Changing subscriber complaints into profits

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov, 1988 by Eliot Schein

Changing subscriber complaints into profits It was more than fulfillment house difficulties that helped sink the ship of Time Inc.'s TV Cable Week. Relating some of the disasters that befell that enterprise, the author of The Fanciest Dive tells an interesting story of circulation mismanagement. It seems one TV Cable Week subscriber was a heart patient in a Midwestern hospital. His sole source of pleasure during his extended convalescence was watching television. When his TV Cable Week subscription was suspended for "failure to pay," he wrote the following note on yet another invoice notice: "Please Please I've already paid you twice! Anything, anything just send me TV Cable Week!"

Most of us fail to recognize the incredible value our publications have to our subscribers, and the impact they have on our subscriber's lives. For example, there was a librarian who came into this agency's office on Madison Avenue not too long ago seeking a way to get one client's back issue from 1986 to complete her collection. She invested a significant amount of her vacation time and endured untold perils--like New York City taxis and a heat wave--to come to the office and "pay anything you want" to get that October 1986 issue--which was the only thing standing between her and a complete set of the magazine.

Make an effort to understand

Not every member of a magazine's staff is going to be a zealot when it comes to the magazine's special area of editorial. But you must remember that your circulation is peppered, if not loaded, with true, concerned fans. As long as there are men on the staff of Bride's and women on the staff of The American Hunter, some members of a magazine's staff just aren't going to feel a particular affinity for that publication's subject matter. Therefore, you are permitted a little difficulty appreciating the "killer instinct" and energy subscribers display in an effort to make sure their publications come to them in appropriate order and condition. But you are not permitted to underestimate the importance of their complaints.

Subscriber complaints range from a failure to post a payment (which results in anger as well as unnecessary, additional billing), to ripped covers, late issues and a variety of other service weaknesses. These failures provoke all kinds of complaint correspondence and do nothing more than cause confusion and trouble and cost big money! If your publication has an erratic publishing schedule because of editorial problems, ad sales extensions, poor printer relations or other causes, you're going to have subscribers complaining about service. The solution to this particular malady is, of course, to publish on time, regularly, and ship with perfection. (One major league publication I know of has so much trouble squeezing the postage money for mailing the magazine out of its upstairs financial office that the magazine is on the hysterical verge of being late every time it is published. Fortunately, intelligent heads prevail, the mail money does come through, and subscriber complaints are kept to a minimum.)

But why all this interest in subscriber complaints? A simple answer: Servicing and settling subscriber complaints are fast becoming the most labor intensive, time consuming and, as a result, expensive fulfillment chores of magazines. This year, for the first time, almost all fulfillment houses are adding "subscriber complaint response" to their laundry list of services, and are assigning prices for that work. The greater application of inbound 800 telephone numbers for subscriber service has further increased the cost of subscriber complaints because, suddenly, the publisher is paying all the freight for those costly phone calls.

If the magazine is damaged . . .

The best way to eliminate complaints is to improve service, but what do you do about the subscriber who complains month after month about his magazine arriving with ripped and dirty covers?

If you've ever seen your magazine ship from the printer, you've probably noticed that a significant number of copies are shipped in a combined, bound stack. The copy on top is usually for the subscriber who has the lowest numbered nine-digit Zip or alphabetical within a five-digit Zip--and that is usually the same person every issue. The magazine that rides on top of a batch of, say, 25 magazines is the one that is going to be exposed to the elements and to the floor of the postal truck, and is the one that will be ripped up every time.

Some publications put cover sheets on top of each one of their banded stacks. One sure solution for this poor subscriber's problem is to comp someone who lives one door down--and that copy will then protect the regular subscriber's.

Barring this somewhat silly remedy, the relationship with that subscriber has to be maintained. It makes sense to tell people the truth when they compalin. Try to get some sympathy for your plight. The truth in this particular instance could be positively conveyed this way: "Because you are in such an important and high demographic Zip Code [see, there's a compliment], your magazine travels on top of a bunch of other magazines, and we can't do much about it. Postal requirements cause this problem." Telling the truth (and legitimately blaming the Postal Service) can help you keep the subscriber satisfied, if not downright happy.