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The Paine
of Public Relations
Measurement

Don't Ask Me...
Ask Your Customers!
The top five questions I'm really tired of.

Don't get me wrong, I love being your friendly neighborhood public relations measurement guru. But, I'm getting real tired of people asking me questions that only their customers have the answers to. Here are the top five:

1. Should we start a blog?
2. Should we respond to bloggers?
3. Should we sponsor this race or this concert?
4. What should we do to improve our internal communications?
5. How do we get our customers more engaged in our brand?

All good questions, but why are you asking me? You should be asking your customers!

Let's take these one by one:

1. Should we start a blog?

Answer: I haven't a clue. But here are some questions that will help you figure it out:

Do your customers pay attention to blogs?

Does social media drive their purchase behavior?

Are you trying to recruit from among the Gen Y and YouTube crowd?

If your answers are "Yes," then you should start a blog. In some circles The Huffington Post is a lot more influential than The Washington Post. And among automotive types, there are bloggers that carry as much weight as Road & Track. But, if you're trying to sell cruise missiles to the 150 or so people on the planet that can buy them legally, then chances are pretty good that those 150 aren't going to turn to Facebook -- or your blog -- for their buying decisions.

So ask your customers what they consider reliable sources. Where do they go for information? What sources do they trust? Whose recommendation carries the most weight?

2. Should we respond to bloggers?

Answer: It depends what they're saying. And it really depends on your answers to question 1, above. You should always welcome an opportunity to listen to or have a conversation with your customers. You should also be open to conversations with what Paul Gillin calls The New Influencers.

3. Should we sponsor a race or sponsor a concert?

Answer: Will your customers be there? That's all that matters, (at least until you can measure the actual event). I can remember a very smart CMO asking me whether he should be sponsoring a sailboat race, a NASCAR event or a concert. My response was, again, "Don't ask me... ask your customers!" Where are they most likely to be? What is most likely to improve their loyalty? One key benefit of sponsorship is the hospitality. Are your customers more likely to enjoy a box seat at the Opera, going back stage at a concert, or having inner circle access at Nascar? I don't know, ask them.

4. What should we do to improve internal communications?

Answer: I don't know... ask your employees. Chances are they know a lot more than I ever will about your internal communications and what needs to be improved.

5. How do we get our customers more engaged?

Answer: Listen to them, hear them, pay attention to what they love or hate about you. Ask them what they hate, then fix it. Ask them what they love, and do more of it.

Listening Isn't Hard, It's Just Different

What I'm getting to here is that it's not hard to listen to your customers. They're talking all the time, to each other, to your competition, to others in the industry. You just need to listen.

Sometimes its as easy as monitoring consumer generated media (CGM). In other cases you just might have to do a survey. We recommend using the Grunig relationships instrument as a basis for any survey you do. (It's free and downloadable here.)

The point is that listening isn't hard. It's just different. For years we've spent all the money and focused all the effort and energy on screaming ever louder at our markets. Now it's time for the customers to talk and for us to start listening.

Happy Holidays,

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