You Can Win Your Host Community With Little Acts

For businesses and organizations that want to last, giving back to the community is not optional. It is a vital strategy to establishing goodwill with your host community. You don't have to be put on the spot to do something for the community that is hosting your business. It is plain dumb sense to allow your business activities to be disrupted because you failed to do what you should have done ahead.

But as reasonable as corporate social responsibility is, many organizations try to avoid it to their own peril. The simple logic is this: if you host community can no longer sustain you, you are dead. Sounds hard. But think of it in like a medical person would. If a disease causing organism enters a human body, it lives of its host. When it has ravaged it, the body dies and with it the organism that destroyed it, except of course, it finds a fresh host.

 Doing business- no matter your definition of your business- without giving back to your community will cost you your business life. Even if your business is an SME you still have to pay attention to your host community, starting from where your business is located. Ensuring, for instance, that you take the pains to keep the environment where you do business  clean can endear you to people you never knew were watching you. A private transport company Warri has workers, dressed in uniforms, sweep their perimeter every morning and passers-by watch in admiration. Their terminal is like a mini-airport. They attract the largest crowd of travelers, especially the upper class.

The point is that even little acts of responsible behaviour are valued. Especially when they are consistently and habitually done. So rather than giving an ad-hoc, one-time-million-dollar project splash, companies should focus on doing what they will do, and be known for, as long as they exist.

 Adhoc social responsibility projects and programmes are usually unimpactful and unsustainable. That is why many communities are littered with projects that do last beyond the year they are commissioned. Little drops that never cease will do much good than a sudden shower that never comes again.

Whatever happens, best professional advise will serve any serious organization that wants to constantly be on the minds of its host community, for good and not for evil.

Communication Solutions provides public relations  strategies for individuals, politicians, groups, communities and corporate organizations.

Yours In Communication

Kennedy
(+234) 803-529-1667

                                    

 THINGS YOU MUST NEVER DO TO A CUSTOMER 

Who is your customer? Did your mind go to buying and selling as is done in open market? Your customers are those who patronize  your products and services. Customer satisfaction must never be taken for granted. To assume that every customer that patronizes you today will do so again is to live in the world of fantasy. Great organizations grow by retaining their existing customers and turning them into ambassadors for their brands. One dissatisfied customer  puts you at the risk of  losing ten potential customers. That is based on research finding that one dissatisfied customer will tell at least ten others about his or her sad experience with your product or organization.

Recently, I conducted a research on two banks. It was required in my PhD program. You will be shocked at people's feelings and disposition towards one of the banks. The research revealed some things you must not let your customers go through:
       DO NOT KEEP YOUR CUSTOMER WAITING 
One researcher has found that waiting to be served can be psychologically painful. You may not know it, but people do mental calculations about what they are losing or forfeiting while waiting . The Longer the wait, the more pained they become. If you have ever witnessed and outburst by a frustrated customer, you will understand.\
      DO NOT TAKE YOUR CUSTOMER FOR GRANTED  
To treat a customer as though he or she does not count in the equation of your business is  like gradually closing the door of you office without plans of reopening it the next day. Every customer is unique, and every customer deserves respect and recognition. Give them their due and surpass it. Be sure say thank you for coming. And do it with a good dose of genuine cheerfulness.
      DO NOT IGNORE A CUSTOMER'S COMPLAINT
If your customer objects or expresses reservation about any aspect of your service, pay close attention. Don't jump into defensive excuses. Understand that the customer feeling is involved. Identify with that feeling and show sympathy. Listen carefully and listen well, you may hear what you have overlooked or taken for-granted. Be quick to acknowledge your mistake ask for forgiveness
      DO NOT IGNORE CUSTOMER'S SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT 
You would think that this point makes common sense until   you learn that many people and organizations out-rightly ignore the suggestions for improvement made by their customers. For some insiders, such suggestions as seen as outsider suggestion.
      DO NOT FAIL TO REWARD YOUR LOYAL CUSTOMERS  
When you consider the fact that they could have gone over to your competition but choose to remain with you, then, rewarding them  would make more sense. The reward serves two purposes, it recognizes the deep faith of the customer and it draws free publicity to your company.

CONSULT US TODAY
Communication Solutions is strategically positioned to offer you the much needed help with your communication. From the assessment of you communication  position, need and approach, communication Solutions will help you design and execute a communication strategy that will put you on the center stage shortly. 

Individuals, groups, SMEs, Corporate bodies, NGOs. CBOs, CSOs, FBOs and governments are all in need of Communication Solutions. Your communication needs to be targeted and professionally delivered. This is the information age. This is the prime time for communication to take you to the next level.  


I welcome you to our blog.  


Yours in Communication
Kennedy
(+234) 803-529-1667

What Public Relations Is Not About

To many people, once the term public relation is mentioned, all sorts of eerie feelings come over them. To them, public relations is synonymous with lying, bribery, manipulations and outright propaganda. Nothing can be further from the truth. Public Relations is the tool that holds the key to a more peaceful and corporative society in which individuals get the services they deserve and governments, organizations and corporations live up to the expectations of supportive 
citizenry, communities, groups and individuals.

It is only those who  are not schooled in the science of public relations that can irreverently reduce it to bribery, manipulation and lies.  The cardinal goal of public relations is to win, and not to , undermine public trust and cooperation. Lying  will certainly not do that. Manipulation simply creates bubbles that burst with time. Propaganda can only  go as far. There is no short  cut to a mutually satisfying and beneficial relations between organizations, institutions, governments and their respective publics. Truth, transparency and forthrightness,  even in the face of obvious failing, is the way to winning public trust and sympathy.

Denying the obvious and presenting black as white is certainly not the calling of public relations. Hiding skeletons in the cupboard and hoping they would never be discovered is an aberration to the professional public relations man. And every public relations practitioner who is worth his salt knows that keeping the public in the dark is invitation to the feast of cannibals. An information starved public will  grab anything that looks like information. So they become prey to disinformation and misinformation.

This is so because, unfortunately, society does not spare those who hoard information. In every society there are those who profit from 'darkness'-the public's ignorance.  That is why  the health condition of the President of Nigeria rather than attracting public sympathy  and prayers  is provoking uneasiness. The entire thing is shrouded in secrecy. Public Relations principles dictate that the public be properly informed. They should not be left to second gaze.   

Public Relations well handled, even in the worst scenarios, will reduce damage done, erase negative perceptions and galvanize support for those who want to make real difference in their society, starting from their immediate environment.

Communication Solutions provides public relations  strategies for individuals, politicians, groups, communities and corporate organizations.

Yours In Communication

Kennedy
(+234) 803-529-1667

Why You Need A Communication Strategist

Most problems that people, organizations and governments face are communication problems. Whether it is problem of getting others to share your views or getting more people to patronize your products. If it is about  gaining the good will and support of those whose actions or inactions will affect your course, moblising public opinion in your favour, or,  managing organizational or community crisis,  you are facing a communication problem.


Communication Solutions abound for those who understand that communication is very potent weapon in the hands of those who have been adequately trained to wield it. It sells your products faster and to a far larger number of people than the combined effort of hundreds of sells men working  8 to 12 hours daily can never do. Communication can remove obstacles on the path of progress and turn your greatest opponents into your strongest supporters. Communication can gain you the good will of the good people you need to succeed as an individual, organization or government.


There are different names for different types of communication. When we use it to promote, persuade and sell a product to a large number of people simultaneously, we call it advertising. when we use it to mobilize and retain social capital, we call it public relations. In media relations we gain the support of the mass media and journalist and work with them for the good of those we represent or the causes that are dear to our heart. In community relations, we create enabling grounds for enterprises to flourish and for organizations to blossom. There are different dimensions of communication and each has unique tools that are employed to make them effective.


In the world of today, you will either communicate or you perish. And to communicate wrongly is suicidal in a world full of competitors.  There is need for you to be deliberate and systematic about your communication effort. Whether you are a small one-man-entity today or you have grown to command respect, what you communicate, how, when, where and why you communicate must be well thought out, planned and executed.


Communication Solutions is strategically positioned to offer you the much needed help with your communication. From the assessment of you communication  position, need and approach, communication Solutions will help you design and execute a communication strategy that will put you on the center stage shortly.


Individuals, groups, SMEs, Corporate bodies, NGOs. CBOs, CSOs, FBOs and governments are all in need of Communication Solutions. Your communication needs to be targeted and professionally delivered. This is the information age. This is the prime time for communication to take you to the next level. 


I welcome you to our blog. 


Yours in Communication
Kennedy
(+234) 803-529-1667