KYC or know your client is the ultimate advantage that draws you apart from your competitors. Applying it to PR context, it means knowing their risk appetite, financial positions and their PR objectives.
In a recent meeting with a group of clients - healthcare specialists who are keen to review their PR activities to propel their brand further, KYC has imprinted in my mind even more. Prior to the meeting, I was only given the company's acronyms. My objective is to learn the rope and observe how a PR review meeting is about. I tried finding out the name and specialisations through Google, social media avenues and was met with endless permutations which does not seem to work very well.
The day arrived and I arrived the meeting place five minutes earlier than usual and a few of our clients had arrived. Even though I had not met them before, I was fortunate enough to identify them correctly. Breaking the ice was a little tough as they expected me - a representative from my PR firm, to be knowledgeable in my field. Given my limited knowledge about their business, I was tested by them on what I know about their field, area of work, how do I propel their brand forward and why should they use Facebook to reach out to clients?
My mind started racing as I really do not know much about them. But that should never be an excuse to not learn. Slowly I engaged them by sharing my working experience, asking questions about their stakeholders, how long have they been practising their trade and what is their expectation and so on, They also gave me greater insights to their concerns, expectations and financial positions.
Even though I must say it was not an easy task to convince them on the impact of new media, they are starting to understand what social media can do. Similar to investment banking, healthcare practitioners are bound by confidentiality creed and not all social media can be used to promote their company.
All and all, I learned a lot about my very first PR review meeting and am thankful that I had a chance to practice what I had learnt in theory and my working experience from vast industries and apply it. One thing for sure; it is through knowing my clients more in more details, will I be able to render a more effective PR consultancy.
1 comment:
Yes, knowing what your client wants is really impt! Personally, I find it hard to understand healthcare stuffs, sometimes when I do media monitoring on healthcare, it is so difficult to comprehend! I have to get my colleague to help to summary it.
Also, i heard from my director, it might take about 6mths or even longer to know what the client wants for their company's direction!
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