CGM blog: A PR open goal missed

20 Oct CGM blog: A PR open goal missed

With the latest BBC survey revealing the rocketing price of watching matches and the Labour Party’s plans to gain supporter representation on the board of clubs, I was told an interesting story that recently happened at a Premier League football club.

The story is of four South Korean fans visiting a specific Premier League club while on holiday in the UK.

They paid an impromptu visit, spent some cash in the club shop and, not unreasonably given the distance they’d travelled, asked if they could also have a sneak peek of the ground (presumably with a selfie in mind).

They were told it couldn’t be done – so left having travelled 5,000 miles without this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Now, it’s easy to blame the club shop jobsworth for failing to spot the poor customer relations point here – let alone the potential, albeit minor, PR opportunity that had fallen into the club’s lap.

Yes, the fans could and may be should have contacted the club in advance to let them know of their visit but clearly Mr Jobsworth felt it would be a dereliction of duty to leave his post unmanned so he could personally show them around.

But surely he could have called someone on the ground staff or the offices to help out? Certainly he could have tipped off the communications press/PR/marketing department so they could made them feel welcome and exploit the PR opportunity by finding out who these Far East fans were.

Not so. The fans wandered out presumably bemused, unloved and no emotionally nearer to the club than when they watch games 5,000 miles away.

To me, the blame is management culture. All staff at any decent high profile business (and they don’t come much loftier than Premier League clubs) should be alive to positive customer service and publicity potential.

It is the right thing to do and also good for the image of your club. Making your staff alert to these type of opportunities is key to embedding best marketing practice throughout your organisation.

We constantly hear about how successfully English football has become a global game – with Premier League clubs spending extraordinary sums of time, money and effort marketing themselves in the Far East and elsewhere.

But, as in this case, when these fans come to their very door they don’t respond.

Now, before we all get too lofty about this, how many of us also routinely miss opportunities to treat our customers in a special way or promote our businesses in a positive light that can raise our profile and boost our image?

Think about it…

Chris Green is CGM’s managing director and an award-winning author and journalist. CGM provides a media relations service to businesses and organisations and media training courses to encourage people to maximise their profile.