Industrial Process

Archive for July, 2009

A Great Way To Do PR

As a business nonprofit or association manager trying to get a bang for your PR buck you could pretty much concentrate on simple print and broadcast mentions or for that matter the whole basket of tactical public relations weaponry including old favorites like highvisibility speech appearances and newsworthy special events.

But if you really want premium public relations results you must use a broader more comprehensive and workable public relations blueprint to alter your key external audience perceptions perceptions that lead to the changed behaviors youll need to reach your managerial goals.

In short you had best take steps to persuade those key external stakeholders with the greatest impacts on your organization to your way of thinking then move them to take actions that help your department division or subsidiary succeed.

The PR blueprint is the best place to start: people act on their own perception of the facts before them which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create change or reinforce that opinion by reaching persuading and movingtodesiredaction the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most the public relations mission is accomplished.

Publicity tactics of course have their role in the blueprint but they are not the beall or endall of the public relations plan nor should they be.

Savor for a moment premium results like those mentioned above. Prospects starting to do business with you and customers starting to make repeat purchases; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; welcome bounces in show room visits; rising membership applications and community leaders beginning to seek you out; new approaches by capital givers and specifying sources not to mention politicians and legislators viewing you as a key member of the business nonprofit or association communities

But who will do the work such results demand? People assigned by the corporate office to your unit? Possibly your fulltime public relations staff? Or even an outside PR agency team? No matter who they are they must be committed to you to the PR blueprint and to its implementation starting with key audience perception monitoring.

Sad to say simply because someone describes him/herself as a public relations person doesnt mean theyve accepted PR as you understand it. So by all means make certain the public relations people assigned to your unit honestly believe why its SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations products or services. Make sure they accept the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.

Sharpen your plan your blueprint for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions like these: how much do you know about us? Have you met our chief executive or other senior managers? Have you had other contacts with our staff and were you pleased with the interchange? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Use professional survey firms in the perception monitoring phases of your program if you can afford them. But your PR people are also in the perception and behavior business and can pursue the same objective: identify untruths false assumptions unfounded rumors inaccuracies misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

Here its time to establish your PR goal one that aims to do something about the worst distortions you turned up during your key audience perception monitoring. It could be to straighten out that dangerous misconception correct that gross inaccuracy or stop that potentially fatal rumor dead in its tracks.

Now with the PR goal established select the right strategy one that tells you how to proceed. But keep in mind that there are only three strategic options available to you when it comes to handling a perception and opinion challenge. Change existing perception create perception where there may be none or reinforce it. Since the wrong strategy pick will taste like onion gravy on your raspberries be certain the new strategy fits comfortably with your new public relations goal. You dont want to select change when the facts dictate a reinforce strategy.

With that homework complete prepare a clear message and aim it at members of your target audience. Because crafting actionforcing language to persuade an audience to your way of thinking is hard work you need your best writer because s/he must create some very special corrective language. Words that are not only compelling persuasive and believable but clear and factual if they are to correct something and shift perception/opinion towards your point of view leading to the behaviors you are targeting.

Run it by your PR team for impact and persuasiveness. Then select the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. You can pick from dozens that are available. From speeches facility tours emails and brochures to consumer briefings media interviews newsletters personal meetings and many others. But be sure that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.

Rather than using higherprofile news releases since a message is often dependent for its credibility on the means used to deliver it you may decide to unveil it before smaller meetings and presentations When questions about progress are heard you and your PR team should get busy on a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. And remember to use many of the same questions used in the first benchmark session. Difference this time is that you will be alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

If momentum flags you can always accelerate matters by adding more communications tactics and increase their frequencies.

When all is said and done you want your new PR blueprint to persuade your most important outside stakeholders to your way of thinking then move them to behave in a way that leads to the success of your department division or subsidiary. Period.

And when you think about it we are fortunate indeed that our key stakeholder audiences behave like everyone else they act upon their perceptions of the facts they hear about you and your operation. Leaving you little choice but to deal promptly and effectively with those perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and move your key external audiences to actions you desire.

A great way to do PR.

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Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine newsletter offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at mailto:bobkellyTNI.net. Word count is 1200 including guidelines and resource box.

Robert A. Kelly copy; 2004.

About the writer:

Bob Kelly counsels writes and speaks to business nonprofit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR PepsiCola Co.; AGMPR Texaco Inc.; VPPR Olin Corp.; VPPR Newport News Shipbuilding Drydock Co.; director of communi cations U.S. Department of the Interior and deputy assistant press secretary The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University major in public relations. mailto:bobkellyTNI.net

Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com

Customer Service WarningWhat To Watch For That Indicate We Have A Customer Service Problem

Do you frequently hear that customers are unhappy about something and sometimes they are downright frustrated.

Yet what you hear from your employees is Stupid customers! They just dont understand how to use the product?

As the owner or manager what has been your response? Has it been to back up your employees or do you go find out what the customer is really saying?

WARNING: youve been given an indicator of what is going on in the organization. The customers arent getting what they thought they paid for and the employees are actually blocking access to what the customer wants.

Lets look at it from the customers view:

Youve just bought a new XYZ that is critical to your business operation. You get it back to the office and cant make it work as advertised. You call customer support with hope that it is just something that can be quickly fixed. After waiting on the phone for 3040 minutes you finally get a live person who immediately says Oh sure. Everyone makes that mistake. All you have to do is stand on your left foot while pushing the button with the right index finger. No problem. Thanks for callingclick.

You didnt even have the chance to tell him that you arent one of those everyday customers. You are actually quite knowledgeable and already tried that but it didnt work. So since he didnt listen youve got to make that call again. Another 3040 minutes waiting and finally get someone else whose immediate response is.exactly the same as the last time but you are trying to get him to listen before he cuts you off list the last one. You finally get him to stop and listen but his response is Youre using it wrong. It wasnt meant to do that at least that way. When you are using it THAT way you have to stand on the right foot while pushing the button with the left index finger. Geeeeee!!! ..click.

And after you try it on the left foot it starts working. In the meantime you and your business were off line for how long at how much cost?

What did it cost you to buy that product that was supposed to save you money?

And chances are that there will be another 2030 calls for other issues. In the meantime its costing you tons of time and money while you are trying to fix THEIR product and in some cases because your business is dependent upon having the product working the entire business is down.

So whats the answer to this?

Although many customer service reps managers and business owners think this is a technical problem that can be fixed by fixing the technical issue please listen carefully IT IS NOT. It is a management problem. It is up to management to fix the fact that the person directly in contact with the customer is more concerned in proving that the product really does work and the customer is too stupid to know it instead of helping the customer get what he really wants. The employees must be informed maybe trained to understand their real job is to help the customer and that requires listening to him thoroughly. Otherwise they are probably answering the WRONG question.

Sometimes there really is a good technical reason to stand on the left foot instead of the right when pushing the button. And if a customer doesnt know how or when to do that isnt the problem with the instructions not the customer.

Keep good records on what customers are calling about. Even if an employee has what he thinks is a justifiable answer if that question just keeps coming up over and over it is time to find out what the real base cause is.

I also believe that most customer service people actually are trying to do a good job for their boss but they dont understand what the goals of their job really are. So they are doing a good job delivering the wrong service. Most feel that their job is to protect the boss the company and maybe their own job from that stupid customer. That makes it a losing situation for the customer.

If they change their perspective to My job is to help the customer get what he wants. Im the expert on company policy the technical issues and Ill use those tools to help the customer get what he really wants which usually is a product that works.

I was traveling to the Middle East last year and saw a perfect example of how the perception of an employee might affect his customers. When arriving at the counter where they check passports there were two people that were there to facilitate faster movement through the different lines.

One considered themselves as someone to help the people get what they wanted. They walked up to the arriving passengers asking them if they were citizens or not and guiding citizens quickly to the right line. If they were not citizens then they asked if they had each of the several papers filled out checked those papers and then suggested that they correct line XYZ before getting up to the counter that they were now being pointed toward.

The other considered himself a policeman. He was preventing people from getting in line preventing them from getting in the wrong lines and sending them over to a work table to fill out the papers themselves. When they came back the policeman would check the papers again and send them back to do them over. No offer to help other than to say this isnt filled out right do it again.

The difference between these people: mainly in their vision of their job what they perceive as their job. They both have the same job description making sure that the agent at the counter doesnt have to deal with improperly filled out forms and to make the lines move through faster.

However one sees his job as catching mistakes and taking them out of line. That might actually make things easier on the guy checking papers at the counter but certainly not on the customer the guy trying to get in to the country. The other sees his job as helping the customer get through this tough process and guiding him to get the answers on the paper and into the right line.

So ultimately how can this be used in your company? Make sure that the employees in direct contact with a customer have a vision of their job that is clearly defined as:

Your job if you decide to take it is to make sure that customer gets what he wants. You are the expert in company policy and possibly even technical issues of the product so use those tools to facilitate smooth out getting the customer what he wants.

Many times the responsibility of the employee is not to find a technical reason (standing on the left foot while..). The employees should be trained to think beyond the fact that some technical aspect of a product is or is not broken. He should be asking the customer why he is struggling it could be in the instructions it could be customers are buying it to do something that it wasnt intended to do (marketing advertising are saying the wrong thing or not saying it clearly enough).

Frequently the employees need to be trained to think out of the box and help the customer in ways that are not quite as obvious. The employees can better help a customer if they have the skills to probe find what is the real cause that is well beyond a technical its broken response from a customer.

About the writer:

Alan Boyer CEO of The Leaders Perspective LLC is considered one of the worlds leading breakthrough specialists.

With over 35 years of business experience he has catapulted businesses lightyears ahead in weeks. Some double some jump 10 times.

He helps companies worldwide reach further than they EVER thought possible.FASTER

http://www.leadersperspective.com

mailto:AlanBoyerleadersperspective.com

Health Insurance Its Important To Know Whats Not Insured!

Around 7 million people in the UK are covered by health insurance the majority being covered through their employers. The problem is that few have really studied their policy documents and many misunderstand what is covered. And perhaps just as important what isn’t. If you expect health insurance to pay all your health costs you’re mistaken.

Health insurance is designed to provide protection for curable shortterm health problems and allow policyholders to jump the NHS queues to see consultants be diagnosed receive surgery or be treated. That sounds fine but before you buy you need to appreciate the treatments and situations that fall outside the scope of the cover.

But first a word of warning. This article does not relate to any specific policy and the terms and conditions issued by individual insurers do vary. So please ensure you also check your policy documents. After reading this article you’ll know what to look out for!

Sorry it’s a chronic condition

If a condition can be cured and is not a longterm problem your insurance company will classify it as acute and should meet the cost. If your problem is incurable or it’s a problem that despite appropriate treatment will be with you for a long time then your insurance company will classify it as chronic and no you won’t be covered.

But drawing a firm line between what is acute and what is chronic is fraught with problems and leads to the biggest area of conflict between insurer and policyholder.

Everyone agrees that diabetes and asthma are chronic conditions as you’re likely to suffer from them for the rest of your life. So those sorts of condition are not covered.

Problems arise when the medical team initially considers a patients’ illness to be curable but the condition subsequently deteriorates and the doctors change their mind it’s now become incurable. This can happen especially in the treatment of some types of cancer.

In these circumstances the condition is initially defined as acute and is therefore insured but deteriorates and becomes chronic and outside the terms of cover. This is possible as insurers retain the right to reclassify a condition from acute to chronic during treatment.

Sorry it’s too long term

The insurance company will not pay out for long term treatment. But you need to check your policy documents to see how they define longterm. You can find the situation where a course of drugs extends for say 12 months but the insurer will only pay for ten months.

Sorry it’s preventative

Your insurance is designed to pay for the treatment and cure of conditions when they arise. It is not designed to pay for treatments that are used to prevent an illness.

Again the problem of definition arises. Sometimes it is arguable whether a treatment is preventative or a cure. Take the drug Herceptin for example. This drug can be used in the early stages of breast cancer. Research shows that Herceptin can halve the incidence of cancer returning for women who have a particularly virulent form of the cancer known as HER2. In this situation is Herceptin offering a cure or is it a preventative?

Insurance companies are split on the debate. Norwich Union WPA BUPA and Standard Life Healthcare will pay for Herceptin for HER2 patients whereas Legal and General and Axa PPP will not.

Sorry the drug is not approved

Two of the main attractions for taking out health insurance are: to jump the queues at the NHS and to get the latest treatments and drugs. But there’s a rider.

Unless the drug has been approved for use by the NHS in England and Wales by the Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence your insurer is unlikely to approve its use. The problem is that the Institute’s brief is not simply to decide whether a drug works but to carry out a cost/benefit analysis to ensure that the benefits to the nation outweigh the financial costs of using it in the NHS. Not an easy brief and one that has placed the Institute under scrutiny for the extended delays in drug approval.

The compromise hit on by the Financial Ombudsman is that if a health policy won’t pay for the use of experimental treatments then it should meet the cost of an approved conventional treatment with the policyholder footing the bill for the balance if the experimental treatment is more expensive.

Sorry it’s a preexisting condition

The basic principle is that if you are already suffering from a condition when you start a policy then that condition preexists the policy and any claims for its treatment are invalid.

For this reason insurance companies insist you complete an exhaustive questionnaire before they agree to insure you. After all they need a clear picture of your medical condition before they quote. For many applications the insurer will with your approval also write to your GP for specific details of your medical history. They like to have a complete picture.

So lets say some years ago you injured your knee playing football. It appeared to recover but now it turns out that you have a torn cartilage and need an operation. The insurer could argue that this is a preexisting condition and you have to pay for its’ treatment.

Some insurers try to accommodate these grey areas with a moratorium provision within your policy. These provisions typically say that so long as you have been symptom free for two years relating to any condition you’ve suffered from within the last 5 years then they will pay for subsequent treatment. Not all policies have these moratorium provisions and the time periods do vary between insurers. You should carefully read your policy.

Sorry its not covered

Health Insurance is an annual contract just like your car insurance. So when it comes to renewal your insurer is at liberty to review not only your premium but also change the conditions on which your cover is provided.

Therefore if your policy comes up for renewal mid way through a course of treatment it’s possible to find that your new policy no longer covers that particular treatment. This means that you will have to foot the bill for the balance of the treatment.

Furthermore with ongoing advances in medical research more and more conditions are becoming treatable. This progress has the effect of shifting back the dividing line between chronic and acute conditions.

This hits the insurers’ pocket in two ways. With more conditions being reclassified as acute the number of claims is increasing. And there’s also a trend for new treatments to cost more Herceptin being a good example. The net result is that the insurers are finding themselves having to pay out far more. This is inevitably passed back to you through increased renewal premiums. And in an attempt to reduce their risk exposure insurers have a tendency to adjust their definitions and exclusions. This means that you must read your renewal notice closely before you decide to renew.

So when you are considering Health Insurance be aware that everything is not always black and white. And if you’ve got insurance and need treatment always contact your insurer without delay and get them to confirm that your treatment is indeed covered

About the writer:

Michael Challiner writes for Brokers Online they offer most UK financial services including medical insurance. http://www.lifeassurancebureau.co.uk/privatemedicalinsurance/.

Additional reading Medical Insurance Topics http://www.lifeassurancebureau.co.uk/privatemedicalinsurance/faqs/privatemedicalinsurancefaqhome.htm.