How,Public,Relations,Can,Help, business, insurance How Public Relations Can Help Your Business

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Do you worry about certain behaviors among your most important audiences because those behaviors are crucial to achieving your organization’s objectives? If your answer isyes, you need public relations.The payoff? When those audiences do what you want them to do, achieving your organizational objectives gets a lot easier. That’s why this article is all about how to make welcome, key-audience behavior a regular occurrence.We learned long ago that people act on their ownperceptions of the facts, leading to predictable behaviorsabout which something can be done. We call their cumulativeperceptions opinion…public opinion.Public relations tries to create, change or reinforce thatopinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-action the very people whose behaviors affect your organization.That’s why it’s quality planning, and the degree of perception and behavioral change it produces, that defines the success or failure of a public relations program.Those Painful BehaviorsLet’s look at some of those crucial perceptions (usually leading to crucial behaviors) among target audiences thatcan make you nervous. If you labor for an association, it might be strong feedback that members perceive your communications organs as devoid of informative material. Or, for the regional manager with a motel chain, growing email traffic suggesting that guests perceive rooms as dirtywould be unsettling. And for a brand manager, field reportsthat fast food taste tests result in less than complimentaryconsumer reactions might ruin his day.Those kind of perceptions almost always lead to unhappy behaviors such as loud complaints about association communicators, cancelled reservations due to a motel chain’shousekeeping mismanagement, or to falling sales because of a fast food product’s poor taste. What to do About ThemHow can any organization prepare itself to prevent and dealeffectively with such key-audience opinion challenges?Let’s start by walking through a perception challenge facinga typical organization. Because public relations problems are usually defined by what people THINK about a set of facts, as opposed to the actual truth of the matter, one would bewell-advised to focus on three public relations realities:1. People act on their perception of the facts;2. Those perceptions lead to certain behaviors;3. Something can be done about those perceptions and behaviors that leads to achieving the organization’s objectives. Awareness is KeyThose responsible for public relations in any organization – let’s say it’s you for purposes of this article -- must beconstantly aware of counterproductive behaviors among the organization’s key audiences – customers, prospects, community activists, union leaders, competitors and others.Remaining alert to these potentially damaging perceptionsand behaviors requires special vigilance. Among intelligencegathering techniques are regular monitoring of headquartersand field location media, staff activity reports, employee and community feedback, regulatory and other local, state and federal government activities involving your organizationand, especially these days, the Internet with its emails, ezines, chatrooms and search engines.What’s the Problem?First, identify the key operating problem. Is it declining sales in a specific product line or location? Is it an allegation of wrongdoing? Is it a quality or performanceissue? Has an elected official spoken negatively about yourindustry? Have you learned that a national activist group may target a unit of your organization? Or, is there clear evidence of negative behaviors among your key audiences?Verify, Verify, VerifyYes, determine through field staff, key customers, media monitoring and, if resources allow, even opinion sampling, just how serious the problem is. If an allegation, is it trueor false? If a drop-off in sales, gather and carefully evaluate the possible causes. If a quality issue, probe deeply for its probable or likely cause.How Bad is it? After an exhaustive review of all evidence surrounding the behavioral problem you have identified, establish conclusivelythe size and shape of the problem rating itsdamage potential on a scale between an irritation and an immediate emergency. Does it threaten employee or public safety, financial stability, reputation, the organization’s mission, or sales? The answers to such assessments help determine the resources to be marshalled.Worst Case?Let’s assume that probing opinion through personal contactand informal polling out in the market place, you determinethat, in fact, there IS a negative perception among a key audience that the company’s largest customer is about to switch suppliers which would seriously damage your company’soperations. (In a non-profit, an equivalent perception and behavioral problem might involve allegations that its administrative costs far exceed the normally accepted level, or that executive compensation is excessive).Is it True?Management quickly determines that, in fact, there is notruth whatsoever to the rumor of a loss of the company’s largest customer. The Public Relations GoalTherefore, because the PERCEPTION of a key customerloss is now causing hiring problems (behavioral) within the company, and, outside via concerns among suppliers and the greater community and its leaders, you establish the public relations goal as follows: Change negative public perception of the company’s largest account longevity from negative to positive, thus correcting hiring and retention problems and calming supplier and community concerns. The Public Relations StrategyNow, you must select one of three choices available to you when you determine the public relations strategy. In this example, you chose to CHANGE existing opinion rather than CREATE opinion where none exists, or REINFORCE an existingopinion, both of which not applicable to this case.With your perception and behavior modification goals, and now the strategy, established, progress will be measured interms of altered behaviors – namely, a satisfactory reductionin employee departures, an equally satisfactory increase inthe company’s overall employee retention rate as well as reassured suppliers and communities-at-large. Such progressmarkers can be set down, and agreed upon, once the negativeperceptions are truly understood, thus establishing the degreeof behavioral change that realistically can be expected.Who do we Talk to?Identifying key audiences and prioritizing them – a crucial step in any public relations action planning – were identifiedearly on in this example as employees, suppliers and the community-at-large and its leaders, in that priority order.What do we Say?Well, we prepare persuasive messages designed to disarm the rumor of a ”large customer loss.” Bringing important target audiences around to one’s way of thinking depends heavily on the quality of the message prepared for each of them. The messages must disarm the rumor with clear evidence such as a forthright pronouncement by the chief executive officer,and even a town meeting, should the discord reach high levels. It might be necessary to seek a credible third-party,public endorsement such as reassurance by the “large customer” himself, or herself, that “we have no intention of switching suppliers as long as the company continues to provide the same superior quality, service and pricing it now does.” Regular assessments of how opinion is currently running among employees, suppliers and community leaders should be performed. Finally, action-producing incentives for individuals to feel reassured should be identified and built into each message.Those incentives might include the very strength of the “large customer’s” forthright position on the issue, possible plans for expansion that hold the promise of more jobs and taxes, or even sponsorship of new employee sportingevents coverage on local cable channels.It’s Tactics TimeNow, you select the most effective communications tactics available to you, and commence action.How will your three target audiences – especially in various locations -- actually be reached? Choices include face-to-face meetings, email, hand-placed feature articles and broadcast appearances, special employee, supplier or community briefings, news releases, announcement luncheons,onsite media interviews, facility tours, promotional contests,brochures and a host of other carefully targeted communicationstactics. Special events are especially effective in reaching such audiences with the message. They are newsworthy by definition and, if sufficient locations are involved, include activities such as financial roadshows, awards ceremonies, trade conventions, celebrity appearances and open houses.A Communications BullseyeYour public relations effort effort can be accelerated, even amplified by carefully selecting the most efficient tactics among print or broadcast media, key podium presentations, special events or top-level personal contacts because, when these tools communicate with each target audience, they mustscore direct bullseyes.Especially important to the success of any action program isthe selection and perceived credibility of the actual spokespeople who deliver the messages. They must speak with authority and conviction if they are to be believed, and if meaningful media coverage is to be achieved. How are we Doing?Obviously, you’ll want to monitor progress, seeking signs of improvement in not only employee hiring and retention levels, but in overall employee morale levels as well asthose of the company’s suppliers and communities-at-large.You should speak regularly with members of each target audience, monitor print and broadcast media for clear evidence of the company’s messages or viewpoints, and conducta variety of ongoing interactions with key customers, prospects and plant location influentials. Indicators that the messages are moving employee, supplier and community opinion in your organization’s direction will start appearing. Indicators like comments in community meetings, local newspaper editorials, e-mails from suppliersas well as public references by political figures and local celebrities. The End GameBy this time, your action program should begin to gain and hold the kind of employee, supplier and community understandingthat leads to the desired shifts in behavior – namely, the unsettling rumor has been disarmed and operations returnto a normal pace. You know you’ve arrived at the public relations end game when the changes in behaviors become truly apparent through the increased pace of positive media reports, encouraging supplierand thought-leader comment, and increasingly upbeat employeeand community chatter.When you clearly meet the original behavior modification goal set when it all began, the public relations program can be deemed a success. Executed correctly – comparedto doing little or nothing about the rumor -- we’re talking about nothing less than the organization’s ongoing healthand, possibly, its survival.In the end, a sound strategy combined with effective tacticsleads directly to the bottom line – altered perceptions, modified behaviors, and a public relations homerun.end