Sunday, March 1, 2009

McClatchy publisher announces call center is being moved, but doesn't say where

A straight-talking McClatchy publisher would be a breath of fresh air, but straight talk is not what Rock Hill Herald readers are getting from publisher Debbie Abels. Abels announced Sunday the paper's call center is being moved but was strangely silent on certain details.

...The Herald is scheduled to begin conversion of its circulation customer service calls from one call center to another. Again, because of the prohibitive cost of newspapers equipping and maintaining separate call centers, we went to a clustered call center model some time ago. Banks and many other types of businesses have made similar arrangements. Our parent company now is taking that one step further, contracting with a vendor who can service our newspapers in one centralized center, thereby saving money in an era when newspapers are up against serious economic challenges.

This changeover will be gradual over the next several weeks. Should you have a need to call our service center, the number remains 1-877-421-6397.

She makes it sound like the call center is moving from one side of town to the other. Instead of from the US to the Philippines.
.
.
.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Sac Bee lay off 30+ reps a couple of years ago. The Call Center was moved to the Philippines. Service has never been worse. Not only are the reps impossible to understand but at times you can even hear the chickens in the background.

Anonymous said...

"Steve" and "Jane" from Bangalore will be in charge.

They speak English bery, bery good.

Anonymous said...

OMG, you guys are FUNNY! I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw two posts. Excellent!

Anonymous said...

For optimum efficiency the call center should be located near a recycling center.

That way should a subscriber wish to fly internationally, then take a caribou to a call center, they could efficiently drop off their unwanted papers and complain to management.

I also firmly believe the politician from Davis might be interested in this “green” insight

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking the call center will be moved to the Phillipines. Makes sense, since they already have a vendor operating from there, that now does our production, creative ad design and who knows what else.

Anonymous said...

Any MNI paper would sell great in the Philippines.

The Philippine NPA, a Marxist orginization hell bent on taking over the Philippine government, I'm sure would buy it!

So you see, a call center in the Philippines is a perfect fit!

Anonymous said...

All papers are being phased into the call center in the Philippines. The real question is, does it really save anything when you account for the lost customers, ill will, and constant errors. The backlash against overseas outsourcing is growing in this country with high unemployment. Next areas to come, ad production, finance, and copy editing if you look at what Media News has done.

Anonymous said...

If you think about it, all the job tasks at any paper can be outsourced except for advertising sales and local news and that can be contract labor with cheap salary and no benefits.

Why keep control of your business? So long as your exec salary is safe, what does it matter who does the work at the cheapest price where?

It is The National Save an Underpriviledged Country Decade........another O concept.