 2014

This New Year started in a completely different way from how I'd pictured. 

Days had been spent in the office during our shutdown period, tidying out, filing, doing expenses and all things admin with a view to hitting the ground running in 2014. Alas, it was not to be. While people nursed their hangovers from New Year's Eve or were first through the doors for the sales, our office broadband and land lines disappeared in a puff of smoke, just like Aladdin's genie, but without the three wishes.

And so it started. Three weeks later, umpteen calls to the provider, several engineer visits, hair turning grey and many lattes drunk in local internet cafes and at borrowed desks from helpful business contacts, normal service resumed. Which meant another backlog to deal with and evenings and weekends spent catching up.

They say you don't miss something until it's gone and boy, did we miss broadband. Living and working in a semi-rural location, mobile signals are at best intermittent and at worst non-existent. Land lines are essentials taken for granted. Lack of telephone connection takes us back to days of yore when women wore crinolines and waited to get the vote. Of course, mobile signals came back as soon as I drove somewhere urban and broadband was readily available at the cost of a short walk or drive but that's hardly the point - if I'm late in paying, the supplier would be down on me like a ton of bricks. So why are we expected to accept poor service for the money we're paying?

Lack of broadband in my office left me feeling stranded. No internet banking, no emails, no ability to work in my normal streamlined way. Taking my laptop to cafes was all well and good but their broadband wasn't secure and I couldn't have confidential calls on my mobile, in the middle of a pack of yummy mummies with screaming babies, grumpy grans or earwigging execs.

My goodness, how we have become dependent upon the internet. I am a frequent flyer in the world of online shopping - in fact, my air miles would take me round the world and back. I'm so used to being tied to the office that I (almost) had to force myself into stores and shops again. 

However the situation forced me to remember that there is a world outside the office and I enjoyed the luxury of allowing myself half an hour here and there to take a walk or simply wander round the shops, remembering the joy in actually touching goods and delighting myself in better choices in-store than online. Getting out and about gave me some respite from constantly working and a breath of fresh air as well as a break, so I went back to the office somewhat refreshed. Only the irritation and frustration of the situation still irked me.

The inefficiency shown on behalf of the broadband and phone provider made me angry. Each person told me something different. That was, when I finally got through automated systems and actually spoke to a human being. Call centres abroad told me ridiculous solutions to the initial problem that would have meant buying whole new phone systems, which I knew we didn't need. As usual, the bigger the conglomerate, the worse the service is. 

The good news is that it did all come to an end, or so I thought. My business survived. My clients, on the whole, are a wonderful bunch who showed empathy and understanding. My team supported me and the business. All was relatively well with the world ... until today, when we were supposed to be having new super fast broadband laid on. Suffice it to say that despite having written confirmation that an engineer was due to call today (which meant staying in all afternoon especially), as well as a reminder text yesterday, no-one turned up. When I finally got through to somewhere over the other side of the globe, it turns out the order was never placed and we have to start all over again.

Dreadful customer service? For sure. Bad PR? Absolutely. The funny thing is that at the end of the call today, I was asked to complete a customer service survey. Strangely enough, they received 'Very poor' on every count. 

Are you surprised?!!