They didn’t get back to Michael Finney. And they didn’t get back to me.
Michael Finney, who delves into consumer issues during his ABC-TV ‘7 On Your Side’ telecasts, is an institution, in a way, out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s been at his job for a long, long time.
I’d get calls from people on his staff, when consumers had concerns about something at our business. I’d return their calls. That was pretty much baked into us, my colleagues and I, during our years in corporate PR.
You’d hear from editors and reporters, and you’d get back to them. Why leave them hanging? Which, for one thing, is discourteous. And why miss opportunities to provide your perspectives on stories?
Ten – maybe eleven – years ago, I wrote for the first time about people not getting back to people, in an article that got published in the Nashville Tennessean newspaper, and I wrote more, after that.
In the Daily Post, last year, for example, I mentioned United States Postal Service (USPS) PR people not getting back to me. That was when USPS was up to its ears in controversy, as mail deliveries were slowing down, and high-speed mail sorting machines were being removed from service.
I tried reaching out to USPS PR people, to commiserate with them, since I’d experienced PR crises during my career. But they never got back to me.
And now, more recently, Michael Finney has been reaching out for comment from the California EDD, the state’s Employment Development Department, which has been embroiled in a PR crisis, summarized, here, during a ‘7 On Your Side’ telecast:
As the coronavirus pandemic raged, throwing millions out of their jobs, Californians turned to the one agency that could save them from financial ruin: the Employment Development Department.
The federal government had just pumped $40 billion into the state coffers to ensure no one would go hungry or homeless. Instead, a clumsy, outdated bureaucracy left millions in the lurch, throwing barriers in the way of payments…Millions struggling with no income tried to go up against an unresponsive bureaucracy…
Among those millions left “in the lurch,” are folks my family and I know of, who, for months on end, have been trying to navigate the bureaucracy noted in Mr. Finney’s report. And because of COVID, a family member of ours had to file for EDD assistance, and, like the other folks, was mired in confusing, often frustrating, bureaucratic procedures. Things were finally sorted out for him, a few days ago.
Out of curiosity about the crisis at EDD, I reached out to PR department staffers, but ended up in the same boat with Mr. Finney, with no one replying to my email or voice messages.
I suppose, sounding like a crusty veteran, I could say; ‘That’s not the way we did things, in our day!’
I’ll keep writing about people not getting back to people, and maybe bureaucratic procedures that can drive folks crazy. Speaking of which, we’re trying to sort out something with our cable company. It’s a very large company, with bureaucratic hurdles that sometimes make it very difficult to reach actual people. When we finally did get through to someone, we were supposed to get a follow-up call confirming some things.
We’d get a call at ten the next morning – guaranteed! – we were told.
We’re still waiting.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.