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Kwik Fit lying to a national newspaper – sustainable PR policy?

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An interesting predicament is now facing Kwik Fit, following the issuing of misleading statements – and indeed, outright lies – to a national newspaper journalist covering a piece on them for the Times Money supplement this weekend.

It raises a number of questions concerning contemporary corporate comms practices, of course, and relates to an ongoing story.

An ongoing story which I found myself creating back in October 2009, following life-threatening work carried out on my car by mechanics at the Whiteladies Road branch of Kwik Fit’s franchise operation in Bristol.

The full initial story was covered in this blog post.

In the Times Money piece, written by reporter Leah Milner and published on Saturday, Kwik Fit had made the following statements to her in their Right to Reply PR comments back:

* Mr Street had been very happy with the resolved work completed on his rear brakes.

First Kwik Fit PR lie: At no point had I stated that I was happy with the service delivered, and had made this clear to the Whiteladies Road branch manager Robert Sandow at the time. The work was life-threatening. I wasn’t happy. At all.

This led to a meeting with the Kwik Fit regional manager at the time Dave Rees, who – interestingly enough – refused my request to record our meeting for the sake of accuracy. Mr Sandow, an ex-McDonalds manager, was also rapidly moved to another Kwik Fit franchise branch in Bristol at this time, too, after signing off the life-threatening work of his mechanic. Steer clear of Kwik Fit Filton, folks.

* After resolving the problem with his brakes…

Second Kwik Fit PR lie: the issue was never resolved. That is the entire reason the blog post was published, following my attempts to resolve it privately and through the Kwik Fit complaints procedure. I had requested at my meeting with Mr Rees a few things to be resolved – including the two days’ consultancy time lost my Kwik Fit mis-management, and wasting of my time.

* Mr Street returned to the branch to buy new tyres.

Third Kwik Fit PR lie: at no point did I return to the Whiteladies Road Kwik Fit branch. Why would I, after that kind of treatment? A mechanic in the branch (who’d inspected the work previously carried out on the rear brakes, and called it a ‘deathtrap’ at the time) had recommended another Kwik Fit branch for new front tyres. He’d even contacted the branch manager to make sure I got decent service. In the spirit of objective journalistic thinking, I was happy to try another garage.

After all, as a franchise company, each branch is, in effect, a different business.

And, to be fair and balanced, at the time I was confident of at least getting two front tyres replaced competently by another branch. It was an adequate job completed here.

The fact that the Kwik Fit PR team mislead and lied about these three key facts to a national newspaper points, for me, to a far more worrying dilemma.

The fact that countless unhappy customers have posted comments on the blog and Facebook – all dealt with in Kwik Fit’s trademark strategy of silence. Their reactive PR policies are archaic, founded in a structure of denial and complicity.

The fact that they have not resolved the issues brought before them back in 2009. I received a letter from Kwik Fit HQ following the meeting with Mr Rees stating they had investigated the matter, found they were not at fault, and that it was now closed.

The fact that the multitude of other ex-Kwik Fit customers are still being mislead as their individual cases drag on.

And – from a journalistic perspective – I’d have been much more inclined to view the Kwik Fit PR responses to the Times Money positively from a third-party angle if Leah Milner had at least reported the full facts of my case, rather than omitting details concerning the front tyre replacements at a different garage.

The Kwik Fit quote was, at best, misleading. At worst, blatant lies.

I understand the process of putting together a newspaper article, the balance needed, the reasons why objectivity is needed.

What I don’t get is how key facts can be missed out, further enabling Kwik Fit to further pursue a PR policy based on lies?

My final question – who is the biggest culprit here.

Kwik Fit management, or the PR team who delivered lies to the Press?

“If you had a paper for every street, it would sell” – Really?

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“If you had a paper for every street, it would sell.”

So says a grand old duke of independent regional newspaper publishing in the UK, Sir Ray Tindle, in this interview on www.journalism.co.uk.

Seeing as Sir Ray is proprietor of Tindle Newspapers, which publishes around 200 regional papers, it’s a safe bet he’s going to come out with a statement like that regarding the current state of offline journalism. As a PR piece, it’s a gorgeous interview.

It’s got the lot – nostalgia, positive community messaging, a nod to the editorial staff, and even a Churchill quote. Bravo.

But as a realistic assessment of the current plight of British regional newspapers, it’s way off the mark. Different planet, in fact.

I started my journalistic career on a regional newspaper in South Wales – covering two murders in the first week – as well as Council meetings, court reporting, business coverage, charity pieces, profiles…just about anything and everything. Loved it.

Tough slog – up to 11 hours on some days – with atrocious pay and a line of trainee journalists behind me, ready to jump into the job at any opportunity. That’s the way the industry works, on a regional level. Dog eat dog, with every move being monitored.

Too many journalism students coming out of colleges with NCTJ qualifications, fighting for poorly-paid editorial jobs, working like slaves for 18 months, then progressing up the ladder to a slightly bigger newspaper, working more hours for slightly more money, and wishing they’d studied Law instead.

Well, of course, I’m painting a sceptical picture – but it’s a moderately accurate one. I really enjoyed my ‘cutting teeth’ time.

But why do so many NCTJ-qualified journalists now go straight into corporate comms, charity press release offices, PR agencies and the like? Because they can’t find work on regional newspaper newsdesks.

Traditional publishers like Tindle Newspapers are piling more and more work onto the editorial staff, knowing full well they’ll take it, because there are no other journalistic positions available in the local area. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the current state of our regional Press.

So for Sir Ray to state in the interview above “Tindle Newspapers hasn’t made one journalist redundant since the recession began” is brilliant PR fodder, but ex-regional newsroom Hacks like myself know the real truth behind this comment.

To be blunt, being made redundant from Northcliffe Newspaper Group – another bastion of regional publishing in the UK which continues to utilise management methods we’d rather of seen the back of circa 1953 – was the best thing to happen to my editorial career.

From that point on, for me, came senior business magazine editorial gigs, corporate comms projects with firms such as Apple and Mitel Networks, and the immense variety of getting immersed in online copywriting, digital journalism, blogging for clients as well as the incredible world of social media from 2005 onwards.

I’d never work in a regional newspaper newsroom again. The future is online. Sir Ray knows this, but he’s calling your bluff.

As for the diminishing state of British regional newspapers? If you’re coming out of an NCTJ course anytime soon, here’s my advice to you, for what it’s worth.

If the work isn’t available, create the work.

Six ways journalists can thrive in 2011

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It’s been another tough year for those working in medialand across the UK, but in many ways – at least from my perspective – 2010 has represented some incredible opportunities for British journalists, if they’re willing to grab the challenges and turn them into gold.

That might sound like cold comfort to the newsroom journalist who’s been made redundant, or the freelance magazine feature writer who’s seen their workload reduce to a pittance, or even the corporate copywriter who’s experienced budget cutbacks and is now expected to produce more content in less time than ever before, with a P45 looming over their head daily.

Hope is not lost.

Here are six ways for journalists to embrace 2011, and utilise the coming year to full effect:

1. Get blogging:

Whether you’re gainfully employed for a publisher or not, get blogging. I’ve been blogging for clients since 2005 in the UK, and writing my own blog for more than three years. Does it bring work? A resounding yes.

Every piece of current client work can be traced directly, or very closely, back to my blogging content. Clients like it, they read it, they pass it on. And, most importantly, it helps to provide a regular, repeatable, profitable source of income.

2. Look at how the industry is adapting to change:

If you don’t adapt to economic, social and consumer change, it’s game over. Many newspapers, for example, have been far too slow in adapting to the swing of readerships to online, preferring instead to maintain their out-of-date, expensive and out-of-touch management methods.

Keeping an eye on industry developments, and watching the winners – such as this really useful article on innovative newspapers utilising social media – can provide inspiration, hope, and a place to submit your CV if you have to source a new employer.

3. Be flexible:

Times are still changing rapidly for traditional journalism in the UK, and with 1,000′s of job losses in the last 18 months, with more predicted in the first half of 2011, you’ll need to be flexible to thrive. Consider other sources of income.

This useful blog from Simon Clarke highlights how journos can move, for example, into corporate writing in tough times.

4. Look at what already works:

They say that nothing is original, and whilst I disagree, it’s important for journalists looking to thrive in 2011 to look to those who have already taken the lead, and are delivering multiple, alternative, thought-leading work out there.

If you’re hoping to make it outside of a traditional newsroom in 2011, you’d do alot worse than to examine this list of top-of-the-editorial-foodchain editorial bods and sites. If that doesn’t inspire you, it’s time to move out of journalism, period.

5. Engage your readerships and get social:

It’s been on everybody’s mind in 2010. Social media was the driving force in online content developments, and if as a contemporary journalist you haven;t already got it on your professional radar, it’s time to wake up and get engaged.

Check out this excellent blog on utilising social media to engage readerships. Miss it at your peril in 2011.

6. Don’t become a statistic:

Frightening article here from earlier in 2010, concerning the low numbers of journalists using online and social media opportunities. It is truly incredible, at least to me, to see such a stubborn resistance by some media folk to change – change driven by the very audience which demands more relevance, more timeliness, and more integration.

The days of command and control are over.

The only way to thrive as a journalist in 2011 is to embrace change – or, even better, be the creator of it.

One of my favourite personal mottos: if the work isn’t available, create the work.

PR full of CRAPP? Now there’s a surprise.

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Well, with a nice twist anyway – and it’s a reasonable idea. As far as it goes.

To celebrate the ‘special relationship’ between PRs and Hacks, these PR bods have devised The CRAPPS, as a means for PR pros to nominate their favourite journos.

It’s a moderately smart mini-campaign, which has gathered some column inches and tweets of late.

I’ve been on both sides of the fence in the past, having been a Managing Editor receiving 250+ emails per day from PR people (and to be bluntly honest, about 15% of those emails contained decent, relevant, timely, readership-aware copy) as well as having been a media relations strategist for a few firms in my time – such as here and here.

What really gets me excited in PR terms these days – in fact, the ONLY thing that gets me excited about PR these days – is the potential to intelligently utilise social media platforms, blogs, and online PR techniques to deliver awesomely-effective public relations programmes.

PR that actually engages, listens, attracts an audience without trashy gimmicks, and delivers a well-rounded, returnable, measured response online from social media engagement. PR that listens to, rather than talks at. Interesting idea, huh?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-PR. Far from it. I’ve just seen so much poor PR, I’m somewhat deaf and blind to it now.

So, in conclusion, a nice twist with The CRAPPs, allowing PRs to give some input on their relationship with the Press. A nice twist which will give some public exposure on the failings of the media to handle PR ‘properly’ as they’d see it. A nice twist which will give additional attention to the ‘value’ of PR in a world of increasingly-social interactions, cutting out the PR middle men.

But, what The CRAPPs can’t change is this simple fact: the Press are finding more and more stories direct from the source, via social media platforms.

How one blog post is costing Kwik Fit 100 customers per day, Part 1

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I’m pre-publishing parts of my latest Ebook, entitled ‘How one blog post is costing Kwik Fit 100 customers per day’ across the blog here, so readers can get an early peek at it and benefit from the lessons we’ve discovered about social media engagement and online reputation management – courtesy of an ongoing strategy of silence from the appalling corporate Kwik Fit.

These three blog posts will contain the basic text, but not the full graphic and diagrams in the Ebook. However, the content from the Chapters highlighted on the blog should still prove useful. There are three pre-publication blogs posts – here’s the first.

Chapter One: How a blog post came to cost Kwik Fit 100 customers per day

I first came into contact with Kwik Fit as a customer on 03 October 2009, when visiting the Whiteladies Road, Bristol branch. The emergency brake lights were flashing on my Mini Cooper S, combined with a squealing, grinding noise on the rear brakes. Urgent mechanical attention was obviously needed.

The rear brake pad and disc repairs cost just shy of £250. The branch manager also attempted to sell me two front tyres at £325, even though the tyres were well within the legal limit, as well as a new caliper, which would be in the region of up to an additional £350.

I left the branch with the brake warning light still on, and the brakes sticky.

The branch manager, Robert Sandow, (an ex-McDonalds manager who was promptly moved to another Bristol Kwik Fit branch when his errors, lies and mis-selling became evident to higher Management after my first complaint) informed me this was perfectly normal, and that the warning light on the Mini Cooper S’s electronic system would “automatically reset after 50 miles” whilst the new pads “would also bed in” which I later found out was complete nonsense. I believed him.

The brake warning light stayed on, I discovered a few days later when I had the work inspected independently, because one of the rear brake pads had been fitted without a pad. Metal was hitting metal. The car was a death trap.

After further complications, mis-selling, lies and excuses in-branch from Mr Sandow, I had the independent examination completed and made a formal complaint. I was given a face-to-face meeting with Kwik Fit regional manager Dave Rees in Bristol.

He was accusatory, a poor listener, and refused to give his consent for me to record the meeting on my Dictaphone. I was not impressed.

Following this perfunctory meeting, I chased for feedback – after Mr Rees did not come back to me on the agreed deadline with feedback and a proposal of solutions to my poor treatment and life-threatening service from Kwik Fit.

What I did get was a letter from Kwik Fit Head Office stating that after a thorough internal investigation, they found no evidence of wrong-doing, that compensation of any kind would not be offered, and that the matter was closed.

I was, understandably, not impressed with Kwik Fit’s idea of customer satisfaction.

I published the complaint email sent to Kwik Fit’s Managing Director in full on my blog, to highlight my case and demonstrate that the matter was far from closed. This blog post continues to attract 100 hits per day. You can read it here.

Obviously, to receive such a dismissive response from Kwik Fit did not sit well, and highlighting the issues publicly on my blog seemed the only option.

After highlighting the story to regional Press, I learnt from an inside source on one newspaper that Kwik Fit’s corporate PR team had attempted to discredit the issues and story, rather than genuinely engage with them and resolve it.

I also learnt that Kwik Fit management had put a firm lockdown on the case, with an internal investigation by senior management leading to radical measures being taken, such as mechanics being told to watch out for ‘difficult’ customers in-branch. Again, no actual resolution of life-threatening treatment.

This was the start of Kwik Fit’s strategy of silence – more to follow on that in Chapter Three.

Around this time, I also contacted Guardian Money and BBC Watchdog, with spectacular results in the Watchdog example. Again, more to follow on this.

I promoted the ‘How Kwik Fit risked my life to make a sale’ blogpost across social media platforms, including setting up an anti-fan page on Facebook entitled ‘Kwik Fit – the worst corporate reputation in the UK?’ which provided an excellent sounding board for other for other disgruntled ex-Kwik Fit customers. Comments which were all being retained on Google searches.

By now, the blog post itself was also attracting attention and more comments, forming a damning thread of evidence concerning Kwik Fit’s treatment of unhappy customers across the UK.

Internal customers, including ex-Kwik Fit managers and mechanics, were now coming to the blog to post their comments and experiences of working within the corporate. Evidence was stacking up across a number of online platforms.

Evidence which had massive implications online for Kwik Fit, as the next chapter highlights – read this on Wednesday.

Where’s the news gone?

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I was watching the daily BBC Bristol evening news coverage this week – and got an unpleasant surprise.

Lead story – one hard news item, covering a murder story

Second story – PR fluff

Third story – local court story

Fourth, fifth, AND sixth stories – more PR fluff

Which left me asking myself – ‘Where’s the news gone from the news?’

It’s not as if we’re in the Silly Season, with councils, schools, and the like closed down for the Summer.

It’s not as if the Beeb hasn’t got the resources – after all, the BBC has always represented one of the finest sources of journalistic reporting skills in the World, according to their annual self-appraisals.

It’s not as if there’s a shortage of real, relevant, people-based hard news issues in the region right now.

I found myself struggling to see much news in the 30-minute News programme.

My NCTJ journalism lecturer, himself the Editor of a regional daily UK newspaper for many years, said in his first lecture: “Remember, News IS people.”

I agreed with him then – and still do.

What’s your take on regional News output – do you find it of any real value, or in the main just PR-injected fluff?

Maybe, it was a slim news day at the Beeb.

Maybe I’m too harsh a critic.

Maybe, I’ve got a point.

How social media can save journalists

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I was reading this fascinating article from the BBC Technology team last week, and it’s stayed with me – largely due to the optimistic nature of social media interaction in the workplace. Surely, this applies to the reducing newsroom numbers, too?

There’s hope for us all – particularly the increasing mass of redundant British journalists currently wondering what the hell to do with themselves, other than a sideways move into the relative Hell of positions as ‘editorial consultants’ in city-centre corporate PR Agencies.

Social media could well hold the answer. At least, in part.

My motto has always been – if the work’s not available, create the work.

And for that, social media remains the supreme facilitator – if you’re prepared to engage after a decade or three in a newsroom.

Look at it this way – once you’ve negotiated your redundancy package, and the management team have offered you a position as a data entry clerk – which, of course, you have to reject, seeing as it pays less than half of what your old take-home pay used to be – there’s a big wide world out there, and it’s getting on with business, regardless of how you feel after being given a P45.

That, by the way, is what happened to me at the hands of Northcliffe Newspaper Group. But it was many, many moons ago, and – actually – print newsroom redundancy was without a doubt the best thing to happen to this particular Editor.

Plus, I’m pretty sure I’d have made a shockingly-poor data entry clerk.

So what can you do, and how can social media help?

Let me give you my own example, as a starting point – and one which will hopefully prove useful and informative:

* Get blogging and build your personal Brand: I started blogging back in 2005, when the UK first heard from American companies developing and launching business blogs. It was an exciting time for online content production. Still is, to my mind.

* Use social media platforms to engage with potential clients: believe it or not, you have potential clients migrating to social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter en masse. Find them, engage them, highlight your skills to them.

* Be useful, informative and highlight great information: you’ve been doing this (hopefully) in your previous newsroom role, so delivering great content via social media should be relatively straightforward. Try information-packed sites such as Mashable to get a handle on how to blog, tweet, and promote your awesome journalistic skills and expertise to full effect in a social context.

* Grab a niche online and dominate it: specialist interest blogs are booming, so carve out your own niche area and dominate it online. Command a premium price for your freelance knowledge to clients, agencies, and other interested parties.

* Keep writing: this is crucial. Even after redundancy, I continued to produce content. I still write my blog posts to a set schedule, irrespective of ongoing client commitments. This is being drafted, for example, at 11.15pm on a Sunday evening.

* Don’t give up: it is easy – particularly in the light of rejection via redundancy or a similar loss of journalistic livelihood – to give up hope, say sod it, and disappear into the Twilight World of corporate PR. Things are NOT that bad, honest. Keep networking, keep writing, keep connecting, keep giving great content and keep sharing your expertise, knowledge and passion on social media platforms.

You will, in time, gain attention – and the right kind of attention, too.

I’ve secured every piece of current client work via social media engagement, client referrals via social media project work completed, social media content distribution via my own blog, and a combination of all the above. No aggressive marketing.

Your biggest investment is your time – now go and create the work.

“Journalism students aren’t creative”

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This was the shocking statement given to me when I met a journalism lecturer recently for a coffee and catchup.

Furthermore, he also stated that in his experience, media students are also missing a number of communications opportunities due to, basically, being lazy. I must admit, I was surprised.

That part of the conversation took me right back to when I was studying NCTJ print journalism. The lectures on media development and how we can all use communications tools and techniques were, for me, the most interesting parts of the entire course. And, on balance, it’s pretty hard to get excited about media law and shorthand at the best of times.

So, to hear that my journalism lecturer friend is finding his students to be generally lazy and uncreative was a genuine shock: I recall being raring to get out into my first newsroom, to report on the community around me, to make a positive difference.

This feeling lasted when I moved into business magazines, and even more so when editing online publications, with tighter deadlines, and more editorial juggling to do. Being focused, energetic and creative are – surely – essential skills of the modern journalist?

Particularly given the economic situation facing many mainstream publishers.

Maybe it is exactly because of the current economic situation – with the 1,000s of editorial cutbacks, and reduced salaries for newsroom journalists nationwide, not to mention the large-scale redundancies of certain larger publishing corporates – which all adds up to strip away the creativity of journalism students.

After all, if you know you’re graduating into a dying industry, what is there to be creative about? It becomes a basic exercise in career survival and getting the best possible grades, so you might hopefully secure work at the end of the course.

That’s a cynical view, but it’s an honest one.

The comment which really stood out for me, however, was when my media lecturer pal said that his students only use Facebook “to be nosy about what their friends are doing”. They don’t see the social media platform as a valuable communications tool.

Now THAT’s worrying.

After all, if 75% of ALL global Brands are currently communicating on Facebook, it’s clear that there is a viable, real and ongoing reason to be engaged, creative and active online.

Particularly when more and more journalism students are competing for jobs out there.

Social media platforms can, quite obviously, help these students to craft their personal Brand and get leverage in front of potential employers or freelance clients.

Facebook, personal blogs, YouTube clips, Twitter content…the number of opportunities for media students to demonstrate cheaply, effectively and immediately their talents online are endless. And it’s a growth area.

To hear that some are totally missing these opportunities is very, very sad indeed.