Hello people,
For my second post I will focus on whether picking
up the phone is part of PR tasks. This was what I did for 2 days during my
third week at Publico. At the beginning, I was like: ok is that PR? I think
that it was a very good experience for me. Thinking of PR tasks we tend to
think firstly about really big projects and presentations and dealing with the
media directly on first occasions. Picking up the phone, transferring calls, taking
messages, calling back the clients were really helpful. I think that it is the first step
for a communication student. Instead of stepping directly in the public
relations world with presentations, client brief and so on, talking via the
phone is a good beginning. This can help to have a first approach and contact with the
clients, understand more about the relationship between the client and the
agency, know about the different issues and how the designers as well as the
marketing persons are dealing with them. It gives an overview of how to deal
with crisis and can prepare me for a crisis period later on. When transferring the
clients’ calls to my supervisor and seeing her dealing with the issues is very
interesting. Eventually I will not be able to list the different issues here (confidentiality)
as firstly it is about the clients and secondly it concerns some projects which
are not completed yet. But what I can say is that picking up the phone is not
as boring as others might think. If you think well, it helps you deal with
future issues where you can therefore handle them easily as if you have some
experiences with the matter. If you think about only sitting and picking up the
phone without trying to understand the matter or only transferring calls this
will undoubtedly not help. One advice is therefore try to take every task done
during an internship very seriously and when analysing it deeply you can see
that it really helps.
That’s it for now guys
See you in the next post
Graziella Hippolyte
15806785
The Charles Telfair Institute
2 comments:
I cannot agree more, i remember when i was given the task to search for potential partners/sponsors for Agua Bendita Australia i was petrified to speak to them. I didn't have the confidence, i mumbled a lot and i did not sound convincing. I sounded unprofessional.
People may think this isn't PR but it is! It's all about communicating the message your sending out.
Having this experience, especially early on in your career is the best way to learn from your mistakes, it builds your character and it gives you time to better mold you.
Kelsey 14530627
Hi Kelsey,
Talking to the clients for the first time is very important as they are the clients and you are talking on behalf of the company although it is for an internship. This is actually PR as you are dealing with the clients. I remember the first time I picked up the phone; my voice was trembling due to the stress when realizing I was talking to real clients. The second time was better and I found it very interesting especially when seeing how the company dealt with some issues. I got the chance of having friendly clients and this beyond shadow of doubt helped me a lot.
Thanks for your comment :)
Graziella Hippolyte
15806785
CTI
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