 Media Management Center MediaInfoCenter McCormick Fellows Kellogg School of Management Medill |
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| Getting Traction on Readership: Service Initiatives | |||||||||||||||||
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Question: List the major steps you have taken in the last four years to increase readership. Please organize your response under four headings: content, brand, service, culture. Aiken Standard (SC) Daily Circulation: 13,364 Sunday Circulation: 14,066 A Customer Service Department was created a few years ago. They answer the phones and can handle Circulation and Classified Advertising situations at their desks so there is no transfer of calls to another line. We also make it as easy as possible for our local schools to participate in Newspapers In Education. Akron Legal News (OH) Daily Circulation: 700 We added a subscription service to our web page. Altus Times (OK) Daily Circulation: 4,749 Sunday Circulation: 4,749 Using returns to sample non-subscribers. A "See what you missed" flyer is inserted into the samples along with 4 months for 3 coupons. Thank you letters are to be sent to all new subscribers, which includes a coupon for a free, 15-word classified line ad in appreciation. Anchorage Daily News (AK) Daily Circulation: 69,607 Sunday Circulation: 85,944 We have opened two circulation distribution centers which will allow us to move guaranteed delivery from 6 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Anderson Independent-Mail (SC) Daily Circulation: 38,576 Sunday Circulation: 44,194 Started a new company-wide Circulation Task Force that focuses on readership growth initiatives. Started a new telephone service improvement initiative with a focus on improving communications with all customers via telephone. Reduced lost calls in circulation by combining front desk and circulation call-routing loops, thereby increasing the number of available service representatives. Improved over-all subscriber delivery service and reduced complaints to an average of 1.2 per 1,000 subscribers. Reduced carrier down routes to average of fewer than five per day from previously double digits. Reduced stops for billing errors through a task force of accounting and circulation personnel that focused on and corrected systemic billing issues. Atlanta Journal Constitution (GA) Daily Circulation: 460, 672 Sunday Circulation: 620,782 Evolving role of the Public Editor. We have had a Public Editor for about four years, but this position has particularly come into its own in the last two years. By making a senior editor the public face and name responsible for maintaining a constant dialog with readers, we have grown more aware of our readers' sensibilities and interests. We have become more responsive to reader questions and more accessible. Our Public Editor's weekly column (Saturdays) gives readers a look inside the news gathering and news reporting process. He offers warts-and-all discussions of why we do the things we do in our news columns and we believe this openness helps build trust and loyalty. Free rack distribution for AccessAtlanta. Because we knew that many of the people we are trying to reach with our new entertainment section, AccessAtlanta, are not current readers and would not find the section on their own, we decided to make the section more available to them. We began in April distributing 5,000 copies a week free in special racks in high-traffic entertainment zones in the city. The exposure has helped give the section and its advertisers much needed exposure. We are exploring an expansion of this program. Educational campaign and staff restructuring to improve handling of incoming phone calls. Last year, we trained or retrained our clerks, administrative assistants and customer service representatives to better handle incoming reader calls. We updated staff lists and section/departmental descriptions to help better direct callers. And we reemphasized with all employees the importance of responding to reader calls. Austin American-Statesman (TX) Daily Circulation: 183,288 Sunday Circulation: 233,608 Improved home delivery service: Poor Service stops (canceling subscription) cannot be prevented without a personal contact; we work to save the customer. This has resulted in huge paybacks. Double bagging newspapers for rainy days is mandatory. Single bagging for 30% or better chance of rain. Again, this has brought huge improvements. Restructured and transferred seasoned, strong area managers into our difficult branches. Training programs on contracting are independent contractors to improve retention. We have begun to replace carriers who have service issues. We conduct service surveys every quarter to six months to determine if our service is good — proactive rather than reactive. Improved delivery time for the Williamson County edition (important growth area to the north of Austin). More verification of service starts, vacation starts, resulting in customer satisfaction. Also, as a company-wide training effort, we just participated in a pilot newspaper-designed customer service training program at the Waco Tribune, our sister paper, lead by our corporate human resource director on the functions of solid customer service. Better serving the needs of advertisers: Developed a training booklet and program for internal and external clients. The idea was that for advertising to help increase readership, the ads should be designed as well as possible. The majority of ads are produced for small business clients who control the ad approval. We assumed that these small business owners were knowledgeable about their business but may not have had any training in advertising design. We wanted to produce a tool to help educate them on the basics of good ad design. This lead to creation and printing of "Eight keys to effective advertising". This booklet serves as the core material for the "Effective Advertising Workshop." It seemed to make sense to make sure our internal staff was exposed to the basics of ad design before we took the message to our clients. We began by having all internal sales people, sales assistants and ad builders go through the workshop We also told the sales staff why we where doing this training and asked them to talk with their customers who they felt might benefit about attending a future workshop. We also offered to take the workshop on the road to any business related group that might wish to have us on their agenda. We inserted reply cards into every bill we sent out asking our customers to let us know if they would be interested in attending an "Effective Advertising Workshop". We also asked them about two other workshops — one dealing with writing ad headlines and the other covering the basics of online advertising. We received 40+ positive replies and are currently planning a workshop for these external advertisers in the near future. The Bakersfield Californian (CA) Daily Circulation: 71,495 Sunday Circulation: 82,718 "Over the top" customer service efforts under way in all areas, including circulation, production, finance (billing), news and sales. The Baytown Sun (TX) Daily Circulation: 11,545 Sunday Circulation: 11,265 Brand/ Service The Baytown Sun converted to morning publication and added a Sunday issue, becoming a legitimate 7-day daily. New logos were created, along with a consistent tag line for house ads and promotions — “Together we’re building a better Baytown.” Adopted and promoted a “Just say yes” attitude about content, service and advertising. Implemented a consistent, planned campaign of self-promotion in the paper, as well as on news racks and at single copy sales points. Promotions feature content, community partnerships, special advertising opportunities and reader participation invitations. Self-promotion house ads are dummied in daily. Created a reader advisory board that meets monthly. Changed the name of the circulation department to “Home Delivery” and also restructured organization and training and created an employee manual with sample scripts for handling delivery issues. Beaver County Times (Beaver, PA) Daily Circulation: 42,778 Sunday Circulation: 48,875 Instituted customer-service task force. Brattleboro Reformer (VT) Daily Circulation: 11,655 Scheduling weekend Customer Service. Implementing follow up phone calls on all complaints several days later to see if problem was resolved. Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, PA) Daily Circulation: 67,094 Sunday Circulation: 73,252 Created a zoned advertising list on Page 2A. Created a system for tracking bundle delivery errors. Reviewed earlier delivery schedule. Tracking retention rate of advertisers. Installed electronic library system. Developed plan to reduce ad credits by 10 percent. Conducting advertisers’ satisfaction survey in summer 2003. Added Quality Assistance Supervisor position to maximize production quality. Improved service guarantee. Conducted service surveys on errors. Reduced repeat complaints. The Buffalo News (NY) Daily Circulation: 223,957 Sunday Circulation: 306,102 New circulation system will greatly improve our circulation customer service. New presses will give readers what they’ve been asking for, which is anchoring, better reproduction and no ink rub off. Burlington Free Press (VT) Daily Circulation: 50,203 Sunday Circulation: 60,264 Converted to youth carriers in 2002 (going from 0 to 17%) and increased the number of walking routes to provide more personalized service. Began an initiative to return to porch service at 2,300 homes of our subscribers by the end of the year. This represents an additional 7% of our home delivery subscriber base. Extended the service of re-delivery of missed copies to another 6,800 subscribers and shortened redelivery time overall from 45 to 30 minutes. The Capital (Annapolis, MD) Daily Circulation: 45,538 Sunday Circulation: 48,730 All calls returned within 24 hours. Editors more accessible and instructed in phone manners. In the process of establishing free services to subscribers to build brand loyalty (photo reprints, free access to web and archives, etc.). Cleburne Times-Review (TX) Daily Circulation: 7,447 Sunday Circulation: 7,447 Implementing a sampling program to help gain reader interest and grow circulation. Implementing customer retention program. Implementing quarterly mass distributions throughout county. Holding weekly circulation meetings to help departments better understand needs of the customers. Holding monthly carrier meetings. Circulation department working with community and civic organizations. Corsicana Daily Sun (TX) Daily Circulation: 7,079 Sunday Circulation: 7,079 Trained on proper telephone technique. Provided customer service training. The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) Daily Circulation: 217,396 Sunday Circulation: 282,072 We have pushed customer service even to the extent that we ran a advertising campaign showing photos, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the top 5 executives in circulation seeking customer comments. The Crescent-News (Defiance, OH) Daily Circulation: 17,615 Sunday Circulation: 18,524 Adding additional district managers in circulation and making sure press times meet established deadlines. Crossville Chronicle (TN) Circulation: Three issues weekly: Tues 19,000; Wed 8,500; Fri 8,500 Reinstalled the fear of deadlines so that all departments understand the importance of consistency in getting our papers in the newsstands and stores. Readers need to know that if it is 4 p.m. on Wednesday, the Chronicle is in the news stand. This might seem elementary, but it is hard for our small staff to do but we are doing it. Better response to reader complaints AND requests. Following up on suggested news stories. Very active Readership in Newspapers program which includes providing newspapers (paid for by sponsors) to 891 number of elementary schools in the county. This exposes young readers once a week to the newspaper with teachers using the papers as teaching tools. Partnered with the high school journalism class to periodically speak on selected topics and to introduce students to our high school intern program. Cullman Times (AL) Daily Circulation: 10,827 Sunday Circulation: 11,378 We have placed more emphasis on customer service through phone courtesy and routing calls. We now have a letter from ME sent to all new subscribers welcoming them and outlining what they can expect and what we want from them. Cumberland Times-News (MD) Daily Circulation: 30,555 Sunday Circulation: 32,836 Expanded circulation hours. Conducted phone training in all departments. Quadrupled the number of "How to reach us" directories and in-content material. Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA) Daily Circulation: 73,209 Sunday Circulation: 71,492 Developed a whole new newspaper in October of 2001 using the eight key findings. Built the "Making a Difference" theme and it helps us in our mission. On time delivery performance in production assisting our customer delivery. Much more open culture with all employees. It varies, of course, by department. New management doing good overall job here. Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) Daily Circulation: 33,021 Sunday Circulation: 40,834 CSR training; published commitment to 5:30 a.m. delivery; reorg. of department to accommodate customers; introduced on-line service applications; task force committed to improving service. The Daily Courier (Forest City, NC) Daily Circulation: 9,504 Sunday Circulation: 9,504 Increased letters to editor ten-fold. Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA) Daily Circulation: 18,445 We reorganized the paper, particularly the front page, to ease browsing and call more attention to inside content. We changed platemaking system to produce better quality type, graphics and color photos. We offer a unique partnership to our subscribers for a reduced-rate subscription to the Boston Sunday Globe to meet 7-day competition. We ran a focus group with our own young employees to understand their use of newspapers, used information in approaching young potential readers. We increased promotion of EZ Pay Plan to improve retention. (Nearly 2,000 or 14.5% of home delivery, now on the payment plan. Daily Journal (Franklin, IN) Daily Circulation: 17,228 Redesign circulation bills. Improve telephone transfer/messaging service. Provide basic customer service training for all employees. Improve efficiency and cleanliness of Customer Service Area. Implement EZ payment plan for circulation. Promote EZ payment plan through house ad program. Add caller commercials in telephone on-hold service. Reduce advertising error rate to .5% of revenue. Move circulation telemarketing sales in house. Provide customer service training to circulation CS staff. Publish rate and customer service information box. Install customer drop slot at front door. The Daily News (Longview, WA) Daily Circulation: 22,350 Sunday Circulation: 21,704 We've really worked hard on improving our customer service from the front office, to our ISP, to circulation and classified. We're going through our city routes one-by-one and converting them from tube to door-step delivery. The Daily News (Rhinelander, WI) Daily Circulation: 5,033 Sunday Circulation: 5,557 Trained newsroom employees on basic advertising and circulation issues so when calls come in during the times those departments are not staffed customers can get enough assistance so they feel like someone cares. Daily Press (Newport News-Hampton, VA) Daily Circulation: 92,434 Sunday Circulation: 115,985 Transition of our delivery force from carrier collect to Daily Press agents. We now have control over our relationship with our customers. Cross-departmental billing team identified and fixed a major driver of customer complaints — inaccurate billing. Reorganized and moved customer service to the marketing department. The VP of Operations and Marketing have joint responsibility for circulation. Creation of Super Customer Service Representative positions. These reps receive comprehensive training on all aspects of the business. They are responsible for working on any type of customer problem until the issue is resolved. Once a situation is fixed, they are responsible for following up with the customer to see that they are satisfied with the results. For the first year, as we tried to create a culture shift in customer service, the VP of Operations and the VP of Marketing were copied on all major customer service complaints and complaints that required two customer calls to resolve. Changes at the distribution level have increased our ability to serve customers better. We have focused on carrier performance by 1.) using Route Smart to simplify the route lists making them easier for carriers, and especially substitute carriers, to follow; 2.) organizing the distribution centers so that packaging staff mans the center and our carrier supervisors can focus on carrier performance; 3.) charging back the carriers for customer complaints. Meet regularly with contractors and single copy distributors to build teamwork and resolve issues. The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA) Daily Circulation: 30,281 Sunday Circulation: 34,234 Created customer service box as standing feature daily, with promotional space for advertising content promotion. Daily Sentinel (Rome, NY) Daily Circulation: 14,810 Larger internet presence. The Daily Times (Farmington, NM) Daily Circulation: 17,738 Sunday Circulation: 19,328 Service still lags, but we are improving despite an antiquated phone system that makes it hard for people to communicate with us. We failed for a while to assure complaints of poor newspaper delivery were handled properly until correct training of newsroom employees solved that issue. We have cut complaints about news releases not being run in a timely manner by funneling all news releases through one editor and making one person responsible for our community bulletin board. Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL) Daily Circulation: 100,582 Sunday Circulation: 117,854 The circulation department has implemented a highly successful program to make daily and Sunday service top priority. Ratios have never been better compared to service levels in past years. Deming Headlight (NM) Daily Circulation: 3,541 We started giving a plaque for female and male athlete of the year. The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) Daily Circulation: 46,497 Sunday Circulation: 49,171 We created an “over the top” customer service program, as a component to a company-wide initiative called C.A.R.E.S. There are five “opportunity teams” that make up C.A.R.E.S.: Advertising Quality, Recruitment and Retention, Communication, News Credibility and Culture. Each opportunity team was conceived to improve quality, service satisfaction across all of our touch-points with customers. This mix (through the Culture Team) includes a commitment to our employees to make The Desert Sun a “great place to work.” Some of the service components of C.A.R.E.S. included: Work-out sessions: we created a weekly meeting that addressed specific complaints from advertisers. We followed a problem to its root, to uncover faulty procedures, poor workmanship or other reasons that resulted in the complaint. The work-out sessions usually result in the writing and implementation of a new or adjusted standard operating procedure, and is communicated to all affected departments.Telephone Training: We took every department through telephone training to standardize our approach to service when customers called in. The training also eliminated blind transfers and encouraged all departments to take care of customers’ requests, even if they were not related to that particular department. The Detroit News and Free Press (MI) Daily Circulation: 547,506 Sunday Circulation: 738,709 Service and Culture The service culture has been a major priority in Circulation — with an ongoing focus, called "First Class Delivery," that consistently recognizes and rewards employees and independent contractors for excellence in Customer Service. The standard measure of circulation service — reader complaints per 1000 deliveries — has shown improvement both daily and Sunday each of the past few years, as follows:
East Valley Tribune (Mesa-Scottsdale-Tempe, AZ) Daily Circulation: 96,221 Sunday Circulation: 80,192 Editorial moved deadlines up and worked with production to create better page flow so that circulation could deliver most papers by 5:30 a.m. The Edmond Sun (OK) Daily Circulation: 10,415 Sunday Circulation: 10,415 An e-mail database of volunteer readers has also proved to be popular, with the managing editor sending out questions twice weekly and printing the responses on the Viewpoints page. The volume of submitted Letters to the Editor has increased dramatically. The weekly buzz magazine has been a hit with the community in its coverage of local arts and entertainment events. The section has already increased from 12 to 16 pages, and the ad count continues to grow. Our bi-monthly Food page is becoming more popular as The Sun concentrates on showcasing local cooks in its coverage. The focus of our health and science coverage is gradually switching to publishing more news you can use. In other words, we’re trying to print stories that directly impact readers. We¹ve been running a monthly Q&A series with the local hospital that features plenty of practical health information. We hope to include more weekly bits of state-of-the-art health and science briefs and focus less on physicians and more on readers. We implemented a weekly crime-tracker for Sundays. This is a map with the police blotter to show where crime occurs in Edmond. Increase go and do boxes: We are averaging the daily amount of breakout boxes over a previous week’s time period. The goal is to increase the number of breakout boxes by 25 percent over five months, with a monthly goal of a 5 percent increase from each previous month starting with the baseline of the first week measurement. If the staff meets the overall goal of 25 percent by the close of November, we'll throw a Christmas party for the newsroom. Terminology: We're requiring that reporters compile a standing text file of terminology information that could be used as breakout information to cut and paste with daily stories. Reporters brainstorm about their beats and think about terms that they take for granted that readers understand. Then the reporters write blurbs explaining these terms and save them in NewsEdit for editors to use with stories. We're measuring each reporter¹s progress on the second Tuesday of every month for six months starting in June. The managing editor takes each month’s winner to a lunch of their choice. Evansville Courier & Press (IN) Daily Circulation: 68,867 Sunday Circulation: 96,506 Publisher and editor are calling readers each day to discuss service issues. Fort Collins Coloradoan (CO) Daily Circulation: 28,501 Sunday Circulation: 34,954 Service Circulation/Production — One of the biggest customer service improvements has been improved on-time OTD performance so that customers consistently get the weekday Coloradoan by 5:30 a.m. and the Sunday issue by 7 a.m. Our on-time OTD performance is 95% on-time YTD through August 2003, a major improvement over the same time frame a year ago. In August 2003, we also move to a centralized distribution center in circulation rather than eight drop-sites around town. This change has enabled us to quickly turnaround potential problems and carriers to better serve customers. Circulation Customer Service — An Internet connectivity program was installed in September 2002, which allows circulation customers to make vacation starts/stops electronically and view their account history. The installation team required cooperation among Circulation, Marketing, Tech, Online and Accounting employees. This program gives customers around-the-clock access to their circulation accounts. Also, our Circulation EZ Pay program has been a hit with home-delivery customers. As of August 2003, we had 3,450 home delivery customers participating in the monthly subscription charge program or a 67.3% increase over the same time period in 2002. Production Quality — We are one of 36 USA TODAY print sites around the world and have shown dramatic improvement in our production quality. Our USAT PEP score was 99.5% in August and USAT Quality Score was 97.1%. Also, we installed Roundhouse Adview system in early 2003, which has enabled ad reps to view PDFs and e-mail proofs to customers. This has resulted in improved customer service and faster turnaround for advertisers. Advertising, Finance, Production and Technology — Our Ad Quality also has shown dramatic improvement. NIBT ADQ adjustments YTD through August were down nearly 15% to LY and the NIBT $ impact was down 31%. This is a joint effort involving employees in Advertising, Production, Technology and Accounting. Advertising Customer Service — In July 2002, we added Classweb software for private parties, which allows customers around-the-clock access to place a classified ad. YTD through period 8, 2003, the revenue generated from our Classweb customers has beat budget projections and LY every single month and represents more than $98K. News/Publisher — We host monthly Readers First sessions, where readers are encouraged to sound off and share their concerns. As a result of these sessions, we’ve generated stories on key topics such as growth, education, etc. We also started accuracy surveys in Sept. 2003. Publisher’s administrative assistant and other Coloradoan ambassadors regularly conduct building tours. During the contest period, 246 people-- ranging from Boy Scouts to senior citizens did building tours. We also rotate at least two community members on our editorial board three times a year. Gainesville Daily Register (TX) Daily Circulation: 5,814 Sunday Circulation: 5,814 Moved press time up one hour to get our afternoon paper out by noon. Call backs for stops and starts. Mass distribution sampling. The Gleaner (Henderson, KY) Daily Circulation: 10, 452 Sunday Circulation: 11,837 Brand, Service and Culture Invited Mary Nesbitt to outline Readership Institute findings to nearly every full time employee (every news, circulation and advertising employee) on readership, service, etc. and how important it is to our future. Every employee in the news, circulation, advertising, G & A and many production employees conducted face-to-face surveys throughout the community. In total, Gleaner employees talked to and surveyed nearly 300 local citizens. Initiated a program in which the publisher and editor called a minimum of six subscribers per week to ask about delivery and billing services, etc. Hannibal Courier-Post (MO) Daily Circulation: 8,350 Improved carrier home delivery service record. Moved delivery deadlines to 6:00 a.m. from 6:30 a.m. Offered a multitude of payment options for customers. Moved inside local stores instead of relying on racks. Herald-Banner (Greenville, TX) Daily Circulation: 8,239 Sunday Circulation: 9,224 Has improved markedly, both on the circulation side and the advertising side. A new phone system, better and additional staff, and positive carrier turnover have all led to our growth in circulation and advertising revenue. The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC) Daily Circulation: 50,015 Sunday Circulation: 56,612 Readership Progress Report — News Service ("on your side"). Street Smarts/Steamed/Potholes. Readership Progress Report — Circulation Added capability for customers to pay/renew at our Web site. Added interactive voice response phone system to expand customer service capability to 24/7. Set-up 3 major distribution centers, containerized bundle handling and improved zoning capability. Compiled email address for 5% of subscriber base in ongoing project. Showcased carrier force in house ads for Newspaper Carrier Day and in aftermath of winter storms. Ran series of ads featuring home delivery manager Debra Morris. Expanded single copy footprint in Triangle and NC coast by adding delivery of national publications. Implemented Monday through Friday room-to-room delivery to UNC hospital patients. Delivered to freshman dormitories at Duke University as part of University Readership program. Created newspaper carrier incentive program recognizing perfect service. Improved integrity of subscriber and non-subscriber database through frequent updating. Successfully defended challenges to our street sales programs from local authorities, ensuring that our newspaper is conveniently available to motorists. Improved telephone answer rate to more than 95%. Readership Progress Report — Advertising & Marketing Service. Involve artists in advertiser consultations, field calls and partner meetings to specifically discuss creative. Implemented spec volume and self-initiated spec performance standards that the artists and department must meet each month. All are factored into performance evaluations. The Houston Chronicle (TX) Daily Circulation: 552,052 Sunday Circulation: 744,935 We do a customer service survey among our home delivery subscribers every 6 months to determine our progress vis a vis our RI Imperatives. We created a full-time, editorial “reader representative” position to deal with reader complaints on a daily basis. Our reader rep not only records and shares all complaints with editorial department heads, managing editors, etc., but also responds on a one-on-one basis to every reader via follow-up phone calls, e-mails, etc. We use our reader rep’s reader complaint records to chart future strategy on our RI initiatives going forward. Johnson City Press (TN) Daily Circulation: 29,909 Sunday Circulation: 34,152 We've implemented telemarketing for the first time ever here, just in time for a national no-call list. We've shortened routes in order to deliver to the home by 6 a.m. daily. The Journal Times (Racine, WI) Daily Circulation: 29,216 Sunday Circulation: 31,334 We significantly improved service in circulation for more reliable delivery of The Journal Times. Knoxville News Sentinel (TN) Daily Circulation: 128,865 Sunday Circulation: 153,718 Launched a World Class Service campaign that provides incentives to carriers and co-workers for delivering superior service with carrier service awards given monthly to carriers who exceed service goals. Ongoing customer service program/Effective Call Management is a systematic approach for ensuring customer inquiries are processed in a positive, effective manner. Extended newspaper redelivery for home delivery customers who were missed or received an inferior copy. Carrier service awards given monthly to carriers who exceed service goals. Lancaster New Era (PA) Daily Circulation: 43,194 Sunday Circulation: 102,339 Introduced the carrier service program — held back 1¢ of a price increase to carriers... then, began tracking carriers monthly for "0" complaints — pay them the 1¢ per paper if they got "0" complaints — has increased the percentage of "0" complaints for carriers from 20% to 40% on average. Moved the daily morning delivery time from 6:30 AM to 6:00 AM. Moved the Sunday morning delivery time from 8:00 AM to 7:00 AM. Lincoln Journal Star (NE) Daily Circulation: 74,586 Sunday Circulation: 83,387 Continue to work hard to make sure the paper is on the doorstep when our customers want the newspaper and in good shape. District manager pay has been increased significantly to attract better employees and lower turnover. The Manhattan Mercury (KS) Daily Circulation: 10,125 Sunday Circulation: 11,450 Put in place service-oriented incentives for circulation staff. McAlester News-Capital & Democrat (OK) Daily Circulation: 10,053 Sunday Circulation: 10,515 Regular discussions of how better to serve customers are on-going. Circulation department has set goals to ensure proper delivery. All employees have been instructed on proper handling of calls. Goal is for customer to get what they need without being transferred all around the building. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Daily Circulation: 232,652 Sunday Circulation: 434,023 Continue to perform below industry standard complaint levels. Culture. Developed survey to identify problem areas. Administered to managers at special department meetings. Monroe Evening News (MI) Daily Circulation: 21,771 Sunday Circulation: 24,956 Circulation made 2003 commitment to superior service; numbers did nudge upward; this entailed reorganizing shifts so more district managers work on weekends and offering incentives to carriers and drivers who have zero service complaints for a month. Montgomery Advertiser (AL) Daily Circulation: 50,763 Sunday Circulation: 62,137 A customer service committee with representatives throughout the building was formed. We implemented an annual Customer Appreciation Week with an open house and tours of the facilities for the community. Annual awards program was implemented. Equal Monthly Billing was launched. A 5:30 a.m. delivery service time was established in the NDM. Implemented a system for customers to subscribe online. Pop-ups offer subscription specials on the Web site. ICON was implemented online. This software allows customers to review his/her account, place a temporary stop on a home delivery subscription, communicate with customer service, etc. New Haven Register (CT) Daily Circulation: 81,469 Sunday Circulation: 101,374 Major reader initiatives: New redesign. New weekend section. Daily people section. New business Monday section. The Newport Daily News (RI) Daily Circulation: 12,565 We have increased our one-day sampling, which asks for the person to request a one-month free sample. We have increased our NIE program. We have started a successful crewing program. We have stopped telemarketing. News & Record (Greensboro, NC) Daily Circulation: 90,432 Sunday Circulation: 110,846 We have excellent circulation service records, so we are trying to fine-tune here. We are interested in learning more about how we can improve the way we do business with our customers in all areas of the company. Sales and billing are targets now. The News Enterprise (Elizabethtown, KY) Daily Circulation: 16,073 Sunday Circulation: 19,483 To improve our service, we have: Improved single copy accessibility with in-store locations and refurbished racks. Ensured tighter coordination between single copy sales team and the newsroom. Increased retention efforts with EZpay program, retention telemarketing and grace-period extension. Implemented monthly customer service follow-up survey. Implemented start verification program. Improved accuracy of our bills through the new DSI circulation system. The Norman Transcript (OK) Daily Circulation: 15,198 Sunday Circulation: 16,695 Create four employee committees to oversee cornerstones. Implement weekly newsletter to communicate changes and other information. Alter department head meetings to focus on management training. Review, evaluate and implement committee recommendations (estimated 85 percent of recommendations in effect now.) Launched Reader Focus group to evaluate newspaper. Developed and completed job shadowing program to facilitate communication/understanding. Completed "Employee Attitude Survey" to measure employee concerns. Focused serious on content promotion. Numerous content changes made. Service is an ongoing discussion. All initiatives and committees are employee, not management, driven. North County Times (Escondido-Oceanside, CA) Daily Circulation: 92,490 Sunday Circulation: 93,337 Improvement in delivery times and reliability. Service errors cut. Easy-Pay subscriptions now at 60% of home delivery, sharply reducing churn and improving churn-related service errors. Norwich Bulletin (CT) Daily Circulation: 27,916 Sunday Circulation: 32,304 We promoted carrier recruitment very aggressively (ads, fliers, outdoor signs, etc.) and developed carrier retention initiatives (contests, appreciation events) to decrease excessive carrier turnover that had a severely negative impact on delivery services. This single initiative had a tremendous impact on turning around circulation (and readership) trends, as declines were brought to a halt. From there, various new sales initiatives were able to be more effective and grow readership. We invested in new inserting equipment. The previous equipment was causing very late deliveries, costing us both readers and carriers. The carrier turnover caused a loss of even more readers as the service was negatively impacted. Classified ad takers have been moved out of their dark corner of the building, to the front lobby where they are far more accessible to customers. The newsroom is again selling photo reprints from the newspaper, reestablishing a connection that had been allowed to lapse. Our ability to do this is tied to a partnership with a local photo studio that provides full color glossy prints to the customer. Observer-Dispatch (Utica, NY) Daily Circulation: 45,916 Sunday Circulation: 53,629 Dramatically improved home delivery service; went from average of more than 75 down routes/day to 5 or fewer. Launched advertising/reproduction quality initiative, tracking credits issued for problems. Staff telephone training. Improved handling of electronic ads. Introduced several new subscription payment options: EZ Pay, equal monthly billing, PIA incentives. Made vacation stops easier — donated to NIE. Armed sales reps with cell phones and laptops. Expanded e-mail to all staffers with customer contact. Introduced digital photography. The Olathe News (KS) Daily Circulation: 5,789 Still a work in progress. Orlando Sentinel (FL) Daily Circulation: 256,520 Sunday Circulation: 376,878 Introduced 5:30 a.m. home delivery Mon-Sat to every PMA delivery area. Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, IN) Daily Circulation: 10,112 Sunday Circulation: 10,806 We have enhanced internal and external customer service in all departments with our “You’re at the Heart of our Business” customer service initiative through ongoing trainings, company newsletter and recognition programs. In August, September and October of 2002, we surveyed approximately 100 subscribers through a single sheet inserted into their newspaper inquiring about their service. It was disturbing to hear of service concerns from readers. We dubbed these people “silent sufferers.” We express to our contractors the level of service we expect our readers to receive, and we will settle for no less than 100% effort. If we do not feel that our readers are receiving the best service possible, we resolve the issue immediately. The Circulation department has been successful in lowering our complaint rate or ratio below the national average or acceptable standard. The national standard is 1 complaint per thousand subscribers. We have lowered ours to .092 complaints per thousand. The publisher also sends a personal welcome letter to each new subscriber with all of her contact information, including her home phone number, so that readers can be assured of great service. In February 2003, we began writing the time for the last truck out of the mailroom and whether it was on time or not. Since putting this practice into place, we have seen our on-time percentage increase by 17% enhancing our service to our customers. Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) Daily Circulation: 101,288 Sunday Circulation: 113,999 Lengthened call center hours, implemented subscriber newsletter and in-paper customer service surveys. Poughkeepsie Journal (NY) Daily Circulation: 39,984 Sunday Circulation: 51,067 Based on market research we determined that home delivery times needed to be earlier and we made necessary changes to bring delivery time to 5:30 for the majority of the market. Alpha numeric pagers were installed in the field to improve response times on delivery issues. District manager incentives were changed to be more service focused. Reorganization of runs in the transportation area and better on-time performance in the press room resulted in more timely and consistent delivery to our news dealers. In 2000 a newly developed Customer Service Committee devised a "Perfect Catch" program to reduce ad errors. Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) Daily Circulation: 34,706 Sunday Circulation: 39,863 We touch our subscribers 12 times through phone calls to make sure their subscription started on time, phone calls to alert them that the subscription is going to expire, letters welcoming subscribers to our family, postcard to remind them about payment, and so on. We hold contests with our carriers to improve service. We recognize our carriers who subscribers tell us offer great service. Our publisher calls one subscriber every day and thanks them for being a Record Searchlight subscriber. We had laid off our receptionist. After 6 months, we realized having an automated telephone line drove everyone NUTS. We hired a new receptionist and it has made a huge difference to our walk-in traffic and to our call ins. We also have a retention coordinator who personally calls people whose subscriptions are getting ready to expire as well as those who recently stopped. She is a sweet woman who gets our readers and ex-readers to talk to her. The Reporter (Vacaville, CA) Daily Circulation: 17,575 Sunday Circulation: 19,143 We made all our forms for news submission available online... so forms for weddings, engagements, new businesses, etc. can now be filled out and submitted online. Richmond Register (KY) Daily Circulation: 7,288 Sunday Circulation: 7,704 Changed phone greeting to be more friendly and inviting. Walk-in customers are greeted with more accessible representatives. Changing format of circulation to offer customers a more user-friendly way of getting the services we can provide them. Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Daily Circulation: 187,409 Sunday Circulation: 228,262 Held small-group meetings with entire news staff on handling telephone complaints, messages. Check voice mail messages of staffers periodically Circulation distribution centers are rolling out a plan where district managers take an active role in calling customers with complaints. Service Task Group administered company-wide survey on how we can improve service (internal and external) at T-D. HR classes on telephone and e-mail etiquette The Roanoke Times (VA) Daily Circulation: 100,160 Sunday Circulation: 112,397 New printing press: Major capital investment to install a new printing press; provides the ability to produce color on every page with much faster print times ¡V allows us to provide earlier delivery times, if deemed necessary. New mailroom equipment and processes. Weekly tracking of Daily and Sunday complaints: Process that allows our Circulation department to take a proactive stand in improving customer satisfaction based on past performance. EasyPay program: Major goal for our Sales & Service team to increase the number of EasyPay subscribers, as EasyPay subscribers tend to have better retention than other subscribers. Rock Island Argus (IL) Daily Circulation: 12,682 Sunday Circulation: 14,515 We made some minor content changes. I attended one of the Readership Seminars this spring. We did an assessment of where we stood in 8 areas and are developing a plan and beginning to implement changes in many areas. We just got results from our first RBS survey and will meet soon to analyze results in more detail. Rockford Register Star (IL) Daily Circulation: 68,015 Sunday Circulation: 80,692 Move to advertising teams, which reduced errors by more than 20%. Proactive calling of complaints and repeat complaints — service levels have improved and call volume is down. Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) Daily Circulation: 304,949 (Mon-Fri); 621,221 (Mon-Sat) Sunday Circulation: 789,137 Moved home delivery guarantee to 5:30 a.m. Expanded delivery area for final edition to include more of the Front Range, from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs. The Sacramento Bee (CA) Daily Circulation: 283,194 Sunday Circulation: 343,414 Launched company wide task force to focus on customer service. Developed company wide training program on customers service. Circulation initiatives geared at building "world class" service. The Saginaw News (MI) Daily Circulation: 47,100 Sunday Circulation: 57,711 We have: Added payment by credit card. Introduced office collect. Set up circulation kiosk service at major retailers, sporting events and entertainment venues. Provided phone courtesy and service training for every department. Note the phone message slips that also serve as reminders of the importance of phone encounters to making a good impression on customers. Reworked the on hold phone messages to better explain various newspaper services. Instituted "Tell it to the News Night," during which representatives of the paper take phone calls from readers. Began reader, advertiser and carrier forums in zip codes throughout our circulation area. Salisbury Post (NC) Daily Circulation: 23,869 Sunday Circulation: 25,223 Shared Readership Initiative findings with management team. Developed master plan. Reviewed and updated content, customer service guidelines. Launched new products. Best Practices guidelines for delivery. The San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Daily Circulation: 373,344 Sunday Circulation: 438,848 Away from the news of the day, the newsroom staff performs service to readers in many areas. We have made a part of many of our popular Solutions packages a "how you can help" area. We provide local community groups assistance in getting their listings into our various FYI and calendar sections through informational sessions and handouts. Each day, the news assistant pool fields dozens of calls from readers wanting to know everything from where to get a license for their dog to a copy of a recipe for pumpkin pie that ran in the Food section last fall. The online operation has contributed in this way: Offered easy online access to subscriber assistance. San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Daily Circulation: 479,433 Sunday Circulation: 539, 563 Improved in-paper promotion of content. Improved customer complaint levels — CPTs 60% and 40% Sunday. Better service, happier readers. Redesigned Sunday newspaper to make it more navigable. The Sanford Herald (NC) Daily Circulation: 10,624 Sunday Circulation: 10, 461 We have just begun a Quality & Excellence project, working from the inside out to accomplish two objectives: Define our standards, in writing, for our coverage, keeping in mind that quality & excellence (along with accuracy, timeliness, accountability, etc.) are hallmarks. Re-examine every element of the newspaper (from index boxes, folio lines, etc.) with these questions in mind: is this the best we can do? Is there a way to do it better? Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL) Daily Circulation: 106,594 Sunday Circulation: 133,750 Created the position of Readership Editor. Began daily and weekly advanced promotion of Content throughout the newspaper and on radio. Started News Update column for story follow-up. Savannah Morning News (GA) Daily Circulation: 56,599 Sunday Circulation: 70,137 Telephone skills seminar for staff and general public. Established benchmarks for acceptable dropped call ratios and talk time for each agent in classified. Start verification program for circulation. Increased interactive presence for circulation activity. Print quality-grading program to improve reproduction quality and reduce adjustments. Commercial Customer Feedback Program and Customer Care representative for commercial printing jobs. South Bend Tribune (IN) Daily Circulation: 72,186 Sunday Circulation: 101,204 Route complaint analysis, pro-active customer contact, phone/service training, consultant delivery system analysis, earlier delivery time, in-house functional organization/phone directory. The Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, IL) Daily Circulation: 28,267 Sunday Circulation: 36,381 Redesign made paper more navigable. Redesigned flag driving home brand. Emphasize local news. Zoned editions. The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA) Daily Circulation: 118,877 Sunday Circulation: 132,489 We combined circ and classified phone boards to provide greater consistency in our contacts with the public. We outsourced after hours classified calls to a service bureau. We outsourced start and renewal verification service to a computerized call center. Stanly News & Press (Albemarle, NC) Daily Circulation: 10,000 Sunday Circulation: 10,000 Getting the newspaper print time started at 11:30 a.m. to make the racks and dealers in town before the noon lunch crowd starts. Began EZ pay plan for customers to pay by Visa or MasterCard credit card on the phone, both for subscriptions and classifieds. Trying to find a way to say "Yes" to printing all news releases. Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY) Daily Circulation: 29,169 Sunday Circulation: 40,270 Longer customer service hours. Better home delivery options, including resumption of some porch delivery. Started a 8:30 a.m. delivery to downtown businesses. Credit card payment option in addition to almost 100% pay by mail. The State (Columbia, SC) Daily Circulation: 115,959 Sunday Circulation: 151,816 Organized a companywide customer support group, emphasis on cross training and taking "Pride Every Time" with customer interactions. The State-Journal Register (Springfield, IL) Daily Circulation: 57,384 Sunday Circulation: 66,708 Our delivery service continues to receive great reviews from customers. We have a variety of reader and customer feedback forms that I analyze on an almost daily basis. -Without fail, the results show that reliable service is very important to the newspaper’s subscribers and that The State Journal-Register does an above average job. I sometimes think newspapers don’t work hard enough to provide great service. We guarantee porch delivery (not driveway delivery!) by 6:00 a.m. Though so much of the customer service is in the delivery area, there is a substantial amount of work that we are doing every day in the editorial department. We work hard to promptly return phone calls, to be courteous as we handle reader complaints, and to take a genuine interest in whatever it is that is on a reader’s mind. We ask editorial employees to keep common courtesy and respect in the forefront of their daily dealings with the public. Statesman Journal (Salem, OR) Daily Circulation: 55,886 Sunday Circulation: 63,255 Developed a customer service committee to identify areas to improve service to readers, advertisers and internal customers. Enhanced our Web site to offer many customer services online. Created a committee to identify and address issues related to press starts and trucks leaving on time to ensure timely service to reader. Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) Daily Circulation: 255, 216 Sunday Circulation: 354,742 In 2002, a Sun-Sentinel team was created to establish standards for improved customer service. These “Over the top” customer service standards were introduced company wide and are being reinforced through a variety of quantifiable measures. In our newsroom, for example, we’ve addressed customer service in the "Major Responsibilities" portion of all position descriptions. Another way we recognize the importance of customer service in our newsroom is we recognize staffers who have committed an act of over-the-top customer service with a reward in the form of a gift certificate to Blockbuster, Starbucks or Quizno's. And, we post winners and why they won on SunSpot, our division intranet site. In 2002, we added a customer service class to our training class schedule. The thrust of the class is that in all dealings with external and internal customers, we expect our employees to treat people the same way they would want to be treated — professionally, courteously and with respect. We expect our employees to go above and beyond normal expectations in all interactions with external and internal customers. Our Editor receives weekly reports from the Circulation Customer Service Department on why subscriptions were canceled. When cancellations are content-related, a follow up phone call is often initiated to speak with the offended party. Thomasville Times-Enterprise (GA) Daily Circulation: 9,590 Sunday Circulation: 9,459 Improved customer satisfaction through improved production quality and timely delivery of newspapers. Placed training at the forefront with the following: customer service training, photography quality, photo reproduction, leadership training for managers, copy editing sessions, press training. Times Herald (Port Huron, MI) Daily Circulation: 29,998 Sunday Circulation: 40,155 In advertising, we restructured ad and pre-press departments into teams — where sales reps and production people now share In commitment In provide better Service to advertising customers. In circulation, we have rewritten job descriptions for customer Service reps to better emphasize a sales component for their jobs. Times Union (Albany, NY) Daily Circulation: 99,242 Sunday Circulation: 145,357 We have moved our daily delivery time from 7am to 6am. We established a 30-minute recovery response on a missed or wet delivery. We have begun to utilize the Six Sigma program in Home Delivery. Six Sigma is defined as 3.4 complaints per million deliveries. To work toward this goal, we look critically at all circulation processes, procedures and communication, always from the customer's point of view, to determine ways to streamline and/or reduce costs. The result to date: More effective communication between the plant and the field, and the reduction of customer complaints by almost 50% as a result of better follow-through and consistent procedures from depot to depot. We brought the Single Copy Department (30,000+ daily and 60,000 Sunday) to inside management. Previously distributed by a third party, we are now able to keep a close eye on draw and returns, plus the Times Union now has close, direct relationships with our Single Copy dealers for future promotional opportunities. We instituted Times Union Easy Pay (automatic deduction from credit card or checking account) so customers don't need to deal with monthly bills, checks and stamps. Easy Pay churn is extremely low and 25% of our subscribers are now on the Easy Pay plan. For any service stop, customers are delivered a Times Union coffee mug filled with imported coffee packets. Included is a promise for better service, a request that says "We want you back!" with a business card containing the phone number of their 'personal' Circulation executive to report any concerns. We have instituted an automatic complaint paging system. If a customer calls with a missed or wet paper, the customer service representative enters the problem into the system. Then, the name, address, phone number and problem is instantly emailed to a corresponding pager in that area. Managers are able to respond immediately while on the road. In a key vacation area where many of our subscribers have second homes or camps, we have inaugurated the "Take It to the Lakes" program. Customers can split their home delivered subscription so they have, for example, the paper delivered to their home from Monday through Friday and at their camp on Saturday and Sunday. The Titusville Herald (PA) Daily Circulation: 4,065 Consistent, reliable redelivery system. Message center for foot and motor carriers to increase communication with circulation manager. Traverse City Record-Eagle (MI) Daily Circulation: 29,341 Sunday Circulation: 40,199 All employees who have regular direct contact with readers and advertisers have undergone customer-service training. In 2001, we designated and trained an employee to act as a customer ombudsman. She is able to field questions from readers, subscribers and advertisers, making sure no one falls through the cracks. In an effort to monitor delivery satisfaction, our circulation department has conducted three customer-service surveys that have shown our strengths and weaknesses. We've implemented changes based on these surveys. All employees, each day, are asked to update their personal voice mail to let callers know when they can expect a response to their call. The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, PA) Daily Circulation: 42,622 Sunday Circulation: 47,757 Change hours, online subscriptions, email feedback. Tri-City Herald (Pasco-Kennewick-Richland, WA) Daily Circulation: 40,993 Sunday Circulation: 44,782 Added feature content in areas of interest noted in RI findings. Re-designed and reorganized content to become easier to read and to make it easier for readers to find specific content. Daily Look Ahead feature; more extensive use of "ref boxes" to tell readers of related stories elsewhere in paper. Same day content promotion on section fronts. The Union (Grass Valley, CA) Daily Circulation: 15,871 By stressing on-time page closings, we have dramatically improve press starts and thus helped lower delivery complaints. An emphasis on staff courtesy to readers has drastically reduced complaints about unreturned calls, rudeness, etc. The Union-Recorder (Milledgeville, GA) Daily Circulation: 7,439 All employees encouraged to maintain high customer service, regardless of what department he or she works in. Constantly critiquing the overall quality of the newspaper (printing, photos, layout, etc.) Employees encouraged to go the extra mile. Educated employees about how the other departments work so that they can give complete service to a customer. The Wichita Eagle (KS) Daily Circulation: 92,721 Sunday Circulation: 148, 624 Earlier delivery times: 5: a.m. Monday through Saturday, 7:00 a.m. Sunday. Tied District Manager bonus potential and District goals to lower(ing) complaint per thousand ratio. Complaint redelivery times narrowed to within 1 hour after call is received Monday through Saturday and within 1 ½ hours on Sunday. Established a call-back system to confirm redelivery and subscriber satisfaction. Revised subscriber billing/renewal notice geared to ease of use for the consumer. Added subscriber bonus/loyalty coupon to subscriber renewal notice. Added "branding messages" and target messages to subscriber newal notices (can also fall under branding). Added complaint per thousand contract expectation to Independent carrier contracts. |
Getting Traction on Readership
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©2008 Readership
Institute • 301 Fisk Hall • Northwestern
University • 1845 Sheridan
Road • Evanston, IL 60208-2110 |
