To make most of that advantage, try following:

1. Communicate your expectations to employees. Discuss emergency situations and how to handle them. Stress that emergency situations take precedence over company policy.

2. Make good hiring decisions then empower your employees to act independently when situation warrants it. If you have hired good people and trained them well, you can trust them with a degree of independent activity. This will work to your advantage in a second area as well. An opinion survey demonstrated that public resents waiting while staff persons seek approval from one or more supervisors before refunds, exchanges or complaints are handled.

3. Set a good example by showing respectful attitudes to persons both inside and outside of company. If employees hear management jeering at delivery persons, customers or other staff members, message received is that disrespect and lack of concern is acceptable. Employees who know that internal respect is norm will extend that respect to customers and others.

4. Provide feedback to let employees know how they are doing. When you catch an employee showing "good common sense," compliment him/her and do so in front of other employees.

5. Reward employees for providing good customer service. Rewards can be informal (i.e. praise, mention at a staff meeting) or formal (i.e. a regular award for employees who provide exceptional customer service).

6. Avoid over-managing. Happy staff means happy customers. The more involved in your business employee feels, more effort he or she will put into satisfying customers or clients.

================================================ How to Write Business Plans, Business Proposals, JV Contracts, Human Resource Package, More! No-cost ebook "Beginners Guide to Ecommerce". Business Writing by Nightcats Multimedia Productions http://www.nightcats.com ================================================

Measurement Value

Yet another value of public relations is reality that all-important behavior changes can be clearly monitored and assessed as to their degree of success, i.e., gathering evidence for those paying bill that communications tactics have actually changed behaviors.

We look for signs of this success via Internet chatter, in print and broadcast news coverage, reports from field, letters-to-the-editor, consumer and customer reactions, shareholder letters, comments from community leaders, informal polls of employees, retirees, industrial neighbors and local businesses as well as feedback gathered from suppliers and reaction from elected officials, union leaders and government agencies.

Of course this places a special burden on each tactic selected to carry message to a target audience: does it/will it make a tangible, action-producing contribution towards altering target audience perceptions and behaviors? If not, it should be dropped and replaced with a tactic that does. This kind of rolling evaluation is one of public relations’ less obvious values, but a value, nonetheless, to employer/client.

Not surprisingly, this again spotlights basic value served-up by discipline – we deliver bacon to our employer/client who, first and foremost, wants a change in behaviors of certain key audiences leading directly to achieving his or her business objectives

The End-Game For This Value-Rich Discipline?

When you as employer/client measure our real effectiveness, you will be fully satisfied with those public relations results only when our “reach, persuade and move-to-action” efforts produce that visible modification in behaviors of those people you wish to influence. In my view, this is central, strategic function of public relations, basic context in which we must operate and primary value we provide.

Still, no matter what strategic plan we create to solve a problem, no matter what tactical program we put in place, at end of day we must modify somebody’s behavior if we are to provide that primary value.

But best part is that when behavioral changes become apparent, and meet program’s original behavior modification goal, three satisfying values are realized:

One, public relations program is a success. Two, by achieving behavioral goal you set at beginning, you are using a dependable and accurate public relations performance measurement. And three, when our “reach, persuade and move-to-desired-action” efforts produce a visible modification in behaviors of those people you wish to influence, you are using public relations’ core value to its very best advantage.

end

Bob Kelly, public relations counselor, was director of public relations for Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-Public Relations, Texaco Inc.; VP-Public Relations, Olin Corp.; VP-Public Relations, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Website: http://www.prcommentary.hssites.com