CUSTOMER CARE AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

PUBLIC RELATIONS

• PR is an essential and integrated component

of public policy or service.
• The professional public relation activity will
ensure the benefit to the citizens, for whom
the policies or services are meant for.
• This programme aims in imparting such
professional PR skills. An effective Public
Relations can create and build up the image of
an individual or an organisation or a nation
 Public Relations Functions
• Public Relations specialized functions are categorized by the publics with which relationships are established, and to
whom appeals are made to understand and/or accept certain policies, procedures, individuals, causes, products or
services. Practitioners who perform specialized functions may play a management role, operate as a communications
technician, or function in a dual role.
1. Community Relations
• A public relations function consisting of an organization’s planned, active and continuing participation with and
within a community to maintain and enhance its environment to the benefit of both the organization and the
community. This can involve partnerships, volunteer activities, philanthropic contributions and public participation.
2. Employee Relations
• Dealing and communicating with the employees of an organization.
This can include team building and employee empowerment.
3. Government Relations
• Dealing and communicating with legislatures and government agencies on behalf of an organization.
4. Financial Relations
• Dealing and communicating with firms and interest groups within the organization’s industry.
5. Media Relations
• Dealing and communicating with the news media when seeking publicity or responding to reporters’ questions. It
also involves setting up and maintaining a professional and mutually beneficial working relationship with news
gatherers and gatekeepers, in part by becoming known as a credible source and as a provider of factual, expert
information whether or not that information results in media coverage.
6. Public Affairs
• Dealing and communicating with government and groups with regard to societal (public) policies, action and
legislation. Unlike government relations, where the practitioner works strictly on behalf of an organization, public
affairs also is concerned with the effect of public policies, actions and legislation on its publics.
• THE COMPONENTS AND TOOLS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
• "Public" A group of similar individuals; an assortment of persons having the same interests,
problems, circumstances, goals; it is from such persons that opinion emanates. Public is a varied
creature; it comes in many forms and sizes. Public has a multitude of wants and desires; it has its
likes and dislikes, some times, strong likes and strong dislikes. Employers make for a public and
employees another public; the government is a public and citizens constitute another public,
and so on, each of these groups is a public of the sort, tries to attract a different audience with
its own tools and techniques.
• "Relations" Human wants to create the need to establish relations with one another. The
representative wants of the individuals will profoundly affect their relationship. To understand
any relationship, therefore, one must understand the wants of those involved. 'Relationships are
of all possible types. We have relationship by ran-superior to inferior, inferior to superior, and
equal to equal. We have relationship by sentiment-benevolent, Friendly, suspicious, jealous,
hostile. A relationship may be active, or it may be passive it may be good or it may be bad, or it
may be neutral. At any rate, the relationship is there to be accepted, ignored or altered, as
desired.
• Propaganda: Propaganda is the manipulation of symbols to transmit accepted attitudes and
skills. It describes political application of publicity and advertising, also on a large scale, to the
end of selling an idea cause or candidate or all thre
 SOME POSSIBILITIES THAT WOULD CALL FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

• Promotional Opportunity: To inform the new service /

policy which call for Public Relations to make wider
publicity.
• Competitive: To over come the resistance (pre-set mind
condition).
• Controversy: To eliminate the contradictory conditions in
between the organisation and the public.
• Adverse publicity: To inform the truth or correct issues and
thereby removing the misunderstanding.
• Catastrophe: Announcement of any unfavourable issues.
Crisis: Whenever threats arises.
 Complaints handling procedure

• Once you have developed a policy you can create a procedure for handling complaints. A procedure will ensure complaints
are dealt with the same way, every time. The procedure should be easy to understand and follow by all your staff.
• Your procedure could include the following steps.
• 1 - Listen to the complaint
• Thank the customer for bringing the matter to your attention. Apologies and accept ownership, don’t blame others and
remain courteous.
• 2 - Record details of the complaint
• Go through the complaint in detail so you can understand exactly what the problem is. Keep records of all complaints in one
central place or register. This will help you identify any trends or issues.
• 3 - Get all the facts
• Check that you have understood and recorded the details of the complaint correctly. Ask questions if necessary.
• 4 - Discuss options for fixing the problem
• Ask the customer what response they are seeking; it could be a repair, replacement, refund or apology. Decide if the
request is reasonable.
• 5 - Act quickly
• Aim to resolve the complaint quickly. If you take a long time they tend to escalate.
• 6 - Keep your promises
• Keep the customer informed if there are any delays in resolving their request. Don’t promise things that you can’t deliver.
• 7 - Follow up
• Contact the customer to find out if they were satisfied with how their complaint was handled. Let them know what you are
doing to avoid the problem in the future.
• Make sure your staff are trained to follow your procedure when handling complaints and that they have the power to
resolve issues as quickly as possible.
• Encourage your customers to provide feedback and complaints so that they let you know when there is a problem and give
you the opportunity to resolve it.
 Managing telephone calls
 Promptly answer calls.
• The average ring takes 6 seconds. If you let the phone ring 5 times, that is equal to 30 seconds.
Picking up to quickly can also catch people off guard. It is a good practice to answer the call on
the 3rd ring.

 Be warm and welcoming.

• During a phone call, you can transmit more than your voice, you can transfer emotions. For this
reason, keeping a warm and helping attitude can leave a positive impression on your callers.
 Introduce yourself and your business.
• Have you ever called a business and received a simple, “Hello?” Then “you” must ask if you are
calling “X” business? By introducing your company and yourself, you let the caller know they
reached the correct or incorrect place.
 Speak clearly.
• There are several key elements you need to follow to clearly communicate with callers,
including: articulate your words, use good posture, slow down and speak up. Interested in
learning more about speaking clearly, check out this article on Wikihow.com.
 Do not use slang or buzz words.
• In certain industries, like medical for example, professionals are used to speaking the same
language, but what about your callers? Use language they will understand.
 Cont.
 Ask before you put people on hold.
• Leaving people hanging on a call and unsure of what is going on can agitate people. Setting
expectations on a call is critical. So, if you are going to put someone on hold or going to transfer them,
let them know what to expect.
 Don’t just put calls through.
• Want to confuse people or worse, send someone to uncertainty? When transferring a call, let the caller
know what is going to happen next. Are you sending them straight to a voice mail or checking to see if
that person is available? By sending them straight through, this can confuse the caller and even the
person receiving the call.
 Be prepared for your calls.
• It is normal for people answering the phone to find themselves occupied with 10 other things. But,
when you answer a call, your focus needs to be on the person at the other end of the call.
 Take messages properly.
• When you need to take a message, make sure to take all the pertinent information like name of the
caller, the reason for their call, the best return phone number, and even which business they are calling
from.
 Summarize the call before it ends.
• A key ingredient to great communication is listening. Callers will know you were listening when you can
accurately summarize what their call was about.
 5 Types of customers and how to handle them
• This is mainly because each customer has a different personality, although there will be similarities among
some. Call center agents must therefore know how to identify each customer and adapt accordingly to
ensure a smooth interaction.
• Here are the five different types of customers you might encounter and some
tips on communicating with them.
• 1. The irate customer
• Known for their anger that explodes as soon as you pick up the phone, irate customers are among the
most common callers you'll encounter. Some of them may be fuming even before they begin their
interaction with your call center. Others, on the other hand, were only annoyed at the start of the call but
got increasingly aggravated with every unanswered inquiry, unnecessarily long hold times, and call
transfers. is to be calm throughout
• The key to interacting with this kind of customer the call. The trouble will only escalate if you let your own
irritation and impatience take over the conversation. Instead, assure the customer you know how to solve
the problem, and then provide a solution as soon as you can.
• 2. The talkative customer
• Talkative customers are the bane of a call center's productivity, as they can slow transactions down. These
customers tend to drone on about topics unrelated to the issue they're discussing with agents. Because
conversations with them take too long, you may have to put other queued customers on hold. This means
you'll be losing the opportunity to help other customers.
• To maintain control over the conversation with a chatty caller, focus on the reason why the customers
called. Should the conversation digress from the topic, politely redirect the discussion back to the main
issue your brand.
 Cont.
• 3. The mistaken customer
• This type of customer insists that they know more than you do, but in fact, they may be misinformed. So
when given a solution, they might not believe you immediately. This makes it hard for agents to deal with
them.
• Telling them outright that they're wrong can easily anger them, so it's best to make them feel that you're
their ally in uncovering the answer they need. Be careful not to come off as high and mighty. Be polite as
you explain to customers how the solutions you recommend can help them better.
• 4. The elitist customer
• Elitist customers don't like dealing with frontline agents, as they think that the problem they're facing are
too special or too complex for employees to handle. Thus, after explaining things to them, you may hear
them say, "I want to talk to your supervisor" instead of giving your recommended solutions a shot.
• When handling this type of customer, assert that you are qualified to fix their issues, but do so in a polite
manner. If the problem can be solved without a manager's intervention, inform them that it's not
advisable to escalate the call to a supervisor. Make sure, however, that you can thoroughly address their
issues.
• 5. The positive customer
• This type of customer is the best one there is. They are friendly customers who just want to get their
problems fixed. Customers with a positive mindset can be beneficial for your company. They can provide
you insights regarding your products, services, or business, which can help your company grow. They can
be your brand's promoters as well. Just continue giving the best service to them and they'll likely to stick to
your brand.
• It's important for call center reps to know how to handle customers with varying personalities in order to
ensure that interactions will go smoothly. Be intuitive and adapt an effective strategy in handling different
types of customers. That way, you can keep all clients happy and loyal to