“Hey client, are you there?”

Lauren Hannaford

Like many industries, PR pros occasionally run into clients who understand the importance and value of PR, but for various reasons, have a hard time carving out ample time to communicate with their communication team and provide what’s needed to execute strategy in a timely manner.

Over the years, we have personally seen strong satisfaction and success correlations among clients who are communicative, set a certain time during the week to talk to us or assign another staff member to be our point person. We stay on track, we get things done and we are successful. Now, many of our clients who simply cannot keep up with us each week are still very successful accounts. There are many paths we take to ensure that we continue to garner news coverage and carry out other projects. We just have to have “information transfer” meetings. And that works, too.

Similarly, we see correlations among clients who aren’t the most communicative in the bunch. While we love all clients nevertheless, this lack of communication can create staleness or a stall in action for the account, and we just don’t like that. We like to stay busy for all clients all of the time. That’s what we get paid to do!

The simple truth is that if you are considering retaining a public relations firm like Obsidian, expect for us to “need” you on a regular basis. The key to a successful relationship is regular communication.

Here are a few helpful tips on how to keep things on track despite your busy schedule:

1. Set a certain time during the week to review projects and communication, and provide feedback on those. 
2. Assign a point person that has time within their role to be a liaison. 
3. If weekly call is not possible, plan to have a longer meeting once a month. 
4. Vocalize your preferences on how we communicate with you (phone, email, text, etc.)