Linda Sease

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Beyond Behavior
Understanding Reader Satisfaction
Linda Sease The E.W. Scripps Company
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• Traditional customer satisfaction metrics do not
  necessarily measure customer loyalty or predict
  company growth.

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• Customer loyalty and satisfaction is about much
  more than repeat purchases.

4

• A customer who buys again and again from the same
  company may not necessarily be displaying loyalty
  they may be trapped by inertia, indifference,
  or exit barriers erected by the company or
  circumstances.
• Conversely, a loyal customer may not make
  frequent repeat purchases because of a reduced
  need for a product or service.

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• Traditional measures of customer loyalty (such as
  customer retention rates) are complicated
  measures that may relate to company profitability
  but not growth.
• Conventional customer satisfaction measures often
  lack a demonstrable connection to actual customer
  behavior and growth.

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• The Net-Promoter Score (NPS) metric was designed
  to offer an effective measure of customer
  loyalty, one that predicts company growth.
• Survey responses from 4,000 customers matched to
  actual behavior over time
• Fourteen case studies built
• Resulting data determined which survey question
  had the strongest statistical correlation with
  repeat purchases or referrals

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• One question effectively predicted the behaviors
  that drive growth

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• A customers likelihood of recommending a company
  to a friend or colleague captures the essence of
  customer loyalty.
• Measured by how often a customer talks up a
  company to family, friends, and colleagues.

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• When customers act as references, they do more
  than indicate they have received good economic
  value from a company.
• Their own reputation is on the line

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• Customer loyalty and satisfaction can be measured
  by asking, How likely would you be to recommend
  Company X to a friend or colleague?

Not At All Likely 0
Extremely Likely 10
Neutral 5
1
2
3
4
6
7
8
9
Promoters
Detractors
Passively Satisfied
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• Defining the three customer clusters

• Promoters have the highest rates of repurchase
  and referral.
• Passively Satisfied customers stay witha
  particular company more due to inertiathan true
  loyalty.
• Quickly use a different company if presented with
  a better deal
• Detractors spread negative word-of-mouth
  comments about the company.
• Negatively impacts companys reputation, ability
  to attract newcustomers and employee morale

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Promoters Detractors Net-Promoter Score
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• Strong correlation between a companys growth
  rate and the percentage of customers who are
  Promoters.
• Getting customers enthusiastic enough to
  recommend a company appears to becrucial to
  growth.

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• Companies with the most enthusiastic customer
  referrals have Net-Promoter Scores from 75 to
  more than 80.

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• NPS provides a measure of customer loyalty linked
  to customer behavior and ultimately, to company
  growth.
• In order for a company to experience true
  growth and good profits it must have customers
  that are both profitable and satisfied.
• Customers are profitable when they make repeat
  purchases, are less price-sensitive, and show
  interest in new products or brand extensions.
• Customers are truly satisfied if they refer the
  company to friends and colleagues.

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• Promoters are generally profitable and satisfied
  they usually buy more and actively refer
  friends and colleagues.
• A company will experience long-term and
  sustainable growth only if the percentage of
  Promoters is greater than the percentage of
  Detractors.

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• NPS enables companies to gather simple, timely,
  and actionable information.
• Keep customer surveys simple and gathertimely
  information that is easy to act upon
• Data obtained by the NPS metric is actionableand
  easy to interpret and communicate
• Allows for tracking and comparing NPS over time,
  within a company, and against national averages,
  as well as against direct competitors

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• In most industries there is a strong correlation
  between a companys growth rate and the
  percentage of its customers who are Promoters.
• Airlines strong correlation between NPS and a
  companys average growth rate

• Rental cars Enterprise Rent-A-Car enjoys the
  highest rate of growth and highest Net-Promoter
  percentage among its competitors

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• Guidelines for using NPS to motivate company-wide
  change
• Be sure that everyone in the company knowswhich
  customers theyre responsible for.
• Make your scores transparent throughoutyour
  organization.
• Create a sense of urgency by tying rewardsto
  score improvement.

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• The NPS metric can be applied to the newspaper
  industry to provide insight into readership
  behavior and satisfaction.
• Traditional readership studies help illustrate
  behavior but do not gauge reader satisfaction
• NPS allows for a new level of accountability,
  actionability, and urgency to address readers
  needs and expectations

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• Scripps Readership Survey

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• Scripps Readership Survey Goals

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• Scripps Readership Survey Requirements

• Current readers of Scripps newspapers
• Read at least one time in the last monthor
  visited the website three to four timesin the
  last month
• Ages 18 to 54
• Sample to reflect market in age, gender,and
  race/ethnicity
• Actionable and customer-focused questions

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• Of 8,838 total respondents, almost 60 were
  current Scripps newspaper subscribers.

Respondent Buying Behavior Total Scripps Markets
Read Online 3
Read Someone Elses 16
Current Subscriber 59
Buy Single Copy 22
N 8,838
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• Across Scripps markets, one-quarter of
  respondents read both the print and online
  versions of the newspaper.

Audience Reach Total Scripps Markets
Online Only 2
Print and Online 25
Print Only 73
N 8,838
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• The sample reflected the markets overall in age
  and gender

Respondent Demographics
45 to 54
Male
25 to 44
Female
18 to 24
By AgeN 8,838
By GenderN 8,838
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• but there was a higher percentage of households
  with children represented.

Respondent Demographics
No
Yes
By Presence of ChildrenN 8,156
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• Education and income levels were also higher than
  the total market population.

Respondent Demographics
Post-Grad
75,000
Bachelors
50,000 to 74,999
Some College/ Associates
25,000 to 49,999
HS Grad
Under25,000
Less than HS
By EducationN 8,676
By IncomeN 7,975
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• Hispanic respondents reflect the market, but
  African-American respondents were slightly
  underrepresented.

Respondent Demographics
Other
All Others
African-American
All Others
Hispanic
San Angelo
Evansville
TC
Naples
Anderson
Ventura
Caucasian/Non-Hispanic
Memphis
Corpus
Versus MarketsN 8,689
Sample Concentration by Market N 8,689
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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 1 Topic importance

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 1 Topic importance

Topics Covered
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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 1 Topic definitions were as specific
  as possible to avoid confusion or overlap

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 1 Topic definitions (continued)

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 1 Topic definitions (continued)

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 1 If topic is important (8, 9, 10), then
  ask

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 1 If NOT likely to recommend (1 7), then
  ask

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 2 Attitudinal statements

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 2 Statements reflected
• Personal fulfillment/knowledge
• Connectedness to local community
• Ease of use
• Credibility/accountability
• Value
• Inhibitors

• Several were Motivator statements taken from
  Readership Institute New Readers Study

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 3 Open-ended suggestions

• Verbatims were coded and grouped by subject for
  each market.

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• Questionnaire Structure
• Part 4 Likely to recommend

Considering all the aspects of Scripps
Newspaper, how likely would you be to recommend
the newspaper to a friend or colleague as a
source of informationin general?
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• Fourteen Scripps markets participated in the
  study.

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• Plotting topic importance against NPS revealed
  areas of opportunity.

Topic Importance/Assessment Newspaper B by NPS
(Southern)
Median 37
High
Opportunity
Defend
Schools/Ed
Local News
Religion/ Spirituality
Other Newspaper Advertising
Family/Friends
Classified Advertising
Health
Topic Importance
Median 6.9
Community/Neighborhood
Entertainment/Leisure
Finances
Careers
PersonalGrowth
Sports
Home
Low
Net-Promoter Score
High
Low

• Religion/spirituality scored higher in importance
  in Southern Scripps markets.

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• Newspaper B had an NPS of 26, with 48 of
  respondents as Promoters.

Newspaper B Overall Assessment
Detractors
Passively Satisfied
Promoters
Mean 8.0
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• The topics of Health, Family/Friends, and
  Finances emerged as areas of opportunity for
  Newspaper G.

Topic Importance/Assessment Newspaper G by NPS
Median 20
High
Opportunity
Defend
Local News
Health
Entertainment/Leisure
Schools/Ed
Family/Friends
Finances
Community/Neighborhood
Topic Importance
Median 6.7
PersonalGrowth
Home
Other Newspaper Advertising
Religion/ Spirituality
Classified Advertising
Sports
Careers
Low
Net-Promoter Score
High
Low

• The topic of Finances moved into the Opportunity
  quadrant in select Scripps markets.

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• Newspaper G had a NPS of 17, with 42 of
  respondents as Promoters.

Newspaper G Overall Assessment
Detractors
Passively Satisfied
Promoters
Mean 7.7
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• Across all Scripps markets, several topics emerge
  as areas of opportunity.

Gap Analysis
Topic Importance/Assessment, All Markets
Median 27
Opportunity
Defend
High
Local News
Schools/Ed
Health
Family/Friends
Entertainment/Leisure
Religion/ Spirituality
Community/Neighborhood
Topic Importance
Median 6.5
Other Newspaper Advertising
Finances
Classified Advertising
Home
PersonalGrowth
Careers
Sports
Foundational
Secondary
Low
Net-Promoter Score
High
Low
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• Several topics and attitudes influence NPS
• The more readers recommend the Scripps newspaper
  for Local News, Entertainment/ Leisure,
  Advertising, and Sports, the more they recommend
  the Scripps newspaper overall however, improving
  content in topic areas alone will be
  insufficient.
• Newspaper enjoyment and value are predictive of
  overall recommendation ratings.

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• Trusting the newspaper to be honest and fair and
  believing the newspaper presents a broad range of
  opinions also are positively correlated with
  overall recommendation ratings.
• NPS among respondents who had concerns about bias
  were lower than those who did not share the
  concerns, suggesting that the perception of bias
  negatively impacts NPS.

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• Scripps had a total NPS of 17, with43 of total
  respondents as Promoters.

Total Respondents
Detractors
Passively Satisfied
Promoters
Mean 7.6
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• Net-Promoter Scores ranged from 33 to -26
  across Scripps Markets.

Overall NPS by Market
17
Scripps Mean
Newspaper E, F
Newspaper N
Newspaper H
Newspaper C
Newspaper A
Newspaper B
Newspaper L
Newspaper I
Newspaper D
Newspaper M
Newspaper G
Newspaper J, K
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• The topic of Schools/Education was important to
  respondents, but Net-Promoter Scores were all
  below 40.

Schools/Education NPS by Market
23
Scripps Mean
Newspaper E, I
Newspaper B
Newspaper M
Newspaper G
Newspaper D
Newspaper A
Newspaper L
Newspaper J
Newspaper N
Newspaper F, K
Newspaper C, H
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• Health also ranked high in importance but
  Net-Promoter Scores were relatively low.

Health NPS by Market
11
Scripps Mean
Newspaper G, C
Newspaper L, N
Newspaper M
Newspaper F
Newspaper D
Newspaper J
Newspaper K
Newspaper A
Newspaper I
Newspaper E
Newspaper H
Newspaper B
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• Local News was a topic of high importance and
  relatively strong NPS.

Local News NPS by Market
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Scripps Mean
Newspaper B, C
Newspaper N
Newspaper D
Newspaper K
Newspaper B
Newspaper L
Newspaper I
Newspaper H
Newspaper M
Newspaper A
Newspaper F, G, J
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• Classified Advertising is a Foundational topic
  because it is a topic that readers expect
  newspapers to cover well.

Classified Advertising NPS by Market
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Scripps Mean
Newspaper E
Newspaper D
Newspaper C
Newspaper A
Newspaper L
Newspaper F
Newspaper I
40
70
75
60


























Newspaper K
Newspaper H
Newspaper B
Newspaper J, N
Newspaper G, M
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• The following judgments were used to assess the
  attitudinal ratings

Newspaper Attitudes Ratings Assessment
Excel-lent
Poor
Neutral
Fair
Good
5
1
2
3
4
3.5
4.5
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• Of the 23 attitudes, Scripps newspapers generally
  scored in the Fair category, suggesting room for
  improvement.

Newspaper Attitudes Ratings Assessment
Excel-lent
Poor
Neutral
Fair
Good
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• Provocative Bias Findings
• Concern over newspapers being biased appears to
  be an important issue for the affluent.
• Reflecting minority communities accurately was
  noted as an issue across minority groups.

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• Provocative Lifestage Findings
• Families are a key segment to defend and grow for
  both readership and advertisers.
• Schools/Education may be a way to reach them

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• Thirteen High-Priority Opportunities

• Continue to improve and enhance the core,
  fundamental topic areas of Local News,
  Entertainment/Leisure, Advertising, and Sports.
• Extend reach and delight readers with information
  on Schools/Education and Health.
• Religion and Spirituality represents an
  opportunity in select markets.
• Newspapers identified as vulnerable need to
  aggressively address their positions.

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• Several markets are in strong positions to build
  on for local market dominance.
• Scripps newspapers need to improve their
  perception of delivering fresh news.
• Explore improving ratings of overall enjoyment of
  reading the newspaper and perceived value to
  increase overall recommendation ratings.
• Trusting the newspaper to be honest and fair and
  presenting a broad range of opinions also are
  worth attention.

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• Improving content in topic areas alone will be
  insufficient.
• Families, representing 55 of the total, are a
  key segment to defend and grow for both
  readership and advertisers.
• Concern over newspapers being biased appears to
  be an important issue for the affluent.

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• Reflecting minority communities accurately is an
  important core value of the E.W. Scripps Company,
  but was noted as an issue across minority groups,
  most importantly among upper-income
  African-Americans.
• Newspapers need to do a better job in the battle
  with television in local news.
• Scripps newspapers need to have a proactive local
  Internet strategy to complement the print
  product(s).

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• Market-Level Next Steps
• Create collective initiatives to address content
  areas of common interest
• Share best practices at newspapers with high NPS
• Identify newspapers in need of improvement

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• Corporate-Level Next Steps
• Long-term commitment to tracking and improving
  its Net-Promoter Scores.
• The complete study will be conducted in odd years
  in all 14 markets an abbreviated study focused
  on demographics and Likely to Recommend will be
  conducted in even years.
• Address online needs and opportunities in Phase
  II.

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• For more information

Linda Sease The E.W. Scripps Company 303.484.1885
linda.sease_at_scripps.com Barbara Cohen Kannon
Consulting, Inc. 312.346.2244 bcohen_at_kannon.com