Universal Information Services

Part 3 of 3 (The Bottom Line)

As the 3rd in a series, I had to spend some time thinking about what value I could add to our previous Universal blog posts about “Knowing Your Strengths”.

This question, “How can we add value?” is a question that I ask myself every day as I’m interacting with our clients.  Much of what I’m tasked with each day is to review the news monitoring and media measurement services our clients currently receive, then find ways to ensure they have our most innovative, relevant and comprehensive solution. If a client has been only using broadcast monitoring, for instance, perhaps the time has come to add in web and social media monitoring.  Many stories that don’t make the cut to be broadcast often end up on a broadcaster’s website.

Or, maybe a long-time client is receiving print clippings for one state, but now their product/service is on the national stage and it might make more sense to upgrade to Nationwide Web, Social Media and Digital Print.  Constantly reviewing what media our clients have access to, and how they can consume it, is my job.

One of the most important ways we can service our clients well, is to anticipate ongoing change and find the solutions that fit those changes. I would say this is one of the strengths Universal has over other vendors… it is my strength.

Our entire team continually asks ourselves and each other, “Does client X have the best service mix from us and have we provided all the support they need?” One way for us to identify and meet the need that this existing client has is to listen carefully to the questions clients are asking regularly and then proactively approach the client in a way that brings knowledge and expertise of our tools and products to those answers. Here’s a simple example, “We know that you are working on a campaign for the __X___ industry. Is the media type we monitor for your team accounting for the demographics you want to reach?” For our clients, comprehensiveness of monitored sources is critical. That is why they use Universal over other news monitoring services.

Another common question we ask is, “Are the measurement reports we provide highlighting your current key marketing messages and providing the insights you need?” If not, that’s a clear signal that we need to review current deliverables and make some adjustments.  As media intelligence experts, it’s important to plan two or three plays ahead of our clients, anticipating what they need, instead of just responding reactively… or not at all.

We want our clients to use our services because they find value in real comprehensive media monitoring, PR measurement and media contacts.  With news cycles moving faster than ever before, our technology and accessibility is now more powerful at capturing media coverage, but none of that matters if the media coverage results don’t populate in a useful way.

Our strengths? Proactive outreach and communication is one of the strongest ways we can add value to our clients and ensure that results are relevant and useful.  Reviewing the client’s keywords and search terms is a very basic, yet critical way to ensure usefulness.  While this may not seem that important, or it may seem like a small part of what our team does, an accurate search strategy dovetails with effective tools/platforms providing the foundation for the best media monitoring outcomes available.  We demand that our team members meet and exceed client expectations and our goal is to always create a concrete client relationship.

Your strengths? Simply doing the best job you were hired to do. Your strengths only need to be what you are already great at, and then let the professional media monitoring and measurement services manage your exposure. I help make sure you stay strong.

 Jean Saucier, Client Solutions Manager, jsaucier@universal-info.com, 630/922-3474