Project success story: Morris Communications

Client:
Morris Communications (Shared Services Center in Augusta, GA)

Internal Brand:
Customer One

Duration:
18 months

Challenge: Based on the overwhelming success of the pilot outbound retention center that Robert C. Davis and Associates (RCDA) helped build for the Florida Times-Union, Morris Communications hired RCDA to assist with the new Shared Services Center in Augusta, GA. The center's innovative mission was to make outbound retention calls to subscribers of several different newspapers from one central location.

Approach: RCDA has assisted in every phase of development at the Shared Services Center. After a period of training and coaching, the retention reps began by calling subscribers of the Augusta Chronicle. As the project advanced, RCDA provided consistent on-the-job coaching to these reps and their supervisors. As the team became more effective in applying the robust sales model, they began making retention calls for an increasingly large number of newspapers.

Results: The Shared Services Center now handles the outbound retention calling for 17 Morris newspapers. The reps call subscribers who are deep in grace, and on average, sell renewals to 50 percent of the subscribers they contact. The Shared Services Center now generates $140,000 worth of collections per month and has been a touted as a success story throughout the Morris organization.

Project success story: Florida Times-Union

Client:
Morris Communications (Florida Times-Union)

Internal Brand:
Customer One

Duration:
18 Months

Challenge: For years, the Morris Communications newspapers relied on conventional methods to attract renewal subscriptions. They sent second notices to subscribers at the beginning of grace and then hoped that the subscribers would return the notices with a check for a renewal. About 90 percent of subscribers do in fact respond with a check to the second notice. For the remaining 10 percent of subscribers, a third notice has little effect. Morris has found that only 13 percent or subscribers renew their subscriptions in response to a third notice.

Leaders at Morris were well aware that it costs far more to attract new subscribers than it does to retain old ones, and the company engaged Robert C. Davis and Associates (RCDA) to help them build a pilot outbound retention center for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

The goal for this center is to call the 10 percent of subscribers who respond to the second renewal notice, and to use a robust sales model to encourage these subscribers to renew their subscriptions over the phone.

Approach: RCDA assisted with the hiring of 16 part-time retention sales reps and their supervisors for the new retention center. RCDA then trained and coached the new reps to call subscribers five days before carrier stop.

The retention sales reps use a robust sales model to discover why a subscriber might wish to cancel, as well as the subscriber's wants, interests, and needs. Each call includes a targeted offer and an effort to collect payment over the phone.

Results: The retention sales reps achieve from 1.22 to 3.32 collections per hour, with the average being around two collections an hour per retention sales rep. This is particularly remarkable because they make these calls without the aid of an auto-dialer.

Overall at the Florida Times-Union, permanent stops are down by 26 percent, grace expense is down by over $200,000 per year, and collections exceed $100,000 per month.

Project success story: The Miami Herald

Client:
The Miami Herald

Internal Brand:
Herald SAVES

Duration:
6 months

Challenge: The Miami Herald has had a dedicated retention team for several years. While this team was doing an adequate job of providing service to subscribers, reselling subscriptions, and renewing subscriptions for future service, leadership felt the department was underperforming its true potential. They decided to engage Robert C. Davis and Associates (RCDA) to create a training program and culture change that would bring about the consistent application of a robust sales model.

Approach: The Herald SAVES (Satisfy And Value Every Subscriber) project was designed to spark an intense focus on providing excellent customer service geared toward solving problems and increasing subscriber loyalty. The program emphasizes EZ Pay and long-term renewal opportunities. It also establishes an expectation of superior service on every call. For this project, RCDA authored customized training manuals for the retention reps and their supervisors. Since training material will quickly fade from memory if it is not consistently applied, RCDA has reinforced the training by providing consistent follow-up coaching to the reps and supervisors. RCDA has also helped initiate a culture change which redefines how the supervisors spend their time. Supervisors are now urged to spend half of each shift on the floor providing side-by-side coaching support to their reps.

Results: In less than six months, the Herald SAVES project has produced a 110-percent increase in collections per hour per rep (CPH). Prior to this project, reps were averaging 1.38 CPH. They now average about 2.90 CPH, and even greater gains are expected. A detailed ROI analysis that considers the increased commissions as well as the training and coaching costs associated with this project indicates that increasing CPH from 1.38 to 2.90 delivers an additional $1.1 million per year to the Herald's bottom line.

Project success story: Landmark Communications

Client:
Landmark Communications
(News & Record in Greensboro, NC)

Internal Brand:
WIN The News & Record Way

Duration:
12 months

Challenge: The News & Record, like many US newspapers in mid-sized markets, was experiencing substantial circulation decline. Unwilling to accept the consequences of this decline, leadership at the News & Record hired Robert C. Davis and Associates (RCDA) to train and coach their inbound and outbound reps to apply a robust sales model with the goal of generating more EZ Pay conversions and cancellation saves.

Approach: Leadership at the News & Record understands wisely that converting subscribers to EZ Pay is a key element to retention success. RCDA trained and coached reps to apply the robust sales model to effectively position EZ Pays. In addition, the reps were trained and coached to have quality conversations with subscribers with the goal of boosting over-the-phone collections. RCDA has found that making calls early in grace is an ineffective use of resources since many of these subscribers fully intend to renew their subscription. Prior to this project, the News & Record had eight reps making calls to subscribers early in grace. We changed this practice so that the reps only made calls to subscribers who are deep in grace. The reps then used the extra time to make outbound calls aimed at selling new subscriptions.

Results: As a result of this project, The News & Record experienced a ten-fold increase EZ Pay conversions. Additionally, the retention reps were able to increase their individual production from an average of one collection per hour to three collections per hour. The cross-trained reps also had much success selling new subscription as evidenced by a remarkable 60-percent pre-paid order rate on new subscription calls. This quality approach to new subscription sales has led RCDA to believe there are huge opportunities in the newspaper industry to improve the way it currently sells new subscriptions.

Untying Their Hands: Free Up Your CSRs to Solve Subscribers' Problems

Published September 13, 2006 by the Newspaper Association of America
By Bob Davis, president of Robert C. Davis and Associates

Recently a circulation director asked me how to get CSRs to apply more common sense to solve problems on calls. My answer is that CSRs by and large have plenty of common sense. They simply need more room to apply it.

Over the years I have found three reasons that CSRs are not able to provide what seems to be an easy, logical solution to a problem. First, they've been disempowered. Second, they are just the messengers. Third, the call center has a staffing and overflow capacity problem. Let's go through these issues one by one.

Disempowerment

The first reason is that CSRs are disempowered because they do not have enough authority to solve problems that they are capable of handling.

For example, let's say a CSR at a major daily newspaper has the authority to give only three days' credit. Yet many problems require more than three days' credit. Let's say a one-week vacation stop is not entered properly and the papers get delivered anyway. Perhaps someone with an ongoing delivery problem has missed a total of more than three days. Maybe a new start doesn't begin until a week after it is supposed to. The list of potential problems goes on and on.

In this situation, if more than three days' credit is required, CSRs would likely put in a remedy report that goes to an accounting clerk who decides whether or not more credit is warranted. The CSR never hears another thing about it. Why would a clerk in accounting be more qualified to apply credit than the person who has talked to the customer directly?

Additionally, I have seen CSRs with no authority to correct billing problems. Let's say a customer calls and wants to extend the promotion. Or perhaps the bill the customer received does not correspond to the promotion they thought they were getting. The CSR's only course of action in these scenarios is to print the screen and give it to the supervisor. Not only is the CSR disempowered, but this policy creates unnecessary work for the supervisors. CSRs are capable of fixing these kinds of issues themselves-they need only the authority.

Finally, when the situation calls for it, CSRs should be able get off the phones to fix problems and then call customers back. For example, if the customer threatens to quit unless delivery improves, the CSR should get the customer's contact information, call the carrier to clear up the problem, and then call the customer back to report what has been done. Taking the time to do this will not only please the customer, it will make the CSR and the carrier feel better about their jobs!

Just the Messenger

Often I hear exchanges between CSRs and customers that could be handled much more effectively if the CSR was more than just the messenger:

Customer: "This is the third incorrect bill I have received!"
CSR: "I will be sure to tell my supervisor."

Customer: "If you can't deliver my paper every day, than just cancel it."
CSR: "I will send another note to the zone manager."

Customer: "You said you would redeliver my paper over an hour ago. Where is it?"
CSR: "I will send another note to the carrier."

It would be much more powerful for the CSR to say, "Mr. Jones, do you have a pen and paper handy? Please write this down. My name is Susan and my extension is 8431. I am going to fix your problem myself. And if you ever have any other problems with the paper, I want you to call me personally so I can take care of it for you!"

Staffing and Overflow

Call centers often receives several calls to fix one problem for a subscriber because the issue doesn't get handled with the first call. Constant pressure of the next call coming in is leading the CSR to think, "I don't have time to fix this problem with all these calls coming in. I will file the report, hope for the best, and take the next call." Clearly, this problem indicates the need to examine staffing and include automatic overflow capacity for unexpected spikes in call volume. This way, CSRs will be able to take the time required to fix each problem once and for all on the first call.

In my experience, CSRs have as much common sense as anyone I know. They are tremendous asset for a newspaper company and can be of even greater value if you take the right steps. Empower them to do what it takes to satisfy the customer. Let them complete the feedback loop so they're more than just the messenger and know whether or not a problem has been solved satisfactorily. And last but certainly not least, allow them enough time to fix it right the first time.

Project success story: Dallas Morning News

Client:
The Dallas Morning News

Internal Brand:
Work Better Here

Duration:
12 months

Challenge: Leadership at The Dallas Morning News engaged Robert C. Davis and Associates (RCDA) to support its retention effort by establishing an outbound call center. This decision was based on the tremendous success that RCDA had demonstrated in helping other clients establish new retention centers. The retention reps make calls to subscribers who are deep in grace and present compelling offers of renewal and EZ Pay conversion.

Approach: RCDA assisted The Dallas Morning News in all aspects of the new retention center. The process began with the hiring of a retention supervisor and 14 part-time retention reps. RCDA helped write the recruiting materials as well as helped screen, interview, and ultimately hire the candidates for this position. Once the team was hired, RCDA conducted training using materials customized for The Dallas Morning News. In order to reinforce the training and ensure that a world class sales culture is developed, RCDA provided follow-up coaching to the retention team each week for a year. The primary goal of the project was to ramp collection results over a three month period until the team achieved and sustained an average of three collections per hour per rep.

Results: RCDA helped the Dallas Morning News convert 70,000 carrier-collects to office-pay. After this was accomplished, RCDA worked with the reps and supervisors on handling retention calls. Currently the newspaper is achieving 3.2 saves per rep per hour and collecting thousands of dollars each night.

EZ Pay, EZ sell

Boosting sales and retention through EZ Pay is just what the name implies if you take the right approach. And the results are dramatic.

By Bob Davis

It's no secret that EZ Pay promotes subscriber retention. The latest research shows that EZ Pay customers are two times more likely to keep their subscriptions. The question is, how many of your subscribers can you sign up for EZ Pay?

I believe 60 percent is a very realistic goal. Now on the first take that may seem to be a high number, but not if you remember the advice of Jim Collins in his book Good To Great. "The enemy of great is good," wrote Collins. In my experience, most newspaper organizations are doing a good job - but not a great one - of selling EZ Pay.

Moving from good to great in this regard is definitely worth the effort. First, it is much cheaper to boost your retention than go out and win new subscribers over and over again. Imagine what it would mean to your organization in terms of higher revenue and lower churn if 60 percent of your subscribers were on EZ Pay. But is this really possible?

Absolutely. Based on my experience in working with newspaper organizations across the country, I believe you can achieve a home delivery EZ Pay average of 60 percent or even more by adopting a more robust call flow for every customer contact.
Five winning steps

Winning EZ Pay subscriptions - and consequently higher sales performance and subscriber retention - is not magic. Rather, it requires having a quality conversation with every subscriber on every contact. The quality conversation occurs when reps use a robust call flow that incorporates five winning steps:

Step 1 - Greeting. Deliver an outstanding greeting with a great voice tone and the exchange of names, showing a sincere interest in the subscriber.

Step 2 - Discovery. Understand the issues of concern to the subscribers. Find out one-on-one what subscribers are interested in, such as what sections they like best, how often they read the paper, and how the newspaper adds value in a way that applies to their lifestyles and their wants, interests and needs.

Step 3. Solution. Make a connection with subscribers that the newspaper is a valuable solution to the wants, interests and needs you learned about in the Discovery step. The key is to add value by telling them about features they may not be aware of. This is the essence of value-based, consultative selling.

Step 4. Offer. EZ Pay, as the name implies, gives subscribers an easy way to pay for the value they receive from the newspaper. We need to offer EZ Pay in a compelling way. If the first three steps have been handled correctly, the subscriber is likely to be very receptive to the offer.

Step 5. Close with an assumptive approach. Ask the subscriber how he or she would like to pay for EZ Pay - credit or debit card, or check-by-phone?

Selling value, not discounts

Additionally, using the robust call flow sells value and eliminates the need to sell at a deep discount. When customers examine the value proposition and the price, they are highly likely to realize that the typical newspaper subscription - even at full price - is one of best values for the dollar in America today.

Selling EZ Pay in and of itself adds value for subscribers and obviously benefits the newspaper. The bottom line is that reps should make a compelling EZ Pay offer on every call.

Overcoming objections to EZ Pay

Sometimes subscribers will have objections to putting their charges on EZ Pay. We do not want to pressure them, but real selling does not even begin until you have gotten an objection! The robust call flow includes a contingent process for overcoming objections. The call flow should be written around the idea that we can't accept the first no. Reps must work by a three-no's-and-a-go philosophy.

Achieving dramatic, sustainable results

Newspaper organizations that have implemented a robust call flow that includes the EZ Pay offer and assumptive close have achieved dramatic, sustainable results. For example, one of my clients - a major daily newspaper with national distribution - achieved a four-fold increase in EZ Pay sales. Another paper is now signing up 50 percent of its retention saves on EZ Pay.

Every conversation - whether it is a complaint call into customer service, new subscription contact, or retention call - is an opportunity to sell EZ Pay.

Without a doubt, the robust call flow and EZ Pay offer create a strong bottom-line impact on sales results and customer retention. The decision to put this approach into place would appear to be, as they say, a win-win proposition for newspapers and subscribers.

Project success story: Knight Ridder

Client:
Knight Ridder (Customer Care Center C3)

Internal Brand:
FOCUS

Duration:
9 months

Challenge: The Knight Ridder Customer Care Center (C3) in Miami, FL handles inbound calls for 22 Knight Ridder newspapers. Leadership at Knight Ridder has come to realize that the 4.5 million calls that this center receives each year should be seen as an asset and not a liability. They have engaged Robert C. Davis and Associates (RCDA) to help the company capitalize fully on this asset by teaching and coaching the C3 reps to follow a robust sales model.

Approach: RCDA's concept of a robust sales model is one that is new to the newspaper industry and seeks to leverage the results that can be obtained by having high quality conversations with subscribers. In addition to many other skills, RCDA trained the C3 reps in the importance of asking great discovery questions, communicating the compelling features of the paper, and creating bridges between the subscribers' desires and the paper's benefits.

Results: The FOCUS (Finding Opportunities in Circulation by Upselling Subscribers) project doubled the EZ Pay rate for C3. In addition, the saves rate for inbound cancellation calls has increased dramatically.

Reversing Circulation Decline

By selling the value proposition instead of discounts and by becoming world-class sales organizations, circulation departments can turn the tables on an alarming trend

By Bob Davis

Newspapers across the country have been struggling with declining circulation, but it doesn't have to be that way. The solution is for every circulation department to become a world-class sales organization.

The industry has maintained single-copy sales for the most part, but many organizations have outsourced new subscription sales. The problem with outsourcing is that the paper is paying for bill-me orders instead of prepaids because outsourcers find that bill-me orders are the easiest sales to make. The problem is that they also make it easy for someone who has no intention of paying for the paper enjoy a free subscription for a while.
A missed point

What's more, newspapers are being sold in two ways today - with discounts, and with deeper discounts. When the telephone or kiosk rep is selling a discount with a free umbrella or gift card, subscribers aren't thinking about the value they will receive from the newspaper. It's all about the deal.

In crewing situations, the representative is also selling the discount. Often, however, the prospect buys because he or she wants to help the young person who is standing on the doorstep almost begging for some help. The value of the newspaper remains a missed point.

In my work as a consultant in newspaper sales, retention and coaching, I have seen many newspapers turn circulation decline into circulation growth by selling the value of the paper instead of a discount or giveaway offer. In fact, when representatives tie the subscriber's wants, interests and needs to features and benefits of the paper, they not only get the sale but also get a prepaid order.

Building rapport

It all comes down to developing and using a consistent, robust sales process that allows representatives - whether they're on the phone, at a kiosk, or on the doorstep -to build rapport with subscribers instantly.

This sales process, when applied consistently, makes a real difference in winning long-term, prepaid subscribers who understand the value of the newspaper; subscribers who go in knowing they're getting their money's worth. That's a powerful proposition.

The process starts with an enthusiastic greeting and name exchange that builds rapport with the prospect. Most importantly, it involves a discovery phase. The rep asks key questions that help prospects sell themselves on the value of the paper by talking about what they like about it:

• "How often do you pick up the paper?"

• "When you pick up the paper what is your favorite section?"

• "Do you use the coupons in the Sunday paper? How much do you figure they save you each week?"

Prepaids and the assumptive close

Almost before the rep knows it, prospects are listing all the reasons they would benefit from a subscription. They see the value and are ready to respond positively to the assumptive close we use in this sales process. The result is a prepaid order through EZ Pay!

Now it is true that the Do Not Call Registry has changed the landscape for telemarketing by making 70 percent of our prospects unavailable by phone. However, the remaining 30 percent represents a large segment of the population. Selling the value proposition to this segment of the market through a robust sales process will produce a significant number of new subscriptions. In the crew and kiosk sales channels, the process will boost numbers dramatically as well.

The bottom line is that the circulation department and the entire newspaper organization must own the sale of its products and services instead of outsourcing. It requires the circulation department to be filled with telephone, crew and kiosk representatives who can sell the value of the newspaper.

I urge today's newspaper executives to take some time to visit your call center or outsourcer, accompany your crews, and stop in at your kiosks to listen to how your product is being sold today. Is it a source of pride as you listen, or is it time to implement a new, more robust way of selling your newspaper?

The best value in America

When you stop and think about it, your product is already the best value in America today. Why should you discount it? Using the value proposition, I have helped major newspapers go from declining sales to increased circulation. If everyone in our industry did the same, we would turn the declining sales trend on its ear.

Make selling a core competency

Why selling papers should be second nature for every newspaper organization

By Bob Davis

I was at the customer service center recently for a major metro newspaper. The center was working on a project designed to increase the number of saved cancellation requests. A few days earlier, the newspaper had sent out invoices to hundreds of new subscribers who had been brought in by an outside vendor. Call after call came in:

"I never ordered this paper."
"I wasn't told the paper would cost this much."
"I was told the paper was going to be free."
"The paper I ordered was supposed to be $20 for the whole year, and you are charging me $56 for 13 weeks."
"I order Sunday only and I am getting billed for seven days per week."

Unfortunately, this scene plays itself out daily in customer service centers across the country. What's more, this situation will persist so long as newspapers continue to outsource what should be the primary business of all companies-selling their own products!

New subscription telemarketing is not dead

Many newspapers have done themselves a great disservice by outsourcing the job of selling their product. Yet even when telemarketing is performed in-house, it is often executed poorly. I have urged many publishers and circulation directors to schedule an hour to listen to what their telemarketers are saying to their friends and neighbors in the community. The leaders usually emerge from this experience embarrassed by the low quality of the conversations they heard.

As a result of the prevailing culture of poor sales practices, many in the newspaper industry feel that telemarketing for new subscriptions is a dead practice. I disagree completely! Low sales volume does not mean that telemarketing is an ineffective sales channel. It simply means that the people doing the telemarketing are not doing so effectively.

The first step toward effective telemarketing is believing in the value of the product being offered. Reps must believe that having the daily newspaper delivered to one's home is, even at the standard price, the greatest bargain available in America today. It is clear to me that most reps are not taught to believe this.

Discover the value

Right now new subscriptions are being pushed on customers at deeply discounted prices. Reps are not discovering the unique value each subscriber would find in the paper. If we ask the right questions to uncover a prospective subscriber's wants, interests and needs, and we then explain how the newspaper can add value to the prospective subscriber's unique situation, there would no need to sell it at a discount!

Selling a newspaper based on its value also makes it much easier to sell the subscription on a paid-in-advanced basis. We pay our phone and cable bills in advance, why not do the same with our newspaper subscription? The common practice of signing up customers with merely a promise to pay generates unnecessary expense. If subscription sales were made based on value, customers would pay in advance just as they do for other products and services they value.

A similar argument holds when considering subscriber retention. According to the NAA, subscriptions generated through telemarketing are the least retained order source. This may be due to the fact that telemarketers often push subscriptions by using attractive introductory offers. When the offer expires and the subscriber is asked to renew at the standard rate, the typical subscriber is unwilling to do so because he or she has never had a quality conversation centered on the value of a standard subscription.

Sell value in every channel

Many in the newspaper industry are wringing their hands over declining circulation. Yet circulation could grow again if newspapers started selling the value of the paper through each of their sales channels. Companies must also use industry best practices for each sales channel. For example, there are newspaper-owned crewing operations around the country that consistently turn in two sales per hour per rep while other newspaper companies have been unable to make crewing work. The same is true for kiosk sales.

Selling the newspaper needs to be part of every employee's job. Each of your employees should take it personally if they have a neighbor who does not get home delivery. The cable industry is having great success with annual "Meet Your Neighbors" campaigns. These campaigns are a company-wide contest among employees to sign-up as many of their neighbors as possible for cable service. I know of one newspaper whose publisher had the same idea, and in just one week, the campaign generated an average of three subscriptions per newspaper employee. Imagine what would happen if you got the same results from each of your employees once or twice per year!

Envision higher circulation

My vision is for every newspaper in the country to have a circulation sales operation that is world-class. This includes telemarketing, kiosk, and crew sales channels that are producing more than enough paid-in-advance sales to grow circulation numbers month after month. This circulation sales group should also use strategically placed single copy inserts and marketing that actually grow circulation.

How does a newspaper achieve this vision? By going back to basics and product a core competency of the organization!

Stimulating Conversations

When it comes to communicating with your subscribers, quality beats efficiency

By Bob Davis

Recently, as I watched a newspaper publisher listening to the robotic way his customers service reps were dealing with subscribers, his eyes got wider and wider. Within 15 minutes he was on the phone to his customer service manager, asking astutely how rep effectiveness was being measured.

The answer was call time. The manager was looking for calls at 75 seconds or less.

Like so many leaders in the newspaper industry today, this publisher recognized that the efficiency model is outdated.

An effectiveness model, one that is based on having quality conversations with subscribers, is the way to drive dramatic improvement in EZ Pay sales and subscriber retention numbers. I've seen it work wonders in my experience with clients that include Morris Communications, USA TODAY, Knight Ridder, and America Online. What's more, I have observed that quality conversations are only possible when you combine training on a robust call flow with follow-up coaching.

I heard a joke recently about a call center interaction in which a subscriber calls in and says, "Your carrier just shot my wife!" The telephone representative replies, "Ok, may I have your account number please?"

While extreme, the joke contains some truth. We know that reps often have a robotic approach. They tend to ask for a customer's account number or telephone number too soon. Instead, we should greet subscribers with enthusiasm and exchange names right away. It leads subscribers to conclude they're on the phone with someone who cares and can help.

However, the greeting is just one vital step. In many customer contact centers, I have found that reps are not doing anything to discover what the subscriber values in the newspaper. The process of discovery enables reps to make a compelling offer based on the subscriber's needs, desires and preferences. Reps should be asking well-phrased discovery questions that elicit positive responses and help subscribers sell themselves on the value of the paper.

Here's an example. A subscriber calls to say the paper didn't arrive today. The rep apologizes, exchanges names and gets the subscriber's phone number. While the computer is pulling up the account information, the rep asks questions, perhaps starting with, "What is your favorite section of the paper?"

Most subscribers have an emotional attachment to the newspaper - a place, a time, a ritual. They may also have strong feelings about certain features or sections. A subscriber is much more likely to respond favorably to an EZ Pay offer or an extended subscription term if the rep shows a genuine interest in the subscriber and targets the offer to the subscriber's expressed needs, desires and preferences.

Quite simply, newspapers that ask their subscribers discovery questions have better conversations, more accurate data and greater understanding of what makes the subscriber tick. Ultimately, discovery equips us to serve and satisfy.

An enthusiastic greeting and full discovery are critical, but these skills do not come naturally. They require consistent practice via follow-up coaching. In fact, coaching is the most critical step in producing dramatic sales and retention results. It ensures consistent and excellent adherence to the call flow.

Most training programs are ineffective because new skills evaporate quickly when they are not reinforced over extended periods of time. Studies have shown that without follow-up coaching, average trainees forget much of what they learn:

* 25 percent forgotten within an hour
* 85 percent forgotten within a week

Repetition is the only way to make learned skill stick. An average adult needs 21 attempts to develop a pattern of employing a new skill. However, it takes 100 or more attempts for the individual to draw upon the skill routinely, or habitually.

Studies by Motorola found that consistent on-the-job coaching returned $33 for every dollar invested in training. My company has seen similar staggering results time and again with our clients.

It is critical that customer service and retention supervisors perform on-the-job coaching. Yet many efficiency-driven newspapers overwork supervisors to the point where they can provide little or no team coaching support. To generate unprecedented results, supervisors must be master teachers of the call flow and spend half their time on the floor coaching reps and inspecting what they expect.

A Harvard Business Review study showed that customers must be not just satisfied but very satisfied at the conclusion of every customer service contact to build loyalty and stability. According to the study:

* A customer who is merely satisfied resides in a "Zone of Indifference" where he or she has neither positive nor negative feelings toward the organization.

* By contrast, a very satisfied customer resides in "Zone of Affection" where he or she remains loyal to the organization and promotes it to others enthusiastically

Indeed, a quality conversation is well worth the effort because it is the key ingredient to creating a very satisfied subscriber who is stable and loyal. And with recent changes to how the newspaper industry is allowed to telemarket, retention is critical. Now more than ever, it is much less expensive to retain current customers than to go out and win new ones.

Boosting Sales and Customer Retention

When taking inbound customer calls, the greeting is critical

By Bob Davis

Customer contact centers have a golden opportunity every time a customer calls to make a request, register a complaint, or even quit. Yet far too often, companies lose these opportunities as fast as they come into the queue. The good news is that organizations can boost their sales and customer retention figures dramatically if they take the right steps. It is critical and highly profitable to have a consistent, quality conversation with every customer, every time.

Now this might seem like a no-brainer on first examination, but many customer contact centers are missing out because they're not giving enough attention to one of the most important steps in the call flow-the greeting. In fact, if this step is handled correctly, the chance the call will end with a sale or a save goes up significantly.

Let's start at the beginning. Industry research shows that people jump to several conclusions at lightning speed. During the first 15 seconds of a call, customers can decide the capability, competence, intelligence and helpfulness of the telephone representative. How the rest of the call goes is determined largely by these few seconds.

Fortunately, call outcome is greatly within our control. By and large, we can ensure that callers will jump to the right conclusions-that they have called someone competent, caring and who can really help-if we start out with a greeting with the following qualities:

* Enthusiasm. Representatives who answer the phone enthusiastically convey the positive message that they are glad the customer called and that the customer has reached the right person. For example, "Thank you for calling the Mayfield Chronicle. This is Betsy Jones. How may I help you?"

* Assurance of help, expression of sympathy. On inbound calls, representatives should immediately assure help after the customer has responded to the initial greeting. For example, "I'm glad I got your call because I can help you with that today." In the case of a complaint, the language should be, "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, but I'm glad I got your call because I can help you."

* Name exchange, name use. Dale Carnegie said that a person's name is the sweetest and most important sound to that individual in any language or setting. So, although representatives have identified themselves at the beginning of the inbound call, it is critical that they reintroduce themselves, exchange names and use the customer's name during the call.

* When to get the phone number. Again, when customers call, they want to reach someone who cares about them and can fulfill their requests or resolve their complaints quickly and pleasantly. Before asking customers for the phone number, reps should express sympathy about a complaint, assure help with a request or complaint, and exchange names. Otherwise, we can come across as robotic or rude and interested only in processing the call and moving on. Customers must know that we are interested in responding positively to their wants, interests and needs.

* Attitude control. Many representatives take 100 calls or more per day. It is important to work with and coach them maintain as much enthusiasm and positive attitude on the 90th call of the day as they had on the first. Without being mindful of attitude and enthusiasm constantly, representatives can slip into a robotic delivery during the call.

Using the right greeting sets the stage for the next important step in a robust call flow-discovery. By beginning the call positively, we're in a better position to have a meaningful conversation with the customer and discover the individual's wants, interests and needs. Knowing this, we have the knowledge we need to add value to the customer's experience with us and our products and services. Achieving this helps customers sell themselves-and that's the objective!

If you want to maximize your bottom line, there's no better time than now to visit your customer contact center and spend 15 minutes listening in on some calls. Choose three reps and listen to how they're greeting your customers. Are they enthusiastic and do they maintain their enthusiasm from call to call? Do they assure help and express sympathy? Are they exchanging names, establishing good rapport and showing interest and concern? If not, you can boost your saves and sales by helping your people master a new, more robust greeting and call flow.