Case study: Morris Communications (Shared Services Center)

Client

Morris Communications (Shared Services Center in Augusta, GA)

Internal Brand

Customer One

Duration

18 months

Challenge

Based on the overwhelming success of the pilot outbound retention center that RCDA helped build for the Florida Times-Union, Morris Communications hired our organization to work with the new Shared Services Center in Augusta, GA. The center’s innovative mission was to make outbound retention calls to subscribers of several different newspapers from one central location.

Approach

RCDA has helped in every phase of development at the Shared Services Center. After a period of training and coaching, the retention reps began by calling subscribers of the Augusta Chronicle. As the project advanced, RCDA provided consistent on-the-job coaching to these reps and their supervisors. As the team became more effective in applying our Quality Conversation approach and robust sales model, they began making retention calls for an increasingly larger number of newspapers.

Results

The Shared Services Center now handles the outbound retention calling for 17 Morris newspapers. The reps call subscribers who are deep in grace. On average, the reps sell renewals to 50 percent of the subscribers they contact. The Shared Services Center now generates $140,000 worth of collections per month and has been a touted as a success story throughout the Morris organization.

Thank you for the work you did in building a more effective retention strategy. We held an executive call listening session, and the agents that participated in your pilot performed head and shoulders above the rest. Your strategy to approach the retention conversation differently allowed our customers to open up and communicate with the agents without putting up their guard. We have seen increased agent confidence, increased quality scores, and overall increased retention as a result of your help. Feedback from the agents: “Working on the retention pilot gave me the confidence to approach saving our customers in a way I was comfortable and in turn helped me retain more customers.” “My job is so much easier now that I have better direction on how to get the customers to open up and talk to me.” “Thanks for all the work you did with us. My retention rate, activation rate, and resolution rate have all improved.”

- Kim Ogletree, Director, Sales and Marketing Operations, DIRECTV