PR CORNER with Prosper Delali AYAYEE: Conducting a successful reputation survey

Some organisations in Ghana and perhaps globally are increasingly operating in an environment where public perception spreads rapidly through traditional media and social media platforms, yet nothing they are seem to be doing nothing about it.

Reputation management is a critical subject in public relations. The reputation of every organisation is synonymous with the revenue it desires to generate that is if the company exists to make profits.  We have aways known that in public relations, reputation is one of the most valuable assets an organisation can possess.

Thus, a good reputation attracts customers, investors, partners, employees, and public goodwill. A poor reputation, on the other hand, can undermine years of hard work, reduce trust, and damage organisational growth.

Many organisations assume they know what stakeholders think about them. However, assumptions are not facts. The only reliable way to understand how people truly perceive an organisation is through a reputation survey.

A reputation survey helps provide evidence-based insights that help management make informed decisions and strengthen relationships with key audiences. This helps the organisation understand how their leadership, products, services, values and overall performance are perceived by the public.

To conduct a successful reputation survey, one must ask the following key questions:

Purpose

It is important to know the purpose of a reputation survey. A reputation survey is conducted to enquire into the nature of sentiment, conversation, opinion, perceptions and beliefs about an organisation. The findings of such a task is to provide useful feedback that enables a business or an organisation to improve on its performance, relationship management and communications. You must know what you want to measure.

Is it the overall reputation, assessing public trust, evaluating customer satisfaction, comparing reputation against competitors and so on that you are interested in? The purpose must be clear to guide the survey process.

Ask Key Questions

Right from the onset it is important to ask the appropriate questions that matter to determine what you want to research into and the kind of questions that will draw out the insights. You need to know the desired outcome? What will the outcome of the survey achieve?

While asking the key questions, it is crucial to also know that in conducting a reputation survey, your brand is evaluated against its own brand values, purpose and mission, by so doing, identified gap areas are noted and worked on.

Among other things a reputation survey helps to address important questions such as:

• Do stakeholders trust the organisation?
• How credible is the organisation?
• What are the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses?
• How does the organisation compare with competitors?
• What issues could potentially threaten its reputation?
• What factors contribute most to stakeholder loyalty?

Size & Scale of The Survey

A survey of this nature must have a clearly defined size and scale. You must have in mind your sample size you are interested in and it should accurately represent key audience or stakeholder groups. How do you ensure that your survey will target audience segments.

A poorly selected sample can produce misleading conclusions thereby affecting the desired outcome.

For example, a sample size and scale to consider are:

• Customers
• Suppliers
• Employees from different departments
• Government regulators
• Media etc from different regions
• Community members from different demographics

Choose The Right Methodology

Another important aspect of the reputation survey is the kind of research methodology to use. Is your survey going to be carried out through an online survey, focus groups or one-to-one interviews.? You must also agree on how the results will be analysed.

You surely will need an expert and probably an external independent expertise for the sake of clarity, independence and credibility. If you choose an online survey then you must ensure that you are dealing with large audiences which means your data will be collected faster and it will also cost you less.

You can also go for face-to-face interviews which is usually good for government officials, community leaders and influencers, investors and so on depending on which industry your brand sits. Furthermore, you can also go for a focus group style which is useful for understanding attitudes in depth and exploring complex perceptions, you just have to agree on what works best for your organisation as a team.

Brand Questions

One cannot conduct a successful reputation survey without asking questions about their brand. You need to be clear about the questions you would like your respondents ask about your brand and what you want out of those questions.

For example, questions regarding visibility, perception about performance, market positioning, ethics, trust, credibility, recognisability are normally part of questions you cannot miss about your brand in conducting a reputation survey.

Also, in asking questions about your brand you need to put checks in place to ensure the right people are being surveyed. While at it, you also need to probe or investigate perceptions of your brand vis-à-vis other known brands in the sector to ascertain what is working best for them that you can learn from.

Collect Data Professionally

Data collection is highly important in this kind of exercise. If the data is compromised in any way. It will affect the credibility of the survey. In view of this respondents must feel comfortable sharing honest opinions. There should not be leading questions that suggest a particular desired outcome or answers.

Thus, instead of asking “How excellent is our customer service?” you may want to consider asking “How would you rate our customer service?”  When participants trust the process, they provide more accurate feedback.

In making your data collection more professional and credible you need to also make use of the right tools that help with questions setting, insights and data visualisation. Use what is fit-for-purpose. It is usually advisable to avoid manual surveys and rather use tested tools that guaranteed independent and accurate results.

To make the data collection more professional, you may want to consider the following principles:

• Confidentiality
• Neutral questioning
• Voluntary participation
• Ethical data handling

Analyse The Findings

Once data is collected, analysis is next. The analysis should among other things answer questions such as: what is driving positive perceptions, what is causing negative perceptions, which stakeholder groups require attention and so on.

Since this survey is about reputation assessment, the data analysis should be able to identify the following:

• Reputation strengths
• Reputation weaknesses
• Emerging risks
• Stakeholder expectations
• Trends over time

Translate Findings into Action

The reputation survey should not end at the analysis stage and documents from the survey left in some corner in the organisation to gather dust. The survey’s value lies not in collecting data but in acting on it. It is often the case that many organisations collect data, analyse them and yet delay or fail to take immediate actions to resolve findings from the survey.

The survey findings should translate into actions such as: improved customer service, enhanced stakeholder engagement, strengthening media relations, improved employee communication, investment in community development and ultimately; increase transparency. Stakeholders should see evidence that their feedback is considered for improvement or adjustment where necessary.

Conclusion

Public relations is essentially about reputation management. A good reputation undoubtedly will result in brand loyalty which then results in revenue or profitability. One of the greatest mistakes organisations can make is believing they know what stakeholders think about their brand without actually asking them. Over the years, it has become too obvious that reputation is too important to be managed through assumptions.

We have also learnt that a well-designed reputation survey provides an organisation with the opportunity to better serve their stakeholders and customers. A good reputation survey reveals how stakeholders perceive the actions, values, leadership and performance of an organisation. More importantly, it highlights opportunities for improvement and growth.

For us PR practitioners, we do not conduct regular reputation surveys for anything other than serving as a strategic investment in trust, credibility, and long-term organisational success. It is said that organisations that listen are better positioned to lead, influence and thrive.

The author is a communications strategist with extensive years of work experience spanning sectors such as: PR consultancy, Banking & Finance, Government/Public sector, Telecom, Academia, Health/NGO etc

For contributions & comments, you can reach him via: [email protected] or 0246748481

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