'PR' Doesn't Stand for 'Press Release'
In the field of public relations, getting to the root of an issue is a requirement for anything you call success. It’s the axiom, the pillar upon which our profession rests. We must require more than spoken or written coherency if we want to move the proverbial needle toward an organization’s health. A company can employ the best wordsmiths on the planet, but writers by themselves cannot assuage personnel problems within the ranks or stem the bleeding of bad policy. In this regard, actions always speak louder than words.
PR legitimizes its voice only when it has a bias for problem-solving. When our strategy is relegated to capitalizing the word Associate and demanding headlines be in 28-pt. Arial, we lose both our voice and our value.
Our job as professionals is to scan the environment, take in all stakeholders and their interactions and behaviors, assess what the roadblocks are, and provide solutions. It isn’t emphasizing the correct placement of a comma in a press release. We must be bold enough to uncover the truth about the challenges facing an organization, and equally bold in recommending answers that bring publics together.
Take a grocery store chain, for example. They are getting backlash from shoppers frustrated at waiting in long lines. Customers snap photos, tweet, post, and chat about their experience, and it gains public traction. The store’s name suddenly becomes dragged through the social media muck and even lands up as the butt of a late-night comedy bit. The PR team is called in to issue a press release, which states, “We value our customers and apologize for any inconvenience they might have experienced.” A good start, but it requires more.
What should be happening is listening to feedback and analyzing conversations to identify problem spots. Maybe the chain is showing 10 empty checkout lines at each store but only staffing two. Maybe the layout of the stores is jamming up access. Maybe the self-checkout computers aren’t correctly programmed. Maybe the clerks have been trained to chat it up with customers and there’s no oversight on speed. Who knows, but the knee-jerk response is often a statement long on empathy and short on substance.
PR does get internal teams on the same page and assures the public that the company is doing the right thing, but only after knowing the real problem has been surfaced and dealt with. PR legitimizes its voice only when it has a bias for problem-solving. When our strategy is relegated to capitalizing the word Associate and demanding headlines be in 28-pt. Arial, we lose both our voice and our value.
The next time you're considering a response to an issue, take a step back. Observe. Analyze. Scan the activity. Review who's involved, who isn't, who should be. While crises require speed, they absolutely require thoughtfulness.