First off to luxury public relations professionals you get no sympathy from us none whatsoever. You seemingly created this entire world of catering to the super rich for going above and beyond to meet ridiculous domestic demands from clients. It’s a “hash reality” but it just had to be said and now the time has come to reverse roles to get down to real luxury public relations business.
Who is to blame? It might have been the luxury publicist with good intentions to fix everything from making the client’s entire lifestyle bespoke and elite 24/7 without recourse. That’s not luxury PR, that is more like being a domestic servant for the life of the account. Stop wiping sweat from clients eyebrows to get the best photos.
Luxury Public Relations Professionals
photo credit Chateau Louveciennes
A blueprint for surviving how-to tell a client NO in the eyes of an luxury PR pro, it takes skills to just say no in luxury PR:
No is not a term within the vocabulary of a luxury PR worker. N-O spells bemused client, and, if it happens more than once, a revoked contract. These clients are not used to having requests turned down, so instead of saying the forbidden word, I find the following phrases help: “I’ll get our research team on that!” “Absolutely, let’s revisit that closer to the time.” “Interesting! That’s so interesting. What aninteresting idea!”
Other terms to avoid include: “That may need a longer timeline” or “Could you clarify that, please?”
Every agency says they’ll go above and beyond, but you don’t know the meaning of that until you send a junior team member out with a client’s toddler, company card in hand, with strict instructions about their intricate dietary requirements and penchant for independent exploration.
Often clients can confuse PR for PA and will scope-creep from media relations and event management to requesting babysitters, dog walkers, taxi bookers, make-up artists, estate agents … the list goes on. It’s not always what our interns had in mind when they said they wanted a challenge, but if you put together the right team, relationships with clients can flourish.
On a serious note luxury PR professionals you are simply better than this so please stop getting bossed around. No account is worth this type of treatment or domestic abuse. Set down ground rules and for God sake please stop wiping sweat, it’s gross.