Ending the Myth of the Back-Slapping P.R. Hack How Public Relations Can Really  Help A Business Copyright © 2005 Stephen Abbott Communications. All Rights Reserved I’m sure it’s happened to you before. You drive by a business and you cringe, remembering the poor service, the shoddy merchandise or even the bad odor of the establishment. One way or another, you were put off by the place. Then you drive by another business, and you almost want to invent a reason to go back, even though you have no business to transact there. It’s funny, you may think, but you haven’t been in there since last November. You wonder why. Some people look at public relations as just the domain of glad-handing, back-slapping "yes-men" or pretty faces who tell clients whatever they want to hear. This kind of PR person wouldn’t be much help to a client or the client’s business. Luckily, these stereotypes are very far from reality. Changing a negative reputation into a good one, or at least a neutral one, or reinforcing a business’ already-positive image, is really what public relations is all about. In the negative example above, becoming aware of these problems, then making sure customers know that you are aware of their past bad experiences, are the first steps to changing bad perceptions. Perhaps a sign out front, reading, "Newly remodeled," "New product line," or, even better, "New Manager," would help entice you back into the door. An ad in the paper trumpeting their "totally new approach to customer service," would help, too, as long as that claim is then backed up with EXCELLENT service and products and a clean environment when you, the customer, return. For the business with an already good reputation, but with little repeat business, a company newsletter, mailed every other month to regular customers, may help remind people why they liked them so much on previous visits. Special programs to reward regular customers may also solidify that important base, and increase word-of-mouth buzz about them. A paid advertising campaign highlighting satisfied customers may be necessary to let people know that they, too, may have good experience there. PR isn’t just happy talk, it’s a profession that helps make companies more successful through an approach of identifying positives and negatives and creating plans to addressing them in a systematic way. Stephen Abbott, 39, is the principal of Stephen Abbott Communications, a public relations and political consulting firm in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA.