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As a communications major, several classes in Public Relations were required for graduation. Although some of my textbooks and classroom experiences were beneficial, nothing replaced being in the work world, and seeing Public Relations first hand.
The number of corporate executives who believe they are the sole face of their firm is shocking. While they clearly have a position of leadership that is respected and desirable, they are not the only PR agent for their corporation.
Consider this: I recently helped all Apple stockholders by purchasing both an Apple iphone and Apple Mac Book Pro. You may think I am an Apple genius, but I hate to inform you I am not. Within the first two weeks of both purchases, they broke. Not a small, fixable break, but a “Now’s time to deal with Apple customer service” type of break.
First, I went to three Apple stores, which were not conveniently located, and afterwards spoke with numerous customer service representatives on the phone. Each gave me the run around. The store said to call, the call rep said to go to the store. No one took responsibility to help me with these broken Apple products. This was disappointing, to say the least.
Steve Jobs may be the President of Apple, but his technical support staff was the face of the company to me. These experiences with them almost lost my business.
“You can buy a person’s hands but you can’t buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm is, his loyalty is,” says Stephen Covey. Stated another way, “a good name is to be more desired than great wealth.”
In any business, one must train all employees to grasp that they are all in PR. From your engineers, analysts, secretaries, janitors, and even your entry-level guys (especially them) all the way to your CEO. Everyone is the face of the company. Treat them as such.
Tags: Apple, Branding, CEO, Esther Fleece, Leadership, Marketing, New Iron Media, Public Relations, Stephen Covey, Steve Jobs, Teams