Saving Face Public Relations

This week a new client of mine told me a horror story about another radio station in town that he formerly was under contract with.

The station bumped his commercials (They did not play), yet they were going to charge him anyway. After getting the run around about how this was the station's policy, and if you cancel we are still going to charge you 75%, he has refused to do business with them.

Look, mistakes happen. Screw-ups can be minimized by taking responsibility and doing what is fair, instead of just what you have legal right to do.

This came in my email from MarketingProfs.com which explains what steps all of us should take:

Passengers: Your Captain Has Screwed Up

You probably know the approach pattern at your home airport very well. So what would you think if your plane were about to touch down when it suddenly jerked skyward, overshot the runway and headed out toward the ocean? Even non-nervous flyers would know something was wrong. Near collision? Problem with the running gear? Inexperienced pilot who needs a do-over?

A MarketingProfs team member experienced this scenario not long ago, and sat patiently waiting for an explanation from the flight deck. Anything at all, if only to confirm that everything was under control. But nada, zip, zilch. It took a full ten minutes—after circling around in a bizarre pattern—for the pilot to give the non-explanation that the plane would be on the ground in a few minutes. Our colleague left the flight seriously pissed off at the lack of communication.

It's never fun to deliver bad news. But in a post at his blog, Tom Peters emphatically underscores the need to keep clients and stakeholders fully informed of "a delay (wee or grand) or glitch (wee or grand)." It's better for everyone to know what's going on, and what you're doing about it, than to leave them seething in the dark.

"Make the call," he writes. "And if you have … let someone know about a glitch … call 'em again to update the status of the fix, or relay the sad but honest news that the fix is more complex than first imagined." It's Marketing Inspiration we can all use.

More Inspiration:
Drew McLellan: Are We Wearing Out Our Words?
David Reich: The Danger of the Sound Bite
Valeria Maltoni: Let’s Talk About Your Web Site

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