Six Sigma PR
Part Six in a Continuing Series on Healthcare IT Public Relations
Today brings a guest blog post from my colleague Mark McClennan, APR, on Six Sigma practices applied to public relations.
While PR professionals focus a good deal of time and effort measuring the results of their campaigns, they typically spend relatively little time examining internal operations and measurement unless something goes wrong. If an agency stays within its billable hours, a department stays within its line item budget, and objectives are reached-- they often declare success, and the team moves on to the next project.
But that is a limited view, and it assumes that the current way of doing things at your organization cannot improve. Internal measurement, when done correctly, can significantly improve operations and program results. It is just as important to apply rigorous measurement standards and best practices to internal processes and operations as it is to scrutinize PR campaigns.
For many companies, just measuring campaign activities is not enough for senior management. Reporting that the PR team called 20 reporters, held a special event or secured five articles does not meet management's needs. They want to understand what business objectives those activities accomplished.
It is relatively easy to measure activity and output. Unfortunately, that does not give a complete or accurate view. Many internal areas are ripe for quantitative measurement, including:
• Reporting
• Media Outreach
• Internal Meetings
• Employee Communications
There are many different schools of thought about measurement and, in my experience, none of them provide a complete solution. But for internal processes, a hybrid Six Sigma approach can help provide the answer.
Six Sigma is a widely used, rigorous and disciplined methodology that utilizes data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance, practices and systems.
In a nutshell, it involves looking at your internal processes and finding ways to improve them that will have a direct impact on the bottom line. It's not quality for quality's sake. It's not improving the monthly or weekly report, but rather identifying the essential elements of the report that will resonate with the C-level executives. It also involves how to do them faster, with fewer errors, so professionals can spend time on other key activities that contribute to the bottom line. A full Six Sigma approach is even better, but beyond the scope of many organizations.
The Six Sigma process is simple in concept--DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. There are Six Sigma books you can pick up to learn more, but it is more important to look at it in practice. The following examples show where a hybrid Six Sigma quality approach has been applied to internal processes and measurement to improve operations, satisfaction and results.
Reporting--Regular reporting is essential, both for C-level executives and for agencies to their clients. But too often, reporting is done a certain way because that is the standard style or the way it has been done in the past. By breaking down the components of reporting (creating the report, the form, editing it, etc.) and looking at the parts that are actually read, PR professionals can better understand where their time is spent and how to streamline the process. Then they can quantify how much each step costs and the impact streamlining may have.
Result--By applying Six Sigma methodology to the reporting process, one agency reduced the size of a report by 45%; increased the amount of the report read; and saved more than 10 hours each month, which translates into budget that can be assigned elsewhere. When you approach a client with those figures, it is hard for them to argue.
Outreach--It's not about pitching better or making the time for more focus groups. It's about improving your pitching processes. Conventional wisdom may steer you wrong when quantifying the most effective times to communicate with reporters by phone and e-mail.
Result--At Schwartz Communications, we just completed this analysis. We found that by applying Six Sigma methodology to media outreach to help determine the best times for media outreach--without changing the number of phone calls/e-mails we make or the amount of time the staff spends on this activity--we will have 18,240 more interactions with reporters in the course of a year. This will have a significant impact on client happiness, and it will help generate more coverage.
Measuring internal processes once, or even annually, is not enough. It is essential to look at all recurring activities regularly and to find some way to quantify them that will relate to the top and bottom lines; this can help improve overall performance. It's not always easy and you may encounter differences of opinion, but by establishing a quantitative framework, you have the methodology in place to help structure the discussion.
PR practitioners not only need to justify what they do, but they must look at how they do it and provide quantitative ways to measure best practices. It's a challenge, but by creating a framework for measuring internal processes and determining a quantitative figure for making decisions, you put yourself in a strong position and give yourself more time to do what you love.
Posted by Shawn Whalen on October 20, 2006 at 4:42 PM
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