Perhaps more than ever before, public relations are extremely important to the success of businesses. It’s easy to understand why. Off the top of your head, you can probably recall scores of different company PR nightmares that went viral online. Negative stories can reach thousands and even millions of people on websites like Twitter and Facebook in a matter of minutes. It’s a truly horrifying possibility for business owners that do not have unlimited financial resources to fight that kind of bad publicity.
Since the risks of negative PR are so high, it’s best to stop PR nightmares from developing in the first place. With that in mind, below are a few different steps you can take to insure that your business maintains a positive public persona.
Choose the Right People
In many cases, a public relations problem occurs due to the actions of a single employee. It may not seem fair. However, if an employee does something wrong or malicious enough that it gains national attention, your company will still get the majority of the blame regardless of who was actually at fault. While it may seem impossible to predict what people may do once they are employed, you can eliminate most of that risk by choosing people unlikely to act unethically while representing your company and brands. This of course requires extra work to weed out questionable candidates during the recruitment process. This care should also extend well past the point of a person’s hiring. If an employee’s behavior while on the clock is subject, it’s best to replace that person with a more reliable worker.
Avoid Driving Drunk after the Party
While employees must be expected to uphold the reputation of the company at all times, sometimes it’s the business owners that fail to live up to their own standards. As a business owner, you have to be a role model that reflects well on your company. There are a lot of people that look up to you. Your failure can harm everyone else that depends on the business for their livelihood. After all, you wouldn’t want to have to contact a DWI lawyer in San Antonio or anywhere else after getting arrested for driving drunk. As a responsible business owner, you need to move past some of the irresponsible behaviors from your youth. While you may still want to party, you need to do so far more responsibly. If your get arrested for driving drunk after a party, the news could reverberate throughout the media. Your company could be hit hard, and you may even be forced out of your ownership position.
Give Back
While the main goal of a company in a capitalist system is to produce a profit, you should also consider taking steps to give back and contribute to the well-being of others apart from your relationships with customers and employees. This can help to increase your positive reputation with the overall public. Consider different ways your company can contribute to society in a positive way. This may include giving back to the local community by becoming involved in things like food drives. It may also include larger scope projects such as donating a small portion of your profits to a charity such as those that fund needed medical research or help to provide for needy children. There are plenty of excellent options to consider.
Fix Customer Issues
One of the most effective ways to be proactive about maintaining a positive reputation is to provide excellent customer service. Make sure you go out of your way to ensure that customers always come away satisfied. This includes customers that complain to you about issues directly. You should also keep an eye on social media for customers that complain about your products. Reach out to those individuals and try your best to solve their problems.
Overall, negative PR can be deadly in this digital age when information can reach millions of people in mere seconds. To survive this harsh landscape, you need to be proactive about maintaining your company’s positive reputation. If you’re not, the business may suffer exponentially.