NRS Media Reports: Number one reason local direct advertisers are leaving you – Poor Customer Service!
The standard reasons for leaving given to radio sales people by local direct advertisers are “Radio does not work” “the campaign didn’t work for us” or “we didn’t feel the benefit from the money spent.” However, research with more than 500 UK based radio advertisers shows that these are more likely excuses. The top reason is actually because the advertiser hasn’t had enough face to face contact and been made to feel special enough by the Sales Person. In other words, their customer service is poor.
A typical advertiser interviewed in March said “We’ve not seen a rep since we signed our new contract in November. We need someone to come and see us when our commercials go to air. It would be great to have some new creative ideas. I do need to speak with someone right now. If not we will be cancelling after this campaign”
The main and most alarming finding the new Client Services Department at NRS Media discovered from radio salespeople is that once they’ve gone through the process of winning the business, few seldom have any strategies to keep and grow the advertiser after that. In fact 95% of radio sales reps when asked had not even thought about how they would grow their customer’s business.
NRS Media’s Client Services Director, Laura Lees says, “Think about how much time and resource radio stations’ local sales teams focus on hunting to find new business. Yet they seldom wonder why a lot of their radio campaigns are one-off advertisers who they never see again. The easiest companies to sell to are those that are already advertising with us, because they’ve already made the decision we are the right medium and station for them. Once you’ve won the business you have to have a clearly defined servicing strategy”
The NRS Media Client Services Team has been working with a number of radio clients to address the issue of customer service. By educating management and teams to sit regularly in front of their existing advertisers and ask simple yet important questions, they have seen a retention rates of 80+%. Creating an environment where delivering a structured customer service program is as important as driving new sales, increases up-sell and takes Sales Teams to a totally different level of effectiveness.
Ms Lees also says, “Think about one more thing – how much time and effort does your radio station focus on keeping and growing your listeners? Through competitions, features, events and interactive quizzes on air, there is always a plan in place for listener retention. If you could take some of that effort and switch it over to advertisers, wouldn’t that make for a happier customer base and sales team, plus a healthier bottom line?”
As a global leader in direct media sales strategy, NRS Media has designed and executed professionally structured revenue generating solutions for almost 20 years in over 30 different countries.
NRS Media is expert in identifying and executing sales training and revenue generation opportunities that help media businesses succeed, even in the toughest economic climate.
NRS Media has generated over £500 million globally for its media partners. In the past year alone NRS Media Europe delivered more than £43 million in incremental revenue for its clients.
Click here for NRS Media‘s website.
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Posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 at 6:12 am by RadioToday UK