Top 10 U.S. Daily Newspaper

INCREASE CUSTOMER FOCUS throughout the organization and improve service responsiveness both inside and outside the company – and thereby increase revenue, external customer retention, internal customer satisfaction, operational performance, and resource utilization

Project Focus

• Large Daily Newspaper’s Retail Ad Sales and Production, Classified Advertising, Circulation, Finance, Accounting, Purchasing and Human Resources Departments
• Assess, redesign and implement new workflows, processes, policies, procedures, and operational structure
• Identify, measure and realize opportunities to improve customer service, quality, productivity and efficiency

Client Gains: Financial and Operating Benefits

• 10-15% increase in selling time for retail ad sales reps
• 29% decrease in retail ad credit adjustment dollars
• Reduced ad errors and proof turnaround time by nearly 75%
• Increased size of average classified ad sale by 10-23%
• Faster classified phone response, to 88% within 20 seconds (from 60% in 30 seconds)
• 76% reduction in classified sales call abandonment rate
• Improved subscriber retention at 90 days by 31%
• 35% increase in circulation calls handled per hour, with 98% answered within 20 seconds (from 83% in 30 seconds)
• 77% reduction in circulation’s call abandonment rate
• Reduced correspondence response time by 92%
• 53% drop in cost of unbilled papers produced
• Increase of 340% in collection calls per hour, with 100% reduction in referrals to collection agencies
• 67% decrease in payment processing time, with a 12% increase in accounts payable processed per hour
• Cut processing time for credit approvals by 93%
• 75% reduction in purchasing response time
• 1.3% reduction in general, selling, and administrative purchase costs

Key Changes that Supported Client Goals

• Developed service, quality and productivity standards for all departments
• Redesigned workflows, processes, policies and procedures
• Improved organizational structure by realigning spans of control and by creating or consolidating functions, positions and departments
• Integrated HR and Training to promote ongoing skills development and training
• Redefined Human Resources role to be more pro-active and service oriented within the organization
• Implemented a communication program between Human Resources and the union to reduce and/or eliminate contractual grievances
• Implemented new tracking, reporting, and communication processes
• Implemented balanced staffing and scheduling systems
• Assessed, trained, and supported staff in transition to new operational models

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