An Outsourcer’s Guide to Developing a PR Strategy

Developing a solid PR strategy for your call centre outsourcing business is key to its success.

A PR strategy is a plan that outlines how a call centre will manage its image and reputation. Without good PR, getting clients (usually companies that want to outsource call centre business operations) is not possible.

Complement a good PR strategy with good customer service in the first place and your call centre brand will succeed.

This article will discuss the importance of a PR strategy for a call centre outsourcing business, how to develop one, and the mistakes to avoid.

Why Do You Need a PR Strategy for Your Outsourcing Call Centre Business?

There are several reasons public relations strategies are crucial for your call centre business. They ensure:

Brand Awareness

A successful PR strategy can help increase awareness of your business. When your call centre has a positive public perception, potential clients won’t hesitate to reach you.

Don’t forget the power of social proof in the form of client success stories, positive reviews, and awards. When current clients spread the good word about your business, the likelihood of more prospects working with your brand increases.

Client Trust and Loyalty

A strong PR strategy can help you develop clients’ confidence in your call centre, increasing loyalty and retention.

Of course, having a good image isn’t enough. You also need to meet the minimum expectations when connecting with your clients’ customers.

When you keep your clients’ customers happy by ensuring positive relationships with them, you keep your clients happy and loyal to you, too.

If you are looking for ways to successfully connect with customers, read our article: Practical Tips to Connect With Customers

Proper Crisis Management

Don’t just wait for a PR crisis to take place. Getting ready is key. Crisis management requires specialized PR services and a well-honed strategy to help minimize damage to a call centre’s reputation.

So, even when you find yourself in a negative situation in the face of seemingly uncontrollable factors, your business can survive.

Five Tips for Developing a PR Strategy for Your Call Centre

So, how do you build a good PR strategy for your call centre business? Follow these tips:

1. Define Your Objectives

To create an effective PR strategy, you need to define your objectives. These may include improving your brand image, gaining media attention, or removing negative associations with your call centre brand.

Whatever your goals may be, they should be SMART goals or specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This will help ensure that your efforts are focused and effective in achieving the desired results.

2. Know Your Target Audience

As a call centre business, your key audiences for your PR efforts should be companies that outsource their call centre operations. So, you need to research who the decision-makers are and their relevant demographic information. Know what they consume, too (e.g. TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) and their interests and values.

With this information, you can create PR messaging that resonates with the right people and drives the desired outcomes from your PR efforts.

3. Develop Key Messages

Your key PR messages will depend on the publicity you hope to generate for your call centre. However, they must be concise and informative while reflecting your brand values.

Use generative AI tools like Ask Writer, Google Bard, and ChatGPT to help create great content (written and visual press releases, social media posts, etc..) that meets these criteria at scale.

You need to complement these key PR messages with good customer service in the first place, though. Even with the best PR collateral, you can’t possibly convey the image of an efficient call centre business if some of your clients’ customers are complaining about how long it takes for your agents to respond to a call.

4. Leverage Various Channels

With a clever mix of traditional and modern marketing platforms, social media channels, email newsletters, press releases and events, you can create a strong public relations plan for your call centre. You can also reach a far broader audience.

However, you still have to make sure the decision-makers of the company you’re targeting – your potential customer base – consume these distribution channels in the first place.

5. Monitor PR Efforts and Adjust Accordingly

Keep track of all PR efforts and measure their success as part of your strategic PR plan. This will help you identify which tactics generate the most impact and allow you to make necessary adjustments to maximize results.

Let’s assume your press release on your own study on the state of the customer service industry gets published in major news outlets every year. You might want to continue writing similar press releases and conducting those studies. After all, they give your call centre business publicity.

Or if you see your Facebook posts have no engagement at all, you might want to go back to your audience research results. Maybe your target audience isn’t on Facebook after all and you need to switch social channels for your future campaigns.

We have collected together a range of tips to make your customer’s lives much easier. To find out more, read our article: Customer Service Tips

Three Mistakes to Avoid When Developing a PR Strategy for Your Call Centre

1. Inconsistency

Inconsistency can weaken your public relations efforts.

A call centre business’s public relations campaign shouldn’t emphasize efficiency if many of its clients’ customer calls aren’t answered immediately in the first place.

This inconsistency can lead to negative press coverage, which can damage a call centre business’s reputation.

2. Lack of Differentiation

You’ll never enter a market with a generic value proposition. For your marketing strategy to truly stand out and work, you need a unique selling point. The same thing applies to a PR strategy.

So, don’t just say you’re a call centre that caters to businesses in your press releases. Maybe you prefer to provide call centre services to eCommerce businesses, for instance. Or highlight your specific core values of efficiency and productivity.

3. Overpromising

Exaggerating your capabilities or making unrealistic promises can do more harm than good. This approach leads to disappointed clients and damages your call centre’s reputation.

So, always be truthful in your PR communications. Don’t say you can provide personalized experiences to your clients’ customers if you don’t have enough human resources for that in the first place.

In Closing

An effective PR strategy is crucial to staying competitive in today’s market. The same applies to your call centre business. Your business can build a reputable brand reputation and attract clients with a good PR strategy.

This guide shared 5 tips on how you can build such a strategy. Also, avoid three crucial PR mistakes: Inconsistency, overpromising, and a lack of business differentiation.

Do these and you’ll ensure good PR and a call centre business that stands out.

By Chris Norton, Founder of award-winning B2B specialist PR agency Prohibition, social media podcaster, former university lecturer, author of “Share This Too” and his social media training blog, which is listed in the UK’s top 10 PR and social media strategy blogs.