Improvement through observation

Learn from others’ mistakes and make your offerings better

ONE of my PR clients asked me the other day, “How did you end up doing PR work?” She was genuinely intrigued after learning about my background and past work experience.

The fact is that prior to starting my own company three years ago, I had never worked in any PR agency, media company or taken any mass communications courses.

My past work experience included stints in banks, retail-related dot com companies and, later on, various software companies.

In these jobs, I held a variety of roles — operations, sales and marketing but never PR.

In fact, I only learned what PR truly was in the last company I worked for as a marketing head.

And even then, I had PR agencies servicing me.

So prior to starting my own company, which also now offers PR services on top of marketing consultancy, I never really had any hands-on PR experience.

You must now be wondering if I am a fly-by-night freelancer who is just ‘pretending’ to know how to do PR.

I know! I am quite intrigued myself how I ended up doing PR work for clients and I know people in PR agencies that used to be my service providers in my employed days are wondering the same thing.

So how did I end up doing PR work now?

It was quite by accident actually.

Although I was a PR idiot prior to starting my own company, I was very curious to find out how things work.

Also, I constantly have this mindset of wanting to make things better.

It is due to this mindset of wanting to know and wanting to make things better that I learned how to do PR.

It was not something I wanted to do since I was a child.

During my employed days, when I had some PR agencies servicing me, I had encountered some good and some not so good ones.

When I encountered the good ones, I learned why they were good.

But I learned the most from the not so good ones.

Because they were not so good, I wanted to help make it better.

I learned about the things they did not do right and what they should not have done.

I learned from their mistakes and weaknesses. (I am not saying I am mistake-free now. I make them too.)

I also asked a zillion questions and many ‘whys’.

Maybe I drove them crazy, not so much with my alleged high standards but more so, my questions as to why some things could or could not be done a certain way.

I started my company with the intention of providing marketing consultancy.

But a client complained to me about the PR agency who was servicing her.

Having been in her shoes before, I could totally identify with her questions and frustrations.

She asked me if I could help and although it was something I had never done before, I decided to put in my best effort to make it work.

So that was how my PR work started.

I started from zero, made mistakes here and there and had kind media friends who helped educate me along the way.

Probably because I have been on the client’s side before, I am able to identify better with my clients – their needs, expectations, deadlines and pressures from the top.

To me, it is about putting myself in the customer’s point of view – one of the mantras my team now applies.

In fact, having been on the receiving end of mistakes made by service providers in the past, I am quite adamant not to deliver to a client what I did not want a service provider to deliver to me when I was the client.

Many businesses today, especially start-ups, often have a very wide-eyed zeal when it comes to what they want to sell or offer to their customers.

Some encounter failure because their products or services are not able to ‘connect’ with the customer.

To do that effectively, we need to get into the customer’s head and know their pains and needs.

And, don’t forget to learn from other people’s mistakes and make our offerings BETTER!

n Jeanisha is grateful to her father who taught her that we can learn good things from anyone, young or old, good or bad, rich or poor. Most recently, she has learned some good things from the interns in her company.