The customer rules

The customers are now the rulers – and that goes for business to business as much as for customer markets. Like their High Street counterparts, the business customer wants all the same things: better access to products and services; more competitive prices; better customer service; wider range and more choice; bespoke products; better sales follow-up; and a complaints handling process which is second to none. And they want it all by yesterday. If they don’t get it they’ll demand compensation.

Not only that, but in business there’s a great deal more to think about. What effect will that story have on share prices? How will your own co-suppliers react when they hear all about that deal you’ve struck? Will confidence in your financial state suffer when the news leaks out? Will your customers start to look for an alternative supplier just in case you can’t deliver? How are you going to attract the best, most motivated employees with nasty rumours and horrible stories about your employment practices floating around the trade press? All these things could become problems in business to business public relations.

Clearly if lip-service is paid to customer service not much will be achieved. There might be an impressive cuttings file in volume terms at least, but it’ll largely be negative stuff. It goes without saying, therefore, that if the customer isn’t offered what they want, public relations isn’t really going to be of much use except in ‘putting the record straight’ with enquiring journalists.

In many areas of business, customer service has become a marketing tool – one which is being lined up alongside issues like price and quality as a way of differentiating one company from another in marketplaces which are increasingly crowded. Even then, for every innovator there are soon half a dozen copycat competitors ready to erode their position. If you are going to make a big thing about service levels, you are going to have to get it right, and maintain and build customer perceptions of service. Public relations, naturally enough, is a valuable tool to help achieve that end, although in the business to business environment it’s going to take more than just public relations to achieve your overall goals.

So, just what can business to business PR achieve? What are its limitations and how can you get the best out of it?