The Newspaper is Losing Subscribers and They Don’t Care

I’ve got 2 lessons at the end of this piece, but first…

Picture this:

You walk into a place that you’ve been doing business with for a dozen years, paying them every month and tell them you don’t want to buy their stuff anymore.

They say, okay and let you walk away.

In a nutshell, that’s what happened to me last week.

For a good portion of the years I have been married, my wife wanted the Sunday paper and it was nice to have it waiting for us on the front porch Sunday morning.   Kathy had her sections she would read and I was looking for advertisers as part of my weekly prospecting routine.

But as the paper became thinner and thinner each year with more advertisers moving to other media, it was less important to me and after awhile Kathy said we could cancel the subscription.  I almost did just that in 2012, but I was interviewing to become the Digital Sales Manager and the timing would have been bad.

Quick side note: They never filled the Digital Sales Manager position and seem to be stuck in the ink and paper business which continues to shrink.  My friends who are there are miserable, or they’ve been there so long, they are afraid to leave.

Anyway, we continued to get the Sunday paper, which includes Friday, Saturday and Sunday at one low price. Until we moved last month it was time to cut them off.  I considered transferring my subscription to our new house, but after watching the guy Sunday morning tossing the paper in my neighbors bushes, I decided against it.

If you want to start home delivery you can do that online, but to cancel, they don’t have that option.  A phone call  or a visit.  I decided to visit.  They directed me to the circulation department and when the lady asked how she could help me, I told her I wanted to cancel my subscription.

A good customer service person would ask me why I wanted to cancel and see if there was an issue that could be resolved.  Instead she just asked for my address to look me up in her database.

She found the address I gave her, I confirmed I am Scott Howard and I told her we had moved, giving her an opportunity to keep me as a customer.  But she said that I was paid up until Saturday, was that okay to keep the paper coming until then?  I told her yes, the new homeowners might enjoy the paper.

Then with a tap on her keyboard she cancelled my subscription and wished me a good afternoon.

Does the newspaper care that they are losing paid subscribers? Those who sit in the corner offices do.  The ones who sit in the board rooms do.  But those who deal with the customers at the circulation office or who toss the paper in the neighbors bushes, don’t care and won’t care until they are without a job and wondering why.

Lesson for all of us:

Everyone of us is responsible for customer service, retention and public relations, especially if it’s not in your job description.

Lesson for managers:

Set an example and train your frontline staff to how to deal with the public that benefits them and you.