It’s vitally important to double-check and
ensure your work is perfect before publishing and sending it out. It sounds
like common sense right? Well sometimes we all make mistakes especially in
todays busy and stressful world. However, small mistakes can lead to much bigger problems. I know for sure a client I
worked alongside would agree.
After working with a long term client they decided to host an event for an up-coming development project that would consist of an industry meet and greet, along with speeches from
some rather well known mining industry leaders. As we continued to work on some bigger projects for them they decided to plan the event themselves. After carefully crafting the invitations and sending it out to over 500 potential guests, did they only weeks later realised, they had forgotten to attach an ‘accept’ and ‘decline’ button to
the email. Naturally, a week before the event they had 0 idea as to who was
attending!
In their moment of panic they rushed to call us for some much needed help to sort out the issue and save the event. As it was too late to recreate the invitations it meant that each person on the invitation list had to be personally called (by myself and two other colleagues) and ticked off if they were attending or not. It was an extremely long and tedious job that could easily have been avoided, saving us time and the client money. Luckily for us, we were well prepared with an up-to-date healthy database of all their clients so we could start making calls straight away, without wasting time looking for contact details.
The event went ahead and was a success,
thankfully. So all ended well, although I believe a lesson should be taken from
this. It’s really easy to forget minor
details, especially when you have a million other things to do. Preparation is key. Know what you have to do and make sure you've done it all and done it right. Writing a
checklist is an easy way to make sure that you’ve haven't missed anything and always
make sure you double check that your work it perfect before sending it out no matter
how pressed for time you are, or it can leader to a bigger problem. It’s always
better to safe then sorry.
2 comments:
Hi Yusra,
Having worked on and prepared for two events while at my internship, I know exactly how you feel with regards to the stresses and trying to fix things that have gone wrong! I think with events you have to be prepared for the unexpected, as something always goes wrong. The best thing that you can do is start preparing early, so you have plenty of time to fix up anything that goes wrong before the event starts. We learnt that lesson the hard way from our first event, so with our second event that we prepared for this week, we did everything early and things still went wrong, but we had the time to fix them before our client knew or before the event started.
I couldn't agree more with your statement about preparation being key, it's so important to be organised and on top of things, because that way you know what's going on and know how to handle anything if something goes wrong.
Great to hear the event went successfully, and good to see that your database was updated to help save the day!
Tayla
Wow Yusra, what a way to learn the importance of attention to detail!
Even seasoned practitioners and corporate executives can make mistakes sometimes.
In PR, attention to detail is so crucial and if not executed can result in tarnished reputations and relationships. Especially if social media gets wind of it! It's unfortunate for the client, however I'm sure that experience will ensure you always remember to be diligent and thorough when working as a PR practitioner.
All the best!
Alyce
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