PR Tactics Now! by Michelle Griffith

This post is about the all important two-way communication with your customers so you can stay in business and grow your business. Why is your customer yours and not your competitor’s?

Numerous survey results have revealed that quite often the business owner and customer have completely different thoughts on this topic. Because I haven’t eaten yet, we’re going to use a restaurant as an example.  Restaurants have extremely low profit margins and extremely high failure rates.
Why do people want to come to your restaurant? Because you have the best burger? Best wine selection? Best (insert your best here)? Chances are, many of your competitors think theirs is the best. So how do you tell your story so that everyone thinks your burgers are the best?  The good news is there are a couple of proven low cost, highly effective tactics you can start using right away. This is applicable to every industry and profession.

First, there is nothing more valuable than a third party endorsement.  Having your customers talk about your the best burger restaurant around is priceless. Put these endorsements on your website and anywhere and everywhere you can, so as many eyeballs as possible will see it.

The second great pr tactic is to stop thinking and talking about why you think it’s the best and put yourself in your customer’s shoes.  Good friends of mine opened a burger restaurant and used linen napkins, real silverware and china with a full bar in a down economy. The burgers were priced competitively with area burger joints. Yes, I said joints as in take out in a grease soaked paper bag. Sounds good doesn’t it?

Once the new restaurant novelty wore off, sales started to slide. They worked on service, price and presentation, but none of those initiatives seemed to increase customer traffic. They took a step back and looked at the restaurant from the customer’s point of view. They used customer comment cards to get feedback. They started a conversation with their customers using a comment card that asked customers to provide contact information so they could start building customer loyalty.

They discovered that moms liked the linen napkin burger restaurant because they could bring the kids in for burgers and fries and they could order more sophisticated burgers and an adult beverage in a pleasant  atmosphere.

In a down economy, businesses were cutting food and entertainment budgets but marketing/sales execs were still expected to take clients out and produce. The upscale burger restaurant provided a nice ambiance without upscale steakhouse prices.

This restaurateur used grass roots pr to let moms, parents, clubs and marketing/sales execs know that this restaurant had what they wanted.  They used their Facebook page, email blasts and Twitter to communicate with customers and grow their market share.

They are expanding in a down economy and just opened their third location.

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