Public Relations – Getting Ahead of the Game - IAAO

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Public Relations – Getting Ahead of the Game

IAAO Public Relations and Customer Service

How’s Your’s?????

I CAN ONLY PLEASE ONE PERSON A DAY AND TODAY AIN’T YOUR DAY!!

TOMORROW AIN’T LOOKING TOO GOOD EITHER!

Presented By

Kellianne M. Nagy, CAE, CMI Timothy Boncoskey, September 15, 2015



WHAT ARE PUBLIC RELATIONS??

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“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” PRSA National Assembly

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• What are public relations

– Possibly the ‘avoidance of negative comments’. – Communication between parties

• Internal/External – Building relationships and trust




– “It takes 20 Years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” - Warren Buffet

• Examples: – KitchenAid – Tweeting a “joke” – Mecklenburg County - Revaluation



• What are public relations:

– The use of resources to inform and influence – Be fair and respond to the market/industry issues – Complying with state statutes and standard tax

practices.



EVERYTHING YOU DO

OR

SAY

IS PUBLIC RELATIONS

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– Create an identity – Lumped into big group - do not know what they are doing. – Take the initiative - establish the identity - break the perception. – Increase public awareness

of tax profession

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– The jurisdictions need to understand: – What your company/industry does

– What types of equipment and how it used




– PR and Marketing are often confused. • Marketing is communication with markets. • PR is communication with publics.



Public Relations

Customer

Customer Service



• Customer Service and Public Relation Objectives – Good Public Relations can make your life easier

• Better staff Morale • More efficient processes • More time for “fun and games”.




• Perception is everything.

– 1. Positive perception. – 2. What if it is only acceptance or tolerance. – 3. Sometimes we bring this on ourselves.


Public Relations – Getting Ahead of the Game 16




• Attitude is the bottom line. (from: Customer Service For Dummies)

– 1. Learn to view your customer as the job, rather than an interruption

of it. – 2. Understand that your co-workers are internal customers and treat

them with the same respect you do your customers.




• Attitude is the bottom line. (from: Customer Service For Dummies)

– 3. Service excellence starts at the top. As a manager, what you

say about service is not nearly as important as what you do. – 4. A customer focused company - person at the top believes it is

critical to success. Invests time, resources and effort to make it happen.




• Nine public relation objectives.

– 1. Prestige or favorable image. – 2. Promotion of product or service. – 3. Detecting and dealing with issues and opportunities.





– 4. Fostering goodwill. – 5. Overcoming misconceptions and prejudices – 6. Forestalling attacks.



• Customer Service and Public Relation Objectives – Good Public relations can make your life easier


– 7. Education of the Public/Department – 8. Formulation and guidance of policies. – 9. Directing the course of change




• Rules of Communication (by Aviva Diamond)

– 1. Be honest. – 2. Don't be defensive. – 3. Ask yourself whether what you are saying or doing will

enhance trust or destroy it. – 4. If wrong, apologize quickly, sincerely and fully.




• Crisis Communication

– 1. Be accountable and genuinely sorry – 2. Show concern about the welfare of those involved – 3. Show you are doing everything to ensure safety – 4. Explain the “Plan” to resolve the situation



• Customer Service and Public Relation Objectives

Good Customer Service can make your life easier

Preparation – of materials, physical space and attitude.

Approaching the Jurisdiction/Department – When interacting with citizens, you never get a second chance to make a positive first impression.



Customer Service and Public Relation Objectives

Good Customer Service can make your life easier Listening and Offering Support

feedback to gain information about what the citizen needs how you might address those needs work to convey interest in providing assistance to the citizen.

Problem Solving and Follow Up –

actions taken by the service provider during and following the service interaction to address the customer’s needs.



Customer Service and Public Relation Objectives


Problem Solving – Jurisdiction/Department is looking to you to fix the problem Patience and clear open explanations Explanations can create relief or magnify the problem

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• Customer Service and Public Relation Objectives


Eighty-six percent of the message is set by your tone of voice. Inflection, pacing, and volume, can achieve a great telephone voice.

Telephone etiquette and techniques - part of training. Record yourself.

• Develop a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) to provide better more consistent service.



• Customer Service and Public Relation Objectives – Good Customer Service can make your life easier

• The top ways to good listening.

– Stop talking. You cannot listen if you are talking. – Put the talker at ease. Help the talker feel free to talk. – Show the talker that you want to listen. Look and act interested.

Listen to understand rather than to oppose.




• The top ways to good listening

– Remove distractions. Don’t doodle, tap or shuffle papers.

– Empathize with the talker. Try to put yourself in the talker’s place so that you can see his or her point of view.




• The top ways to good listening – Be patient. – Allow plenty of time. – Don’t interrupt the talker. – Don’t start for the door or walk away while they are still

talking. – Hold your temper. An angry person gets the wrong

meaning from words.




• The top ways to good listening

– Go easy on argument and criticism. Don’t argue. Even if you win the argument you lose.

– Ask questions. It helps to develop points for a later date. – Stop talking!




• How To Deal With Upset People And The Public

Quiet: just sitting and listening to the person. A.R.T.: (A) Ask questions, (R) restate the situation, (T) take notes.




• How To Deal With Upset People And The Public/Department

– Speak softly - Offer alternatives – Take notes - Use POSITIVE body language – Tell them your name - Use their name – Let them get out of it - Always Thank them – Do something right now




• How To Deal With Upset People And The Public/Department

– Try not to argue but be seated comfortably – Confidence Comes From Dealing with Something Difficult – Let the upset customer know that you are a person, not the

system – Having calming items in your office – Whenever Possible Be Their Advocate – Not their Adversary!”




• Education of Others:

– 1. Education of the public/department – 2. Personal Property, Real Property, Sales Tax, Use Tax etc.

Make technical terms and documents understandable. – 3. The more knowledge someone has on a subject, the less

fear they will have.





– What would you like to know? – What are the most frequently asked questions and how do you

address them? – What are the most typical misconceptions? – How does it affect me?





» Know who you are talking to » Speak and write as if you were talking to a 5th grader » KISS Method » Clear, Concise and Confident – use technical terminology



• Customer Service and Public Relation Objectives – Constant Public Relations

o • A. Never let them say “you failed to tell us” • B. Daily phone and personal contacts set the tone • C. Be prepared for their answers.




• D. Good word - PATIENCE. • E. Total staff effort!

– 1. Constantly emphasize – 2. One bad employee can taint us all.




• F. Think of them as a client, customer, or constituent.

– 1. They really are. – 2. You want them satisfied so they feel you have treated them

fairly. » a. Theory maybe better than practice



Wrap-Up I. Ten Commandments of Human Relations

II. Questions and Answers


Ten Commandments of Human Relations

1. Speak to people. A cheerful word or greeting. 2. Smile at people. It takes 72 muscles to frown, only 14 to

smile. 3. Call people by name.



4. Be friendly and helpful. If you want friends, you must be one.

5. Be cordial. Speak and act as if everything you do is a joy to you.

6. Be genuinely interested in people. You can like almost anyone if you just try.



7. Be generous with praise and cautious with criticism. 8. Be considerate with the feelings of others. Three sides to a

controversy. Yours, the other person’s and the right side.



9. Be eager to lend a helping hand. Often it is appreciated more than you know. What counts most in life is what we do for others.

10. Add to this a good sense of humor, a huge dose of patience and a dash of humility. This combination will open many doors and the rewards will be enormous.



Questions and answers

Public Relations – Getting Ahead of the Game - IAAO

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