Doing Business with Morality: Fix The Situation Before They ARE Problems

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Wayne Brown, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

By Wayne N. Brown
TimeWellInvested.com

There are so many ways to do great business, and so many other ways to struggle. Every business is going to face stress in its lifecycle. And it is how the management handles those challenges that separate the massively successful from everyone else.
Public Relations has a difficult job. The only time you hear from these folks is when the company is on the news, usually for something bad. When the good stuff happens, the management and ownership is on the news. When PR is most successful, they do it quietly.

many companies have liberal return policies. If you return a product, have a good experience, and get a gift card to be spent in the store, the customer is happy, says great things, and brings more dollars in. If the company stands on principal, it may stand alone. When it is your company’s turn for judgment, you will quickly realize how harsh those judges can be. And now, with social media, the public can reach you very easily, and extremely publicly.
Handling your company’s Public Relations and Customer Relations can be like dealing with a restless baby: it’s a lot easier to keep them happy than to get them happy. If your company wants peace, you need to be proactive in handling issues before they arise, or as soon as they do. Waiting till the baby is crying to change their exploding diaper can be far messier than if you changed a poop when the mess was confined.
The National Football League is a prime example of not being proactive. Their confederation of billionaires seems to be facing a growing spot of rust on their shining shield. And that rust spot is domestic abuse.
What started with one player acting poorly is growing out of control. As of now, there is one player indefinitely suspended by the league, thanks to TMZ, one essentially suspended by public outrage and their governor, one still playing in the league, and newer confessors of abuse, almost every day. The NFL is drowning in bad Public Relations, and their lack of a cohesive plan for dealing with bad off-field actions is bubbling up.

unable it is to handle negative attention their legal team can’t quash. This is bad news for the NFL, because advertisers are feeling the heat.
Clichéd football widows are also the top shoppers in most homes. Women, who account for about ¾ of household purchases are telling advertisers like Anheuser-Busch, Campbell’s Soup, Gatorade, and Visa that they do not approve of the NFL’s abuse management.
Here is the dual-edged sword: both your public profile and your budget are different than the NFL’s. This saves you some headaches, but if public sentiment can steer the NFL’s future, your business is certainly not insulated from the impact of bad press.
As a small or medium-sized business, we need to remember how hard it is to get those customers. Rather than pursuing new customers after a bad bout of press, spend the time to run the best company you can today! It is a lot easier to be proud of your product than having to apologize for selling lead-lined toys at holiday time, just because you were on a time crunch. Doing the right thing can be time-consuming, but your customers will appreciate it, and will exchange your good choices with their loyalty.

7 Tips to Bulletproofing Your Company’s Public Relations Machine

Start from a Moral Stance. Sure, doing the right thing is expensive sometimes, but being the good guy never offended anyone!
Do the Right Thing, Even if You Think Nobody is Looking. We live in a society where the bad gets noticed too much. Do the right thing, and word will spread. Good will is a great currency that you can never have enough of.
Do what is right for the customer, first! If your customer leaves the store dissatisfied because you refused to refund a $29 item that you sell but they may not have bought there, it is likely they aren’t coming back. Issue a gift card, and let them shop. They will appreciate the good will, and likely overspend the gift card anyway.
You are NEVER Too Big to Not Care what your customers think. If the NFL is feeling the pinch, you will too.
Work with a Great PR Professional. Simply put, if you don’t take good care of your customers, someone else will.
Build Great Loyalty. Your customers are more likely to forgive an offense, if they feel a bond to you, than if they feel like you act as if you will survive with or without them.
Appreciate. Every day, in every way. No one wants to hear “I love you” only when the person is in trouble. Appreciate the good will you have built every day, and make sure your customers and your public knows that you appreciate them.

Wayne Brown is President and Founder of Time Well-Invested, a Coaching Company that works with Startups, as well as Established Businesses and Organizations.

For more information, please contact Wayne at wbrown@timewellinvested.com