The Baltimore Sun

The Road to “Legendary” Customer Service

11

2

Legendary Customer Service “When a Customer Makes Us the Topic of their Casual Conversation”

3 BUILDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY

• Seeking out Complaints •

“Tip of the Iceberg”

4 The Tip of The ICEBERG 2% 45% 53%

5 BUILDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY

• Seeking out Complaints • “Tip of the Iceberg” • Resolve it the First Time - Quickly

6 HERE’S WHAT WE’VE DONE

• Drive Calls to The Sun • Restructure contracts

7 HERE’S WHAT WE’VE DONE

• Key Measurements Some include: - Complaints per thousand - Repeat Complaints per thousand - Prompt Starts - Recovery • Train employees

8 Legendary Customer Service Model High IV Chance to be the hero III Roll out the red carpet Low I Empathy II Fix the problem No Yes Company Fault ?

9 Real Customer Example #1

•

ROAD WORK

A subscriber called….he has not been receiving his newspaper. There is road construction in his neighborhood, which precludes the delivery person from driving down the road and delivering the paper. The construction will continue for another 30 days and the area affected is about one city block.

10 ROAD WORK EXAMPLE High IV Chance to be the hero III Roll out the red carpet Low I Empathy II Fix the problem No Yes Company Fault ?

11 Real Customer Example #2

•

LEXUS DEALER

- The Lexus Auto dealership called several days in a row. The papers delivered in the rain had been wet. On Tuesday and Wednesday the following week, the newspapers were thrown hard against the door and scared the night auditor to death!

12 LEXUS DEALER EXAMPLE High IV Chance to be the hero III Roll out the red carpet Low I Empathy II Fix the problem No Yes Company Fault ?

13 YES, it’s working...

1109 Wildwood Parkway Baltimore, Maryland August 24, 2001 Dear Mr. Speca, “My wife Elnora and I wish to extend to you and the Management of The Baltimore Sun, our sincere thanks, not only for your apology, but also for the beautiful dish garden. The lovely dish garden has served to remove much of the pain and we will share it with our neighbors.” “We thank you and The Baltimore Sun for renewing our appreciation of the paper and we will consider increasing our subscription.” Sincerely, Cyrel C. Galbreath

14 LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

692 690 688 686 684 682 680 678 1999 2001

• Call Volume

15 LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

• Speed of Answer from

1 Minute 12

Sec.’s to

6

seconds

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1998 1999 2000 2001

16 LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

• Abandoned Calls from

36,654

to

1,657 40000 35000 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0

17 LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

34,000

fewer complaints

21%

improvement

1.85

1.8

1.75

1.7

1.65

1.6

1.55

1.5

1.45

1.4

1.35

1999 2001

18 LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

• Repeat Complaints

(15,000) 28%

improvement

60000 50000 40000 30000 20000 10000 0 2000 2001

19 LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

97% 96% 95% 94% 93% 92% 91% 1999 2001

Recovery Re-delivery Guarantee changed from 90 to 60 minutes

20 LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

•

And we did it with less money!

1999 2001

21 NEXT STEPS IN OUR LEGENDARY SERIVCE PROGRAM

• Not Satisfied Yet - Still on the Road, driving results Looking for opportunities to “be a hero” • New Circulation Information System - Billing in-house - Better Data • Expand Legendary Customer Service

22 LEGENDARY CUSTOMER SERVICE

• The Ultimate Legendary Customer Service Story