I find myself at my local supermarket way more than I’d like, but as fresh fruit and vegetable eaters it goes with the territory. My daughters particularly like baby cucumbers – perfect size for little hands. When the baby cucumber shelf was empty yesterday, I asked the produce staff member if there were any ‘out the back’. There weren’t, he informed me, but for the ‘inconvenience’ he gave me a voucher for $2 off my shopping.
It wasn’t an inconvenience but I could see how proud the young man was that he could offer me something (other than baby cucumbers!). I was impressed with the way he spoke with me and that his employer had given him the tools to respond in such situations. It was a short but positive interaction. Nice work, Coles!
A dear friend of mine had the opposite experience at her local car wash. When her car only looked ‘half clean’ after being washed, she politely spoke with the attendant who advised her that her car was ‘too dirty’ to start with.
Unhappy with the response, she wrote a short message of disappointment on the company’s Facebook page. Their response was rude and unapologetic.
I was shocked at her story for a couple of reasons. Firstly, if I owned the company, my initial response would have been to rewash it on the spot. Simple. If that didn’t happen and she complained on my company Facebook page I would have responded with a sincere apology and offered to rewash her car at a time convenient.
It would have been so easy to turn this situation from unhappy to happy customer – a customer who would have spread the word about the great response from the company. Instead, she’s told us of their appalling response and won’t be returning.
So who’s responsible for public relations? It’s not just the role of those of us who hang out our public relations shingle. It’s the role of every staff member from the CEO and the head of finance, to the young man in the produce department and the car wash attendant.
Good PR is everyone’s business and it involves everything from the way your staff speak and interact with clients, to the store/office cleanliness and product/service quality. It’s truly no use having a great logo or product if your customer service is poor.
A good culture will engender good customer relations and it must start from the top down.
