As seen on Forbes

By Kathleen Lucente

Today’s CEO knows that if HR pushes something under the rug or a store owner doesn’t handle a customer properly, the word will be out within a hot second through social channels or even a tip emailed directly to the editor of a news outlet. All bets are off — the citizen reporter has free rein, and they are holding people and companies accountable at a higher level than we have ever seen before.

Suddenly, the role and structure around internal and external communications have become priorities. We’re seeing power struggles as the best companies begin to tear down traditional walls to establish a centralized communication and content strategy team under the CMO.

When a CEO talks with me about raising their company’s visibility and credibility through PR, I dig deep to make sure all the other parts of marketing are active. Do they have listening tools for picking up on rumblings in the market and addressing them swiftly? Is HR tightly aware of any concerns, and how fast are concerns addressed? After all, securing great press coverage doesn’t do much good if the messaging and response from customers or employees is different. A great article can be undermined overnight by a citizen journalist’s terrible experience as an employee or a customer.

A crisis can emerge quickly, and having the right people in place internally to effectively manage the chaos is essential. Integrated teams should have a plan and narrative for sales team customer engagement; employee town halls; C-suite communication; PR initiatives; digital marketing; sponsorships; conferences; nonprofit engagement; investor and board meeting content and proactive, integrated management planning for red-hot issues.

It’s a red flag to me if a potential client isn’t comfortable with this line of questioning. A PR partner must be integrated into the larger CMO framework or you’ll have missed opportunities and mixed messaging going out to the target audiences. I was speaking to an editor at a large newspaper in the country recently, and she noted that the news team hated the topics coming over from the corporate PR team. As she pointed out, “It was clear they were clueless about the corporate strategy.”

“Clueless” is not a description you want for anyone who is on your team and representing your brand and reputation. Here are a few ways to avoid having a team that is out of touch in 2020:

Recognize that integrating marketing and communications is no longer optional but, in fact, reaches across the company into sales and customer engagement. After all, the world doesn’t watch the news each night and go to sleep. We have news and citizen reporters commenting all night long around the globe. This means you have to set alerts for customer commentary, online reviews and news mentioning your brand. Picking the right tools is important. Having an agency partner that is using them is another smart strategy.

Even the most loved brands have issues. Never wait until an issue pops up. Get ahead of it. Pull your sales, customer service, marketing and PR teams together monthly to establish possible concerns that might arise and how to address these with each audience. It’s equally important to know when and how to escalate issues that might start small but can swiftly grow in scope. Too often, employees keep an issue to themselves thinking it can be handled and by the time management learns of it, it has snowballed. Create a culture that promotes those who raise concerns and offer solutions.

Get people across the CMO and sales function to appreciate what is being done and why it is essential. PR can provide a window into what’s trending; customer service can offer up what they are seeing as needs that could be addressed proactively; digital marketing and content teams can establish new editorial directions together and the list goes on. Together, they are establishing the consistent voice of the brand. Remember: The customer experience is the brand reputation.

Erase the word “vendor” from your vocabulary when it comes to picking strategic external partners. If the relationship feels like a vendor relationship, change it or find a new partner. Bring your PR and advertising partners in to meet with your integrated internal team and work together toward goals, including storylines that will help move the needle for the business. Brainstorm together and establish wins as a cohesive team.

When teams come together, they can do so much more. The walls are down, budgets come together and goals can be reached that further a company’s mission in ways that siloed work can never achieve. Set the bar high!