The well known management consultant Peter Drucker has written, "the primary purpose of a company is to create a customer. The primary business of every business is to stay in business. And to do that, you have to get and keep customers."

The core of good Public Relations, therefore, is the customer, who in PR parlance is the public or target group. It was once said that to get a customer is not so difficult but to retain a customer is very difficult. Here comes the importance of Public Relations for good customer relations. The fact is, of course, that a happy customer is a repeat customer. And the well-treated customer is bound to tell others, helping to bring fn even more sales and business. The goal of good customer relations is mutual friendship, understanding and loyalty on a continuing basis. In a word, good customer relations and customer satisfaction is profits for the company. Good customer relations is the happy and profitable marriage of sales and Public Relations. The attitude involved in sound customer relations is not idealistic, it is the most practical sort of long range planning. The most precious thing any organisation can have is the goodwill of others.

The recent upsurge of interest in corporate excellence has heightened management's consciousness and awareness of the importance of customer service and customer satisfaction. Marketers have come to realize that a crucial source of competitive advantage can be achieved through superior market place service. This, in turn, has served to remind us that customer satisfaction is one major vehicle within a business for the generation of service. As such, it is imperative for any organisation to improve its overall marketing performance to integrate customer satisfaction fully into the development of marketing and Public Relations strategy. There is an urgent need to improve the corporate communication to and from the organisation in order to understand customer needs and expectations better in the growing competitive circumstances in the industry. 

Every organisation has its own set of publics or customer to whom it sells its products, services or ideas. In today's competitive market customers, opt for products or services that are known and have all image, and are backed by quality and good after sales service.  Public opinion on such aspects cannot be ignored. In the long run, unfavourable opinion certainly affects sales. Public Relations call help in controlling and setting right some of these opinions and help to solve problems generally protecting the company's reputation concerning the company's products or services among customers or users. 

The modem management of any organisation has to enlist the participation and support of its internal public that is mostly the workers to realize its objectives, winning confidence and trust of its external publics i.e. customers, shareholders, clients and suppliers and the public at large, thereby, fulfilling its social and business obligations. The employees are important because they participate in its operation, production and formulation of its ideas. Hence, effective communication and feedback and linkage between management and employees is of great importance. External customers as the name suggests, is concerned with publics outside the organisation. The company should regularly interact with the external customers and give them feedback about their suggestions and grievances to establish cordial and everlasting relationship. Today, a linkage between external customers satisfaction and organisational internal customers is a vital issue in management of business organisations. The feeling and attitudes of the external customers needs to be communicated to the internal customers for redressal of the dissatisfaction for a lasting impact of the business interest. Here comes the role of PR to bridge the gap by providing the desired information through the process of feed back mechanism. 

The survival, growth and profitability of an organisation in a competitive environment is dependent on good customer service it offers. Good customer relations enhances the image of the organisation. The employees at all levels also feel proud to work for an organisation which has an excellent image and this increases their efficiency and thereby productivity and profitability of the organisation. It also has great impact and influence on external publics for getting their support to achieve the organizational goals.

It is the endeavour of any organisation to draw the attention of both internal as well as external public towards its ideals, products and services. No one can afford to be unmindful of opinion and attitudes of the people concerning the organisation. It will thus be seen that an organisation must develop a two way communication system through which it will not only inform people of its policies and programmes, but also study the reactions of the people towards them. This requires certain skills and expert knowledge so that communication can be effective in reaching out to the target audiences. Carefully handled through competent professional techniques and media, a Public Relations programme goes a long way in building a favourable corporate image and durable customer satisfaction for the organisation. 

For redressal of complaints through feedback mechanism, Public Relations must function in a two way communication process. It is the duty of PR not only to disseminate information and ideas to the internal as well as external public but also to make correct assessment of public opinion and reactions towards policies and programmes of the organisation and bring to the notice of the management. Public reactions and response are very important for an organisation and also the management to react suitably.

Today, Public Relations in every organisations realized the importance of feedback mechanism which is used to reveal the current situation so that organisational strategies can be applied to solve communication problems for the company's benefits. Feedback findings are of great help and always provide information to some prevailing situations and problems and the management can learn and benefit from the past experiences. It also helps the planning process to be sharp-focussed and objective oriented. 

The scope of PR today has extended into a host of areas from the community to environment, from politics to businesses. Hence, feedback and research has also accordingly changed and become much more broad-based. Perhaps the greatest challenges facing PR, feedback and researchers is devising early warning networks for the management so that they are prepared and able to handle problems faster and more effectively. PR must be aware about the comments and criticism of the internal and external customers, favourable or otherwise and help the organisation to take corrective measures as and when necessary. 

The rapid pace of change in the environment around us is making it increasingly difficult to predict the future with any degree of certainty. But to be successful, an organisation will have to master and ride this change, extracting opportunities out of it. This can be possible only through organisational internal customers comprising high-caliber people who can quickly recognize the emerging imperatives and act on them. For this, an organisation, on the one hand, needs to improve the creativity and performance level of its employees and on the other, continue to use the latest information technology tools and feedback mechanism to its fold. 

To link between external customers satisfaction and organisational internal customers for the purpose of feedback and redressal of complaints, Public Relations must check the public perceptions and attitudes concerning the organisation, situation and collect general information and data for developing a PR programme and theme. It should also make content analysis how a product, service, programme or effort is received and accepted by the customers or the target audiences, to know from the target group their views on the company, the issue in question and the PR effort. 

Communication research by PR has already taken on a high level of sophistication. Aided by the computer and information technology, it is destined to play an even greater role. PR professional and ultimately the organisation are bound to benefit from this process.