Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/583002
Page 6 October 8, 2015 Hoosier State Press Association & Foundation thank our 2015 Annual Conference sponsors I spoke on the topic of cus- tomer service at the Ohio Newspaper Association convention in February. Shortly after, I received an email asking if I would lead a webinar in late summer or early fall for all the staffs of member papers of ONA, cov- ering the same material. I agreed but didn't feel right about using the same material. After all, surely there would be some people present during the webinar who sat through the original presentation. Recently before the webi- nar, I created a survey about customer service at news- papers and asked Facebook friends not affiliated with the newspaper industry to complete the short question- naire. I hoped maybe 20 or 30 would take the time and give me some fresh, interesting information to use during the webinar. I was pretty surprised to learn that more than 200 folks had completed the survey over the next few hours, and their answers weren't exactly what I expected. Of the respondents, 38 per- cent reported subscribing to a newspaper, while 62 percent answered that they did not. Next, I asked subscribers: "What are your biggest pet peeves concerning your news- paper?" By a large margin, "Not enough local content" took the prize. A full 38 percent of newspaper subscribers answered that lack of local content is their biggest pet peeve. OK, that might not have been a huge surprise. How- ever, their response to the sec- ond question did shock me. Just fewer than 22 percent of newspaper subscribers answered that "Poor writ- ing" was their top pet peeve. Honestly, I didn't think poor writing would crack the top five. Delivery problems and poor design tied for third, with each receiving 13 percent. Billing and other problems followed in single digits. And what about people who don't subscribe to a newspa- per? "Poor writing" took the top spot with a hefty 37 percent responding that was their top pet peeve. The number two reason respondents gave for not sub- scribing to a newspaper was "Not enough local news," at 27 percent. I gained some useful in - sights from the nonsubscrib- ers for my customer service webinar. A full 26 percent answered that their main rea- son for not subscribing was either "Delivery problems" (14 percent) or "Customer service" (12 percent). When asked about the price of newspapers, 51 percent of nonsubscribers responded with "The price is too high." I learned several things from this survey that will make me a better newspaper consultant. First, a large number of subscribers and nonsubscrib- ers say there is not enough local news in their newspa- pers. That didn't surprise me, and it's been on my checklist. Second, there is more con- cern over writing than I sus- pected. Sure I figured Mrs. Feathers, my high school English teacher, lost sleep over writing quality. But a large percentage of both groups, especially nonsub- scribers, seem to feel that poor writing is a major prob- lem with their newspapers. I will probably stress good design a little more than I have in the past. If 13 percent of readers say their biggest pet peeve with their news- paper is poor design, then it's something we should all watch closely. It might not seem like there is a lot we can do when folks feel like the price is too high. But when I look more close- ly at these numbers, I realize that for a good number of subscribers and nonsubscrib- ers, the price might seem high because they feel like the qual- ity isn't where it should be. Some fixes are easier than others. Go through the follow- ing list with your staff and see which area could be addressed most quickly and make a plan. • Local content • Writing • Design • Delivery issues • Customer service. Then create a long-term strategy to guide your news- paper toward improvement in all five areas. Kevin Slimp works as a newspaper industry trainer, speaker, writer and consultant. News Guru Kevin Slimp Customer service: What are we missing?