"Client Relations Management"

So, as Dawn said, I'm getting paid to play golf this afternoon. It's a work thing, but my friend Mick did ask if, "because you're getting paid to play golf, does that make you a pro?".

Uhh...I guess, technically it does. But my scorecard won't show it. I promise that. I'm playing in a golf tournament this afternoon in West Linn, Ore. Its a benefit event put on by the West Linn Chamber of Commerce. One of our clients at KO (where I work) is Market of Choice...one of the tournament's sponsors because they're opening a store in West Linn this September. We're currently in the community relations phase of our PR plan for Market of Choice, so that's created the opportunity for my boss (Ken) and I to play in the tournament. It'll be a great opportunity for me to meet a lot of people, to talk about Market of Choice, and about the agency!

That's where the "Client Relations Management" thing comes in. Around the office we call it "CRM". It's pretty much simply schmoozing our clients and taking good care of business. It's a very good thing.

Yesterday was fun, even though I had to get up at 3 a.m. One of our clients that I'm doing PR work for, the Oregon Dairy Products Commission (which includes the Dairy Farmers of Oregon) is promoting National Ice Cream Month (which is July) with the Golden Scoop Awards Program (go to www.dairyfarmersor.com for more), and we did a series of live remotes for the morning news on KGW (our local NBC affiliate) from an old fashion drugstore soda fountain at the Hillsboro Pharmacy. It turned out great. The client was thrilled and the station was really happy with the way things went...which is good for our agency, because it means the station will be happy to work with us more in the future on other story ideas we have! I'm having so much fun with my new job!!

Tomorrow night Dawn and I will be going out to Estacada to spend some fun time at a little outdoor jazz event in a park block located right next to the video store she's buying. We're excited to see the event and to just kind of start getting a little bit involved in the community there.

Saturday, I'm going to spend some time with my friend Doug Kelly, who we met working at the World Baseball Classic. He's in town to do the TV work for the American LeMans Series auto race at Portland International Raceway. I'll probably work on my boat for awhile, too. We're planning to go to Tacoma on Sunday for a race with "the other" electric club in the area. There was a race scheduled with the club I'm in, but it was cancelled due to poor racing conditions at the race course we'd reserved...and I've been looking forward to racing as it's been more than a month since the last time I was out.

That's it for now. I'll post results of the golf tournament later.