Combined, they employ about 400 people, I've been told. More recently, they've struggled to sooth unhappy readers, amid cutbacks including hours of operation and the nearly complete elimination of redelivery of missed newspapers. Jeff Gillen has run the centers since they were launched in 2006.It sounds like Corporate may have hired a consultant recently to offer advice on the centers's future.
The COEs, as they're called, were all up and running by the end of 2007, according to that year's annual report, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "The COE goals are efficiency and standardization of procedures, which will result in better customer service at a lower cost," the report says. "State of the art technology was employed at the centers. The three COEs will handle an anticipated 15 million phone calls in 2008."
Know something about this? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
The COEs are being outsourced to the Philippines in 2nd quarter 2010. Publishers were briefed on the plan Thursday and Friday.
ReplyDeleteYou mean the Centers of Incompetence?
ReplyDelete9:55 am: How is that possible? There would be big language barriers.
ReplyDeleteThe Director of COE was let go on Wednesday. There were all day meeting on Thursday with all three site managers and 3 people from Tysons and a call center consultant.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia isn't always accurate. That said, this Wiki article says there are nearly 800 customer call centers in the Philippines.
ReplyDeleteLanguage barrier only applies if they actually answer the phone.
ReplyDeleteCOE's are just another expensive boondoggle that was best left to the individual newspapers instead of control freak central. This level of corporate bureaucracy was never needed. Delivery is a local issue and should be left to the local paper. Decentralization is a concept they harped on and now this?
ReplyDeleteDanny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana
This is another bright idea from corporate that has caused irreparable damage. Outsourcing customer-service has been a disaster.
ReplyDeleteHow stupid is it that the automated voice has to "click" a keyboard while she "looks up" your account? Is it worse that they used a sound effect of someone typing on a 1967 Selectric to fake a computer keyboard sound?
ReplyDeleteNo one at our site can say Center of Excellence without snorting. We used to be able to say we were proud to work for the paper. Now if you tell people that, you get the entire play by play of how stupid our ownership is. Not the paper - the corporation we work for.
ok so it makes no sense cause there are already enough problems with the call centers being in midwest when someone just wants to talk to a local person
ReplyDeleteso if this happens along with the projected ad production consolidation there are a ton of layoffs there gee
when do they start outsourcing crappy managers, publishers and Corporate, hopefully soon
All this complaining but I'll bet no one has a better idea to do something different and still make the same bottom line. If they did they would be sharing it here or elsewhere instead of just complaining.
ReplyDeleteThe business model has to change with the times. I despise off-shoring anything but centralizing common activities makes some sense. A first-line call center is one of those things. It has worked for USAT for 20 years or more. If the call center can't handle it then the local market gets involved.
The problem, 8:21, is that you're not going to be making the same bottom line. Gannett management doesn't realize that.
ReplyDeleteI suspect most of the "outsourced" ventures will eventually be shipped overseas (accounting, ad design, copy editing, etc.)
ReplyDeleteTo: 1/24/2010 12:30 PM
ReplyDeleteOnce again you prove my point. You have no solutions, only silly complaints.
Of course Gannett management understands the financial implications of pretty much everything done. You obviously don't understand these implications.
I'm sure you make cuts in your household based on income and unexpected expenses. And I'll bet you've made a few cuts unless you've been making more money than before. this is no different.
I now doubt Gannett's COE jobs are subject to off-shoring to the Philippines -- although other newspaper publishers have taken that step. An employee who I believe has direct knowledge of the management changes at the centers says this is very doubtful for Gannett.
ReplyDeleteMore important, I believe Anonymous@9:55 a.m. fabricated that information in an effort to discredit this blog. For those reasons, I've taken down a post exploring the possibility.
Unfortunately, there are readers who continue to be intimidated by this blog, and abuse the privilege of anonymous posting -- hoping I'll quit. So long as traffic continues to grow, that won't happen.
Anonymous@2:36 p.m. posted the following comment; I'm publishing it with information removed that could identify individuals:
ReplyDeleteI was thrown out of the COE's - I was a manager - and let me tell you that XXX's demise was a long time in coming. Gannett decided that their own world-class customer service centers at the local properties cost too much - and wanted the cost savings from consolidation.
What they got was an outsider (XXX) and his cronies (namely XXX) ran the place like an asylum. And FWIW the inmates were running the asylum!
All Gannett wanted was the cost savings to be realized but they learned a valuable lesson. Don't ever consolidate anything you are not willing to have screwed up beyond recognition.
And to the person who is upset about the 'typing' noise - sorry, you need to do your homework. You cannot in the age of digital telecomm have silence on the line if you wish to retain callers. The noise is necessary. I asked the vendor and the choice was the type clicking or a computerized bubbling sound. That noise was so harsh that we stuck with the stupid clicking. Find a real reason to criticize.
Bottom line: cost savings are achievable in any consolidation so long as you are willing to put up with the after-effects of loss of quality, service and brains
Another consultant. Just what they need after Jeff Gillen. He didn't understand newspapers and didn't want to. He might as well have been selling timeshares. Of course, this is the person corporate hired and I think that says it all when it comes to the intelligence corporate put into getting this started.
ReplyDeleteGannett delivery in Rochester NY in the city is near onto useless. I miss 3 to 4 papers a month and have long since given up on the "typing sound" which grates on my teeth every time I hear it. I want to talk to the idiot consultant who created that infuriating patronizing sound.
ReplyDelete