ONE NEWSPAPER’S STORY—THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
websitebuilder • December 8, 2015
As a member of The Freelance Exchange of Kansas City, I was privileged last week to attend a very interesting meeting at which our special guest was Derek Donovan . Donovan is the Public Editor for The Kansas City Star newspaper. As our special speaker, he shared numerous insights about the fascinating ride taken by The Kansas City Star as it has navigated various transitions in adapting to the Internet age.
Throughout Donovan’s presentation, I was impressed to learn more about the newspaper’s focus on achieving a positive customer experience. Here are just a few items that Donovan and his colleagues handle with that goal in mind:
- With listening ears, Donovan as the Public Editor, is to be the voice of the reader to the newspaper. Any concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the news are one of his top priorities. He spends untold hours of time engaging with readers on these matters.
- With so many publications and news sources today being completely online, the loyal print-edition readers are a bit of a dying breed—but they’re not dead yet. Therefore, the newspaper gives constant attention to exactly what is needed to satisfy them. The print-edition readership is often very intelligent, highly engaged, and creatures of habit. These defining characteristics invoke constant attention by the staff.
- Although one would like to think that letters to the editor arrive in pristine linguistic and grammatical condition to make an English major proud, Donovan shared more than one anecdote—some quite humorous—about the editorial challenges that he occasionally faces. Nevertheless, he has spent significant time unpacking these “letter kits” as he calls them to reassemble a letter that interpolates the writer’s intentions (at least most of the time!).
All the above speaks to me about the significance of the customer experience. Regardless of your business, your market niche, or the nature of your organization, you should always be serving the customer. To do this effectively, several commitments must be made:
- You must create avenues to receive customer feedback. Those avenues can include phone calls, emails, online forms, or in-person meetings. If you do not create the avenues, then you rob your organization of valuable feedback.
- You must listen to your customers’ feedback. You may not always agree with or enjoy that feedback, but nonetheless it is your customers’ feedback. You would be foolish to ignore it.
- You must monitor how your customers are using (or not using) your products and services. That knowledge can give you valuable insights about what is working, what is not working, and perhaps even what items you need to do a better job advertising to your customers.
Every single time that I deal with a business or an organization, I walk away with my own personal “customer experience.” Sometimes it is very good, sometimes it is very bad, and sometimes it is somewhere in the vast middle. Regardless, it is mine. It will affect me commensurately and it has implications for that business or that organization.
What do you want your customers to experience today?
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Although anyone can and will criticize higher education, millennials are evidently smart enough to know its value. In spite of the horror stories about student loan debt, academic disasters, and wrong career turns, millennials have boasted one of the highest graduation rates of any generation to date. Generation Z may soon surpass them too as Laura A. Scione, managing editor of eCampus News reports : “ Despite growing questions around the value of college and return on investment in tuition, just 25 percent of Generation Z students say they believe they can have a rewarding career without going to college, compared to 40 percent of millennials. Eighty percent of Generation Z respondents and 74 percent of millennials agree that college either has a fair amount of value, is a good value, or is an excellent value. Only 20 percent of Generation Z students and 26 percent of millennials said college has ‘little value’ or ‘no value at all.’ ” Good for them! The statistics remain on their side—and the side of anyone who pursues higher education. Anthony P. Carnevale is the director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Based on his research, that trend will only continue (Gillian B. White “Those Savvy Millennials” The Atlantic , May 2015, p. 38): " In 1973, 32% of jobs did not even require a high school diploma, 9% required a bachelor’s degree, and 7% required a master’s degree or higher. It is projected that by 2020, 12% of jobs will not require a high school diploma, 24% will require a bachelor’s degree, and 11% will require a master’s degree or higher. " Derek Newton wrote an article entitled “Please Stop Asking Whether College Is Worth It” in which his opening declaration gets right to the point: “ Colleges and universities are still the best, most direct path to a good career that pays well. ” In addition to those insights, the unemployment figures consistently reveal the enduring value of higher education. The seasonally adjusted July 2019 unemployment rate for persons not having a high school diploma is 5.1% ( Bureau of Labor Statistics ). Having a high school diploma drops that rate to 3.6% and some college or a two-year degree drops it further to 3.2%. Pretty good trending, would you agree? Finally, if we look at people having a four-year degree, a graduate degree, or a doctoral degree, the unemployment rate is a low 2.2%. Higher education’s edge is especially clear when you consider the range of these numbers over the education level. Look at the two ends of the spectrum: less-than-high school (5.1%) versus a four-year degree or higher (2.2%). Consistently, regardless of the measured time, the unemployment rate for a less-than-high-school-educated worker is two to four times larger than for the college-degreed worker. This is why, when people seek my counsel about career planning, higher education remains one of my most significant emphases. Education pays. Degrees still rock. Regardless of how good or bad the economy is, regardless of how many individual academic and career disasters can be cited, and regardless of how loudly the antidegree crowd howls, you are still in a better position having a degree than not having a degree. The good news for the millennials and Generation Z is that they have arrived at the same conclusion and now they will enjoy the benefits.