Using Public Relations agencies
Advantages in using Public Relations agencies
- The partners from the agency are independent and are thus able to give neutral advice. There is also a strong but wrongly guided tendency to respect the advice that comes from the outside, preferring it to the one that is as good or even better from the inside.
- The employed staff worked or is still working for other customers as well and has a greater experience for different situations;
- The cost of the service is known before and has a direct relation with the agreed programme. The budget can be slowly varied from time to time and there is no question about social protection or supplementary reward;
- If the results do not reach the expected level, the contract can be easily cancelled or amended.
Disadvantages
- An outside firm might not have detailed knowledge about the activities of the institution and needs careful information. The regular consultancy is essential and the failure in this regard is the most common cause of insatisfaction and finally of cancelling the contract;
- The questions of the press are not concrete or easy to answer, they must be given to the organization and this slows down the speed of answer, so important in the relations with the media;
- There could come up a lack of continuity because the staff of the agency may leave or change the functions.
