Negative public opinion about something stupid you or your firm did can (and usually does) quickly show up as a loss of business. The challenge is not so much what happened and how you correct the problem as it is in discovering what people REALLY think of the whole situation, letting people know you corrected the problem from their point of view, then addressing the underlying feeling that remains.

No, an advertising program to boost your image will not work. Neither will an apology. If you think former customers will jump at the chance to come back into your fold just because you apologize for what happened and showed them what you have done to insure against the same thing happening again, you are missing the boat. If you feel an apology and a new start is a good way to change an image, you will be having a fire sale on your business soon.

FIXING THE PROBLEM
One idea is to begin with the concept of PR or Public Relations, but to not go off into testimonials, apologies, new ideas, or whatever. Canned PR packages will sometimes work over the normal course of business, but you need a transfusion, not a pill.

So what to do? Your first task is to discover what people actually think of you, not what you think they think. Then address their problem, not yours. I suggest you use the following five steps to design an image-changing PR campaign that could solve all the problems.

1. Discover the identity of the “publics” in your firm’s Public Relations).
2. Find out what each of the various publics really think of you and your company.
3. Determine what you want your publics to think about you.
4. Design a campaign to make it happen.
5. Implement and follow through with your plan.

IDENTIFY
Before you try to change opinions, you need to identify just who's opinion it is you wish to change. Who are the "they" of the world in which you work and live? List all of the different groups whose opinions are valuable to you and your firm. Rewrite the list in order of their importance to your bottom line sales. A good starting list might include; employees, shareholders, customers, potential customers, the media, public officials, community opinion leaders, CPAs, lawyers, bankers, vendors, churches, health professionals, physical neighbors, and the general public.

SURVEY
One of the best, least expensive, and most effective ways of conducting an image survey is to use Focus Groups. The classic way to conduct a focus group survey is to invite somewhere between six and twenty individuals from each identified group to an extended meeting at a neutral site with a neutral moderator and ask their opinions of your firm. You can either have each identity group meet separately or you can mix and match. With permission, video the proceedings, and you and your change staff view the group meeting personally using a one-way mirror wall. Do not try to conduct a Focus Group meeting on your own, hire an expert. Also hire an opinion survey firm to help with the questions, but don’t get lost in designing forms and such.

ANALYZE
A correctly designed image survey will tell you two important things; what people really think about you and your firm, and what they want to think about your firm. Draw a continuum chart from the worst present image to the image desired by your survey participants and chart the position of each group along the continuum.

PLAN
Now comes the PR part. Use the information gathered to design a program to change the current opinions of your firm held by each group to the opinions you wish them to have. Identify the most cost-effective change agent or agency for each group.

ACT
Call in the advertising talent and get busy fixing things. Set your budget, and with your public relations study in hand, map out a campaign to change the public attitudes and perceptions of your company. You can repair things, even those actions that look so bad they could sink your firm by Tuesday. All the same, stringing out a repair too long will confirm public opinion that you and or your firm cannot be trusted.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING.)
Paul Tulenko is a Small Business Success Consultant based in New Mexico. Additional tips and suggestions are available at www.tulenko.com or call (toll-free) 1-866-TULENKO.