by Cathy Del Colle*
According to Chris Abraham, quoting Chris Brogan, customer service is the new PR. Actually what he said was this: “Customer service isn’t a chore. It’s the new PR.” and that’s the truth.  What your customers think and say about you is the basis for all of the “word of mouth” marketing in the social networking world. We’ve built our brand and run our business for decades with dedication to customer service as the cornerstone.

“Treat each client with kindness, listen and learn.” That’s what I tell our staff of customer service representatives. And it does seem to pay off. Clients of BurrellesLuce rate our customer service representatives very highly for being attentive to their needs. Just yesterday, one of our clients told a client services representative, “Thank you for being mindful of our expenses and offering solutions.”  As the country is currently in the midst of difficult economic times, many businesses are being forced to examine the services that they’re using. I’m pleased to see that now more than ever, our clients really appreciate our investment in personalized customer service, as we redouble our efforts to ensure they fully utilize the BurrellesLuce services they need to monitor and measure the effectiveness of their PR efforts.

Back to the posts by the two Chris’s: Customer service is defined as being the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase.  Public relations is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics.  It seems to me that these are both an important parts of maintaining client relationships indeed!

*Bio: During my 22 years with BurrellesLuce I’ve heard and seen a lot in the way of media monitoring and measurement. I originally started as a sales associate specializing in fashion and higher education. Now, I am the SVP of client services. Over the years I’ve developed a close relationship with many PR and marketing professionals. When I worked in the nation’s capital, I sat on the board of Washington Women in Public Relations, where I also served as membership coordinator and, in 1995, as president. Today, I remain an honorary member of that organization. I continue to enjoy meeting with clients and assisting them in any way. LinkedIn: cdelcolle; Twitter: @BurrellesLuce; Facebook: BurrellesLuce

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Client Services, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.