29th Nov 2007

Isn't it curious that corporates involved with communication are hopeless when it comes down to the grass roots of communicating with the primary focus of their existence... .....the customer.

Internet companies, Telcos are are all guilty of trumpeting their wares and services, always looking at the big picture but hopless at sorting out things at the nuts and bolts level and seeing things through the eyes of their customer. Fairfax newspapers looks like it is guilty of the same thing now that it venturing into the electronic media.

For the last few days, a full page advertisement has featured in the Christchurch Press on how excited they are with their wonderful electronic version of the paper. Existing subscribers are invited to sign up for a free 3 month trial. Unfortunately it is the classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand does and whoever designed the the concept of the free trial has no idea on how the subscriber base operates.

Existing subscribers are invited to sign in with their "Fairfax ID" and telephone number. Fine if you are living in the city or a large enough town where the Press have an office, you are billed direct and an ID number is printed on your 3 monthly invoice.

The rest of the populace purchase their subscription through agencies and are billed by that agency. It's not exactly rocket science and a detail you'd have thought someone in the design team would have thought of. In trying to point out the weakness I was at first ignored then when I persisted going higher up the corporate chain, I received a terse 5 word reply "we are looking into it". This I expect from Telecom, I wouldn't thought of the Press though.

Perhaps the perceived market of the electronic version are the shiny suits sitting in their tower blocks and they can ignore the country yokels. Well Mr Fairfax, us country folks often don't get their paper delivered 'til late in the day and on holidays, not until the next rural post delivery, so there is definitely a potential subscriber base there. Whether it will worth the extra cost is another matter, but at the moment that is all academic as they are offering a trial they can't deliver on.

TC