Has customer service really improved?

In this Newsletter

Making Your Program more Effective through PR Planning

After six decades, I've finally discovered that nothing clears your head more, and helps you gain a better perspective, than a long walk in the woods--although I believe that the discipline of public relations management runs a close second in providing you with a grounded foundation for successful destination management and marketing.

Last year when I said goodbye to Peru's Fabled Lost City of the Incas and boarded the backpackers’ return train to Cusco, I recalled the humorous  incident about a vacation traveler who’d had a bad train experience some fifty years earlier while traveling across the US.

He’d encountered pesky little bed bugs in his sleeping car that bit him unmercifully and kept him awake all night. So the next morning, he fired off a complaint letter to the railroad. Then several days later, he received this courteous personal response in writing from the CEO, no less.

 “Please accept our deepest, most sincere apologies for your apparent discomfort and inconvenience,” it gushed.  

“Frankly, we are somewhat at a loss for words” it continued.  “For this is the first time we have ever  heard that there was indeed a problem in this regard. However, you can be assured that we have now rectified the problem by fumigation to avoid any future instances. And we sincerely hope that you will please join us again whenever your future travel demands.”

The letter was hand-signed by the President of the Railroad Company, “Cordially and with my sincere and best personal regards”.

And then, as the recipient was reading the letter, a small pink piece of paper fell from the envelope. On it was scribbled this  note from the railroad President:

“To Murphy in the PR Department: Please send this man the “bug letter.”

Has customer service really improved?

Sometimes I wonder if we’ve substantially enhanced our service relationships since that bug letter incident, what with all of the voice activated systems in place today that create even more angst for the customer. It’s certain that we’ve come a long way in recognizing the PR Profession and what it contributes today for business enterprises everywhere. 

We are, after all, in  the marketing business of determining customer needs and then trying to best fill those needs, be they from potential visitors, meeting planners, tour operators, travel writers, community stakeholders, etc., etc. Some would also call that effective public relations, or public affairs management.  

The Public Affairs Role of Bureaus

Today, most communications experts agree that PR should be everybody’s job-- from the entry-level position to the Chairman of the Board.  

Throughout the corporate business community, where stockholders drive the future, public affairs has been elevated to a management role at the senior most executive level.  This is certainly an appropriate objective for CVBs, too.

Such a public affairs approach, if properly delivered, will foster continued community good will, support and participation in your agency and its work.

Public Affairs is, therefore, a planned senior management function that includes:

• Initial assessment of stakeholder perceptions about the Agency and its programs (by category, ie. Members, officers, segmented business constituent groups such as hotels, attractions, etc.)
• A resulting plan of strategic objectives, strategies and tactics to produce and enhance public goodwill for the Agency.
• Ongoing evaluations to measure this program’s continued effectiveness

Some bureaus may appropriately decide to incorporate this responsibility within the communications function.  Others may see it as a stand-alone requirement for CEO leader direction.  Others may integrate the role as a performance objective for all senior managers.

Without a doubt, this function is critical to the success of today’s CVB, and the Bureau should have such a written plan.

Cautionary notes: Government Interests and the Publics right to know

A CVB that receives funds through legislatively dedicated tax revenues is usually viewed by local government as a quasi-government agency. With that funding relationship comes responsibilities for strong fiduciary and management requirements as well as public accountability and public disclosure.

In the past, some bureaus have been slow to grasp the significance of this understanding, causing strained relationships with government, the local media and the agency’s resulting relevant requirements for program accountability.  Indeed, this can be a source of contention between bureau management, government officials, the media and the public they serve.

Bureaus also operate in a cultural environment of great complexity. While principally funded by government, they are also usually non-profit organizations that are established to produce  quantifiable, incremental results for the businesses they also serve.   

Yet many of the initiatives they must undertake—such as travel for sales, service and customer hosting and entertainment -- can appear lavish in the eyes of the general public or government constituents, unless there are resulting ROI criteria that are clearly annunciated.

Also, some community leaders who wish to develop leisure and convention business sometimes don’t recognize the value of the destination marketing agency’s role or perceive its ability to achieve industry growth. In these cases, the CVB has formidable educational requirements to inform constituents about the value and opportunity of its work.  

Public accountability

Thus, there is a compelling requirement bureaus publicly funded by tax revenues or other government/business funding, to consistently be publicly accountable for communicating their marketing programs and resulting returns on investment.

As Bureau management prepares to make business decisions, those issues should be viewed and evaluated from a public affairs perspective as well as from a legal perspective, weighing the public’s and media’s perceived reactions and responses.

Is the issue at stake one that the governing body would not care to read about on the front page of tomorrow’s paper or see reported on the local TV news? If so, additional reflection is required to first craft a communications response to this issue before it is acted upon. 

If the agency is not in a position to respond to the media’s request for information about this issue, it should at least be able to provide a public statement of credible explanation as to why it cannot respond.

Otherwise, media officials are likely to view the organization and its actions with mistrust.  In these cases, the likely scenario is for the media to use their resources to publicly question the agency’s work performance or its public policies.

Strengthening government affairs
 
To assure a foundation of good government affairs, community officials may sometimes be appointed to the Board of the Bureau.  In some cases, the Mayor’s or City Manager’s representative may have a seat on the Board or Executive Committee. In other communities, the top elected official may be deemed the Honorary Board Chairman. In any case, care should be taken to strengthen this critically important government relationship.

As mentioned earlier, public accountability has also become an issue regarding the use of bureau funds for travel and entertainment, and other related budget categories where the public’s perception may be that the bureau is lavish or inappropriate in its expenditures. 

This usually occurs when there is little backup documentation provided to appropriately justify the expense. And indeed, the tasks of influencing public understanding for the Bureau’s culture and its resulting work is an ongoing and sometimes daunting one, requiring a management  dedication to the broader public affairs mission.

Documentation and transparency are required

Care should be taken to accurately evaluate the intended purpose of any expense against the Bureau’s principal objectives.

For example, in the area of sales, a familiarization program for convention meeting planners that incorporates limousine service, tickets to local entertainment, restaurant meals and other services should be accompanied by a thumbnail analysis of the potential economic benefits of booking these meetings. This summary would include the number of potential delegates, room nights and resulting economic impacts to the community. 

Care should also be taken to segregate private sector and government funds—using private business funding, for example, to pay for travel and entertainment and other potential programs of public sensitivity.

Timely response to media requests

Adversarial relationships can be fueled by the media’s request for evaluations of marketing initiatives or full disclosure of accounting records and line item expenses for such categories as travel and entertainment.  Refusal to provide this information in a timely manner, and with full explanations, can do long term harm to the reputation of the bureau. Above all, the agency should always avoid any appearance of potential impropriety.

Crafting a Media Relations Plan

A comprehensive media relations program should be in place to determine what materials, resources and records will be publicly available, along with a comprehensive pro-active media communications program that supports the Public Affairs agenda of the Bureau.

In summary, positive media relationships will produce favorable impressions for your agency that enhance its reputation over time.  But these efforts must be part of a pro-active plan, and not initiated after negative coverage has occurred.

The public affairs function is but apart of a major Bureau Communications Program. A program outline follows:

The Bureau Communications Plan

A comprehensive communications plan is typically comprised of several individual plans, with each of them designed for and targeted to various  “publics”. 

All of these plans employ a variety of public relations strategies and disciplines, which in the end, are collectively integrated for optimum results. You could refer to the final Plan as a “rolling” document in that it can be changed and added to, depending on situations. It should be incorporated in the bureau’s annual marketing plan, either in one section or segmented and placed throughout as desired.

Positive relations fostered by these plans for the bureau, over time, should result in cooperative action that will advance the DMO’s core mission.

Dependent on the many various communications objectives of the organization, the numerous “publics” and attendant plans may include:

• Customer Plan –Developed to support management's objective of developing and retaining business from each market segment. Generally speaking, the Public Relations function here supports the marketing requirement of producing awareness and resulting interest in both the DMO and more importantly, the Destination it represents.

Market segments include, among others:

1. Meetings and Conventions: Planners, Association CEOs, Association members; 
2. Group tours: tour operators, tour brokers and their potential customers
3. The leisure discretionary consumer
4. The independent business traveler
5. Consumer and trade media
6. National Media (for Brand development) –this may be a stand-alone plan, or a support component for the customer plan above

• Community Relations Plan—(as discussed earlier) which may be referred to as” Public Affairs” in relationship to the Government “public”. Developed to create and enhance a positive and favorable environment in which the DMO can fulfill its mission. Publics include:

1. The local general public
2. Government agencies and their employees
3. Local media, including editorial board, business and travel writers, etc. (This is sometimes placed under a publicity or media relations category)

• Stakeholder Relations Plan—Produces business partnerships, alliances, and ultimately additional revenue and marketing resources for DMO marketing.

1. Bureau Members
2. Related economic development, cultural and tourism related agencies, organizations and businesses
3. Key constituent groups; the convention center, hotels, senior government partners

• Crisis Management Plan—Initiated in response to natural or manmade disasters and internal/external factors, principally when they will heighten public concerns and limit business opportunities. The objective is to assuage public and media concerns that exacerbate the actual negative situation, providing comprehensive, timely, factual information. Examples include major crime and public disturbances, acts of terrorism, gasoline embargoes, etc. This component includes both prevention and execution.

• Internal Relations Plan—Assuring a healthy, positive, productive workplace for all employees.  Human Relations/Administration usually administers this function.

Back to Basics

We began this newsletter by briefly discussing client and customer needs.

So, to conclude, what are some of the most effective ways that we can assure that our client’s interests and needs are being fulfilled on a consistent basis?

One technique is the use of “secret shopper programs” that employ a third-party pro. Whether it’s in local hotels, restaurants or attractions, their assessments can ferret out areas of consumer concern for follow-up attention. Similar programs are also now at work for convention centers.

Learning more about visitor needs---and perceptions—can readily be addressed through on-site, one-on-one surveys conducted at visitor welcome centers that also incorporate mail back postcards. 

To get in touch with the sentiments and interests of your stakeholders, there’s no better method than an internet-based email survey that provides a project able report to you. For membership analysis, you can have the survey designed to segregate the evaluations by various business categories. That way, you can break out results for accommodations, restaurants, the cultural community, attractions and others.

Through a series of questions, you’ll want to know the following:

• Is the CVB fulfilling their needs based on your mission statement?
• How well is the destination being marketed?
• What are the customer service standards?
• How visible and effective is the community outreach and public awareness?
• How effective is leadership for economic development?
• Where does your community’s infrastructure and visitor services rank?
  

What to do with the results?

Although the answers you receive are the opinions of stakeholders, these perceptions are still the reality for them, and need to be addressed.

To do so, you should respond to these perceived needs while maintaining your ongoing program management and marketing efforts.

This offers an opportunity for strong staff participation, and I suggest you establish a committee to initially review and make recommendations before sharing your directional approaches with members of the board or other task forces having an interest in this program. An independent consultant with skills in this area can also give you additional unbiased perspectives. 

You may wish to conduct similar surveys later to determine the important opinions of such market segments as travel writers, meeting planners and tour operators.

Remember that whichever research methods you undertake, or market segments you decide to query, they should be initiated for you using third-party firms or consultants who have no pre-conceived opinions or perspectives.

The third-party provider/consultant should also be your continued partner in developing responses to PR issues and concerns that your research discovers.  

These inexpensive processes will work wonders for you. They not only provide answers to questions about your service and that of the community, they give you a solid foundation for your everyday decision- making.

But of course, as I suggested initially, do yourself a special favor; a long mountain walk in the woods can give you some surprising new perspectives, too.

You can now access previous newsletters on a variety of marketing topics by visiting:
WWW.MMTOURISMMARKETING.COM