Monday morning - I arrived at work to be
greeted by the new database assistant, a soon to be Curtin University graduate,
who I have previously done group assignments with. Sadly this also meant I no
longer could use the spare workstation in the administration office. Down to
the basement level for me it was. This wasn’t all bad though! Within the lower
level of PPR is a semi open plan work environment. I was now in a position
where I could listen, learn and absorbed ample amounts of information from all
the consultants, senior consultants and account managers that surrounded me.
By the middle of the week I had capacity for
more work and given there are over 50 staff at PPR I knew this dry spell wasn’t
going to last for long. I sent out an email to the entire staff list, asking for
additional work and also mentioning that I would greatly appreciate the
opportunity to attend some client consultations. This turned out to be quite
the success and the best day I had at PPR since starting. I floated around the
office and met a couple of new faces. Throughout the day I became to go to
girl if you wanted something done quickly! No job was too big or too small.
A highlight of this week was sitting in on the
internal Australand work in progress (WIP) meeting with the account manager, senior consultant and
two other consultants. Australand is a diverse property group with several
PR related projects under way. I was able to discuss and contribute during the WIP and from this I was later assigned the task of
researching and liaising with potential suppliers for an up and coming event.
Another highlight for me was accompanying the Investor
Relations Account Manager on an external WIP meeting at the oil and gas company,
Decmil Group Limited. PPR was responsible for writing Decmil’s annual financial report, corporate presentation, chairmans report and media releases. This meeting was used to go over the technicalities of the report with the
Both experiences were very insightful into PPR’s
client relationships and how they are managed. PPR has an extensive list of
clients from a range of sectors in society. Although the consultants work within
one division (i.e. consumer) they may work on several accounts in that division at any one time. Due my studies of PR consultancy at university I have been able to identify key aspects of client relationship theory that translates into real-life situations.
Practitioners have an obligation to deliver realistic and achievable objectives that align with the clients vision and direction. Although a majority of the client communication occurs over emails and phone calls, work in progress meetings are scheduled regularly to ensure the clients expectations are being met. Practitioners at PPR are effective forging mutual and sustainable relationships with their clients because of the following key points:
- Thorough understanding of each clients needs
- Consistent and timely communication
- Flexibility - able to work across different types of organisations
- Accessibility - 24/7
- Ability to meet deadlines
- High standard of professionalism (i.e. confidentiality and trustworthiness)
Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about client relationships. If you're working in-house how does it compare? What are your stakeholder relationships like?
Kind regards,
Gemma
1 comment:
Hey Gemma,
Glad to hear you had a great day after further communication with staff at your internship. I also found at points during my internship you had to be a bit persistent and be open to doing any task (even the boring ones). I think maybe this sometimes comes down to the fact that the people you work for like work to their own standard and prefer to do certain tasks on their own.
During my internship at Linc Integrated, a marketing and communications consultancy, I have also learnt a few things about the client-consultant relationship. I happened to also end up writing a blog about this as I found some similarities and some new things about this relationship that I don't think were really covered within some PR units.
I do agree with you in terms of what a consultant must demonstrate. Time management is definitely one of the biggest factors I think, in not only being able to get the work done but also demonstrating to the client that you are investing a lot into the work you are doing for them. There is a lot of criticism into the client-consultant relationship obviously due to the fact that you can't invest 100% of your time into the client and hence why I think managing your time and showing you are working towards the clients goals really demonstrates your commitment as a consultant.
I have noticed though that typically consultancies will tend to split up the clients for focus from their staff to ensure the work meets the client’s needs. This to me helps to ensure consistency within the jobs being completed for the client and I think it also helps to strengthen communication channels as the client knows who they can approach regarding their concerns. So I really agree on your point of being consistent and accessible as an effective means for developing and maintaining the relationship with the client.
I personally have also learnt that there is so much additional communication between PR consultants and the PR departments of the clients. Typically, from what I've learnt at uni, I more thought that consultancies focused on assisting companies who had little or no PR going on within their organisation. But most of the clients I have been working on I have had to communicate with the PR person of the client.
Best wishes for the rest of your internship and the rest of the semester.
Laura.
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