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Like so many leaders in the newspaper industry today, this publisher recognized that the efficiency model is outdated.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