PR or public relations are essential for your business in many ways. Of course, the main issue at stake here is how your customers feel about your organisation. Something that affects whether they choose your business to spend their money with, or a competitor. To that end, making sure you stay in your customers’ good books is crucial, and avoiding the potential PR disaster discussed below is one way to do that.
Bad work practices
All businesses use people to run, and that means you need to have ethical working practices that ensure your employees are treated correctly at all time. In fact, if you don’t, you could be looking down the nose of a court case, as well as have to manage a PR furore.
With that in mind, robust employment policies that cover everything from working hours to sexual harassment, and dismissal are needed.
Additionally, any firm using manufacturing plants overseas need to ensure that the workers there are afforded the same protection they are in this country. The reason being (ethical concerns notwithstanding) that modern slavery is very much a hot button topic online at the moment. Therefore any association with such practices can easily ruin your PR.
Polluting processes and products
Another critical issue that we hear about daily is the preservation of the environment. Something that means polluting and the production of unsustainable products is an ‘unstable’ position for any modern company to be in.
In fact, if any byproducts you use are known to be bad for the environment, you should make the switch as soon as possible. Happily, there are more and more products that do not contain pollutants like VOCs available, such as this powder coating now available for use in manufacturing processes. Something that means it is now a lot easier to green your manufacturing processes and so preserve your PR.
Additionally, if you are creating products that are designed to be used once, they must be biodegradable and nontoxic. In fact, failure to produce such products is likely to put many businesses in danger over the next year.
Poor customer service
Of course, letting your customers down in the very public forum of social media can do just as much damage as anything else. With that in mind, treating every customer with respect and doing your best to resolve their issue is not only a customer service issue but a PR one as well.
Disaster by association
Finally, in this media-savvy world we live in, even being associated with other businesses, organisations, and suppliers with bad PR can damage your company. In fact, if you are shown to have worked with other problematic companies, it can look very bad for your business indeed.
To that end, be very careful who you choose to partner up with, especially in today’s climate. After all, the cheapest option may seem like the best at the time. However, if that comes along with lots of bad working practices and pollution, it could cost your business dearly in the long run.
