"KLRN -- The Public
Television station for South
and Central Texas
introduced KLRU to nuMedia.
We're happy to share our successes
with others and nuMedia has
helped KLRN win web awards
and millions of hits on our
website. The Internet is a
vital link to the Public and
nuMedia has helped KLRN develop
this important resource."
Charles
Vaughn
Senior Vice President, Telecommunication
KLRN
The
Situation:
Working with two high-profile
PBS television stations, we
were asked to help generate
more membership pledges and
offer additional services
for both members and non-members.
As we normally do when brainstorming
a new project, we put ourselves
in the role of a typical customer,
in this case a PBS viewer,
and asked ourselves why we
watch PBS in the first place
and what, if anything, would
make it better. Being members
of our local PBS station before
they became a client, we already
knew why we liked and supported
PBS television: unsurpassed
quality programming. What
we didn't like about PBS was
that the, seemingly irregular,
programming schedules made
it difficult, if not impossible,
to remember when NOVA and
our other favorites aired.
The
Solution:
The answer was obvious…send
me a reminder when my favorites
are going to be on. And, it
seemed just as obvious, that
if we make the product better,
it'll be easier to ask for
money. Fix the first and the
second will come right along…
To send program reminders,
the system would have to know
when all the programs aired
and which ones we considered
our favorites. The first part
was easy, we'd already worked
our code into their backend
system which managed the actual
programming schedules. Having
access to the program schedules,
the stations have been able
to let viewers see what's
on right now as well as any
other time, past, present
or future. We could also search
for our favorites' schedules…and
try not to forget them.
The trick now was to make sure
the station knew who we were
and what our favorites were
and of course, how to remind
us when they were scheduled
to air.
The answer was a personalized
portal system for their members.
With this, a member is greeted
with a list of upcoming shows
that he or she has marked
as favorites and any upcoming
events they want to be reminded
of.
Members can check their membership
status to see when they are
due for renewal and, if they
happen to forget, the system
sends them an email reminder
and gently reminds them when
they sign in to their portal.
When they do renew, they can
easily select a "Thank
you" gift according to
their pledge level.
It even makes gift suggestions
based on the member's program
preferences.
Once we got the basics covered
- program and event reminders
and easy membership renewals
- we started icing the cake…
We added features to: send
a program listing to a friend;
an HTML or plain-text e-newsletter
customized to each member's
program preferences; the capability
for members to add their own
events to the calendar with
reminders; a friendly way
to print a schedule of your
favorite programs by the day,
week or month; and, finally,
a way to actually buy more
neat stuff from the station's
store after you've become
a member, not only when you're
pledging.
What about non-members? The
system is designed so any
and all features can be restricted
to members only or opened
to the public. This way, the
station can offer "sneak
previews" of the great
features members enjoy and
entice new converts.
That was all for the members.
And, we were right, make it
better and more viewers will
become members. With a noticeable
increase in membership pledges,
what about the beleaguered
staff? We took care of them
as well.
"KLRU -- the public
television station for Central
Texas -- has worked
closely with nuMedia for over
three years and with every
project nuMedia has exceeded
our expectations. NuMedia
staff are thorough and combine
ingenuity with a strong work-ethic.
The nuMedia staff are capable
of solving technological problems
quickly and have helped show
us ways to save money as well
as provide great services
to our television viewers.
NuMedia has provided KLRU
with all of the tools we need
to make our Web sites one
of the best in the PBS system.
We strongly recommend working
with NuMedia."
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