11

The Baltimore Sun

The Road to

“Legendary”

Customer Service

222

Legendary Customer Service

“When a Customer Makes Us the Topic of their Casual

Conversation”

333

BUILDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY

•Seeking out Complaints

•“Tip of the Iceberg”

444

The Tip of The ICEBERG

2%

45%

53%

555

BUILDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY

• Seeking out Complaints

• “Tip of the Iceberg”

•Resolve it the First Time - Quickly

666

HERE’S WHAT WE’VE DONE

•Drive Calls to The Sun

•Restructure contracts

777

HERE’S WHAT WE’VE DONE

•Key Measurements

Some include:

- Complaints per thousand

- Repeat Complaints per thousand

- Prompt Starts

- Recovery

•Train employees

888

Legendary Customer Service Model

High

Low

IV III

I II

Chance to be the hero

Empathy

Roll out the red carpet

Fix the problem

No Yes

Company Fault ?

Sev

erit

y to

Cu

sto

mer

?

999

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.

101010

ROAD WORK EXAMPLE

High

Low

IV III

I II

Chance to be the hero

Empathy

Roll out the red carpet

Fix the problem

No Yes

Company Fault ?

Sev

erit

y to

Cu

sto

mer

?

111111

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!

121212

LEXUS DEALER EXAMPLE

High

Low

IV III

I II

Chance to be the hero

Empathy

Roll out the red carpet

Fix the problem

No Yes

Company Fault ?

Sev

erit

y to

Cu

sto

mer

?

131313

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

141414

LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

•Call Volume

678

680

682

684

686

688

690

692

1999 2001

151515

LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

•Speed of Answer

from

1 Minute 12 Sec.’s

to

6 seconds0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1998 1999 2000 2001

161616

LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

•Abandoned Calls

from

36,654

to

1,657 0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

1998

1999

2000

2001

171717

LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

34,000fewer complaints

21%improvement 1.35

1.41.451.5

1.551.6

1.651.7

1.751.8

1.85

1999 2001

181818

LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

•Repeat Complaints

28% improvement0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

2000 2001

(15,000)

191919

LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

Recovery

Re-delivery Guarantee

changed from 90 to 60 minutes

91%

92%

93%

94%

95%

96%

97%

1999 2001

202020

LEGENDARY SERVICE RESULTS SO FAR...

•And we did it with less money!

1999 2001

212121

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

222222

LEGENDARY CUSTOMER SERVICE

•The Ultimate Legendary Customer Service Story