ABSTRACT
Two elements constitute every organisation’s dealings with external parties; these are: customer relations and public relations. Customers’ complaints come in different forms and with varying degrees of importance. The customer relations task should be performed systematically; first, an organisation’s customer relations manager needs to gauge customers’ attitudes and complaints. Second, customers’ attitudes and complaints should be analysed to determine their probable impacts on the organisation’s marketing programme. The manager or officer who performs the public relations function has a very important role to play; he or she functions as a link between his or her organisation and each of the various segments that constitute the organisation’s public. The major segments of any given organisation’s public are usually the following: the government; shareholders; host communities; and suppliers. The ultimate responsibility for good public relations with all major segments of an organisation’s public rests directly and entirely with the officer appointed to function as the organisation’s link with external parties.
