I need to get something off my chest.
It relates to the PR firm’s insatiable quest to get something for nothing. You see, if you’re a journalist (already glad you aren’t?) every month of so (the frequency tends to be sporadic) you will receive a phone call from a PR ‘consultant’ asking you to partake in a client survey.
What that essentially means is that the PR company is either pitching for – or even worse – has just won a new client and wants to gather the perception of that company from a member of the media. My guess is that with journos being perpetually bothered by vendors they have a good idea of who’s who in the industry and what they stand for. And judging by how much a reporter knows or doesn’t know about said vendor they hope to gather an idea of how well the company’s communication efforts have been thus far – lame I know, but true.
I’ll be honest with you. Once (or perhaps twice, can’t remember), in a fit of generosity, I agreed to do a client survey and became so annoyed at the fact that I was clearly being used for absolutely no gain (for me OR the vendor) I vowed never to do another one again. Here’s why…
I like to remain as consistent and as fair to all my PR brethren as possible and there will be times when participating in a survey is just impossible. To give an example, last year I had just landed in Melbourne for a conference and got a call on my MOBILE (stay tuned, topic of another post) by a PR pitching a client survey. Apart from nearly having to swear her off the phone, she expressed no remorse for my situation (trying to find my luggage) and made out as if it would be no trouble at all. Bullshit. So I hate to think I would shrug off one pitch only to turn around and do the next one.
There’s no guarantee of anonymity. They say it’s anonymous but I trust PRs less than I trust journalists – go figure. So there’s no way in Hell I’m going to have my name (and possibly publication) appear in client survey material to be read by a vendor. Let’s value some objectivity guys.
But most importantly, I’m still unclear what the purpose of a client survey is to begin with. So you get a journalist’s rapid-fire opinion of a vendor’s place in the market… and? Don’t you think attempting to survey at least a portion of your potential CUSTOMER base might be a little more beneficial? Of course, all public perception and brand equity begins and ends with media relations, doesn’t it?
So before you pick up the phone and pitch me a client survey, go back and ask them (the vendor communications intelligentsia) what they have done to proactively build up public perception. If they can answer that then they will at least have half a clue about where to direct their future media relations efforts. If they can’t, unfortunately no survey will help anyway.
Rodney
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