A New Year reminder to get to know your clients
By Marc Vasquez
My son is two years old and he’s at the age where I have to be an extra set of eyes and ears. He has a tendency to not be aware of his surroundings and bump into walls, fall over toys or shut his hands in things. Ouch. Sure, to you and me, it’s basic to know where you are and plan for ways to avoid personal injury, but to him it’s something he’s just now learning.
That said, with the New Year here, it’s never a bad idea to review things we thought we learned a long time ago in order to start out strong. Consider this your subtle reminder that a strong foundation rooted in the fundamentals is essential to creating great PR.
I believe it’s all about relationships, and you must take time to focus on continually cultivating relationships with your clients. Being on the look out for ways to hone these skills will send a message to them – you care.
I’ve spent time with our company’s clients not only to get to know their work style and management style, but also what they do outside of work. Who are they? I know what they like to do in their free time, what their immediate families are like and even what kind of soda they like best.
Whatever you can do to make their lives a little better at that particular moment is not just the right thing to do for your company, it’s the right thing to do to reinforce a high level of personal integrity.
What you find out is that having an extra minute to listen, a willingness to help or even an extra 32 oz. bottle of Diet Pepsi can help your client go from feeling uneasy to on top of the world.
On Thursday, January 21, PRSA Professional Development is hosting a “Soup to Nuts PR Round Table Sessions: Pick Your Topic!” luncheon at Figlio Tower. You can pre-select two topics from a choice of 10 and participate in round table discussions on those topics. Personally, I’m looking forward to “How to Position Yourself as a Leader” and “University PR – Reputation Management” for more nuggets on relationship building. I hope to see you there.
Great post, Marc. In my organization, KCADC, we serve clients all over the country in a VERY competitive environment and time and again what makes the final difference is Process. Who does it better, smarter and more efficiently and who achieves excellence every time. I wholeheartedly agree that the best relationships are rooted in what we do to make our clients jobs easier – for us, it’s streamlining our clients’ selection process by acting as one point of contact for the entire region, and taking the anxiety out of selecting the best location for that new manufacturing plant, call center or office building – but it’s just as competitive in the world of PR client service. As my good friend, Eric Morgenstern, always says – “Be excellent!”