ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN COMMUNITY BANKING
ABSTRACT
Public relation could be defined a deliberate planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its public. The purpose of this study is to find out a how public relation is practiced at the Nnebuife community Bank Nigeria Limited, Enugu. The questionnaires administered to the customer, staff and shareholders of the Bank were used in obtaining data for the study. It was found that Nnebuife community Bank regards public relation as a management function, and as such is given extreme attention by the Bank. Further study revealed that Nnebuife community Bank treated its customers very well as well as its shareholders, and the employees hence they were all happy to form the publics of the Bank. The Bank also provided the best financial service possible and values; that is treating their customers with the best services, quality, merit and so on. And this has gone a long way in helping the Bank to survive despite the numerous competitions ensuring in commercial banks and the banking industry in general.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The banking industry is a service oriented one. For any service to be desired, there must be a conscious need for it, such a need must be generated by the knowledge of its ability to satisfy customers, requirement(Okigbo 1990:237).Generally, community Banks are run on the basis of profits motive, and they all know the importance of public consent to their continued existence and survival. People are generally influenced by their belief and impression of certain banks and how they perceive these banks determines the way they will patronize them. A Community Bank should strive to make plans on how they expect to be perceived by the members of the public, and this image can be communicated through the services offered by the bank; the attitude of the bank’s employees as well as the activities came out by the bank. Since “reputation” is very important in a bank’s growth, the role of public relations cannot be under-estimated. At best its practice and importance are recognized more as a useful effective tool of corporate image promotion.
The attitude of the Public towards an organization will determine its credibility. These attitudes could be positive or negative depending on how the organization earns the reputation or image it deserves. Public relations, which is a two-way communication process involves working with public opinion. Public relations experts or bridge builders attempt to influence public opinion in a way that is positive to the Babnk they are working for. It is the responsibility of the public relations expert to disseminate information on what the Bank does and how it does it. The basic tool for public relations is “communication”. Sequel to this, a public relation personnel must endeavor first to know what the public opinion is through research, how to uphold, correct or change such opinion (planning); after the communication an evaluation of the campaign is necessary for feedback. Nowadays community Banks generally strive to be seen as efficient and effective”. Based on this fact, they either set up their own in-house public relations department or employ the services of successful Public Relations Consultancy Firms to polish their image.
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