The Real Reason For The Los Angeles Times‘ Circulation Woes?
I like the Los Angeles Times. I’ve subscribed since I moved to Southern California twenty years ago, and I even pay about $240 / year for seven day delivery instead of the $99 rate I hear that I can get. I live in a zip code where — unlike parts of the west side — there are still a number of thumps as the LAT delivery guy drives down the street.
All of which is to say that you’d think I’m the type of customer the LAT would make an effort to retain.
You’d be wrong.
A few months ago the credit card that I auto-pay the Times with expired. Since I throw away the bills the LAT sends me — they tell me what I already know, which is that I’m on autopay — I missed the fact that I owed them for three months service. Clearly, that’s my fault. But did I get a phone call or email (they have the information for both)? No. Last week the paper just stopped coming.
The second day that happened I went to the LAT site, figured out the problem, and provided my new credit card information.
No paper the next day.
Or the next.
So yesterday I called them, and found out this, too was my fault — after paying my balance, they wouldn’t automatically restart service. I was expected to call them and ask to get the paper again — basically doubling my workload.
Apparently, if I didn’t do this, I’d have joined Southern California’s hundreds of thousands of ex-readers of the Los Angeles Times.
Of course, there is no mention of this on the bill payment web page … a logical place to put a “do you want delivery resumed?” checkbox.
But the bigger picture is the sheer illogic of the LAT’s customer service approach. The paper is bleeding readership quarter after quarter, but when a twenty year subscriber disappears off the rolls, not only do they not make contact, but actually make it difficult to renew.
If the LAT wants some of those readers back, maybe all they have to do is ask.
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November 6th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Their aggressive A/R collection methods are impressive too. Only 3 months to discover your not paying.
Actually, I’m somewhat envious. For years I’d get called at home (at dinner) by the Times asking me if I wanted to subscribe. I always told them the same thing, I was a subscriber but one more call from them and I wouldn’t be any longer. A couple of months later I’d get another call.
November 6th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
I used to work for a major paper in circulation. It’s normal to let a good customer have some grace while he gets his act together. Depending on the route, sometimes it was up to the paper, sometimes it was up to the carrier on how long you wanted to let the customer go before cutting him off.
As for paying up and restart, that’s just laziness on the c/s rep or carrier who handled the call. Just doing the ass-least of getting you paid up without following up on whether you wanted to restart service or not. Shouldn’t have happened, but customer service skills seem to be (at least to me anyway) eroding across the board. It amazes me how apathetic many c/s reps, clerks, etc., are in their jobs.
Some of it is a lack of training. Employers want great c/s but don’t want to actually spend the time or money to train anyone to do it; but they don’t calculate lost business due to the poor c/s skills of their front-line employees, either.
November 9th, 2006 at 8:02 am
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