Young PR Pros: Episode #86 – What does customer service and PR have in common?

customer service
Customer service shouldn’t be a foreign word to public relations and commuications professionals. Although we might not always be face to face with our organization’s customers, their happiness often decides the fate of your communications department and organization.

This week, Kristine D’Arbelles and Julia Kent explore the old saying “the customer is always right” and how it applies to PR and communications.

We got our inspiration from one of our favourite podcasters, Terry O’Reilly, host of CBC’s Under The Influence. On Under the Influence, Terry explores the critical shift from a century of overt one-way messaging to a new-world order of two-way dialogue. Most recently, Terry did an episode called Tales of Customer Service. He talked about an amusement park that delivered such superior customer service that other corporations asked for lessons, a shoe company you can order a pizza from and a store that actually accepted a returned product they didn’t even sell just to keep their customer happy.

Not only are the stories in Terry’s episode fascinating, but it reminds us that good customer service equals good communications, and vise versa. People remember people, not products, so what better way to solidify an emotional relationship with your audience than through good customer service.

We would love to hear your thoughts? Do you have a good/bad customer service story? How do you incorporate customer service in to your strategic plans?

Share your comments below, or on our Facebook Page, or on our Google+ page, or in our LinkedIn group, or on Pinterest, or send us an email at youngprpros@gmail.com, or send us a message on Twitter @youngprpros@kristinedarbell or @kentjulia.

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