Newspapers
are beginning to follow the lead of other businesses in the banking and utility
industries to reshape their e-commerce Web sites into customer service centers.
Dailies
as diverse as the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune (daily, 375,504; Sunday, 669,358)
and the Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune (daily, 17,909; Sunday, 19,216) are evaluating
apps that will enable them to significantly boost their customer service
capabilities.
Helping
papers make the transition are vendors such as Publishing Business Systems Inc.,
whose next generation of circulation management software is being tested by the
Star Tribune and the News-Tribune in their quest to boost online customer
service.
The
idea for incorporating some type of customer interface online has been discussed
for the past four years, according to Mary Olson, vice president of operations
at PBS.
But
allowing subscribers to manage their own accounts online can be daunting. When a
newspaper launches a Web site and makes e-mail addresses available to the
public, it should expect within very short order to start receiving e-mails
requesting subscriptions, vacation stops/starts and all manner of customer
account maintenance. Web-savvy customers now expect businesses to handle their
needs through Internet service transactions.
Mix
and match
Because
PBS’ apps aren’t yet fully Web-enabled, newspapers can add self-service
capabilities by using Progress Software’s WebSpeed Application Server. Tom
Armstrong, a PBS senior software engineer, said the software, essentially HTML
and JavaScript front-ends, provides a graphic interface linked to business logic
from which users can retrieve the information they need.
Existing
customers would have to perform some minor configuration to stitch their
existing Web servers to the WebSpeed server environment, Armstrong said. The
software costs approximately $1,500.
Olson
said various papers want to permit different degrees of customer service on
their sites. Some might allow subscribers to cancel their subscriptions, whereas
others will always choose to require customers to first speak to a live customer
service representative in an attempt to save the sale. To that end, PBS’
online functionality is modular and customizable and allows each feature to be
turned on or off at will.
Paying
bills online
Besides
managing circulation online, newspapers also want to use the Web to let
subscribers pay their monthly bills electronically.
It’s
been a slow transformation, however, due in part to entrenched business
practices that revolve around sending and receiving paper bills.
That’s
an expensive way to do business, said Jules Kaplan, president of online payment
processor EZ Payment Services.
“The
research firm Gartner Group estimated that it costs anywhere from $12 to $17 to
send a paper bill and process a check,” he said. “By letting customers
process their payments online, we can cut it to a fraction of that cost. Typical
costs are 52 cents per transaction. And the customer considers it more
convenient as well.”
EZ
Payment Services’ software features an automated parser that takes the flat
data file exported by a newspaper’s accounts receivable department and
cross-flows each data item into a particular field of its database. Duplicate
entries are not allowed and any fields with bad data kick back an error message
that describes the error and where it occurred in the file.
After
these payable items are processed, customers signed up for e-payment receive an
e-mail directing them to a Web page where they would see an electronic
representation of their invoice, complete with the newspaper’s logo.
Have
a choice
Customers
have the option to electronically debit their checking account (called an
electronic check) or they can use a credit card if the newspaper has set up a
merchant account with EZ Payment.
To
assure subscribers that their credit-card data is in good hands, EZ Payment
immediately passes that information to the depositing financial institution.
Newspapers
receive payments immediately, eliminating postal and processing delays.
Attracting
subscribers to self-service sites means more than reducing business costs.
Newspapers can also make money by pitching ancillary services such as paid
access to archives or customized versions of news headlines to self-service
subscribers.
That’s
the approach being taken by the Los Angeles-Orange County Business Journal,
using software developed by Digital River, an Eden Prairie, Minn., supplier.
“Looking
into the future, we see the e-subscriptions market continuing to grow as more
publishers move to the Internet at an accelerated pace,” said Mark Hartsell,
Digital River’s vice president of e-subscriptions. “There is a shift going
on out there from online advertising banner sales to subscription and content
sales. For brand-name newspapers in particular, there is a huge opportunity in
the online sale of subscriptions and single articles and the licensing of
information for other uses all through their host Internet sites.”
Of
course, with an online audience used to getting at least some Internet content
without charge, it remains to be seen whether papers can provide information for
which users are willing to pay.
