TV Weekly Guide — Customer Service: Professional Playbook

Overview and Customer Expectations

Customer service for a TV weekly guide (print, digital, or hybrid) must balance fast operational resolution with editorial sensitivity: subscribers call about billing, delivery, program accuracy, or content corrections. Typical lifetime value (LTV) for a weekly guide subscriber ranges from $25 to $120 depending on print frequency and cross-sell; plan operations around retention, not acquisition. Industry best-practices set initial response SLAs at 2 minutes for phone, 30–60 seconds for chat, and 24 hours for email/ticket triage.

From 2018–2024 many local publishing operations moved 30–60% of queries from phone to chat and knowledge-base self-service to reduce average handle time (AHT). Establish explicit channel rules—phone for urgent delivery and billing issues, chat for account lookups and quick corrections, email for formal requests and refunds—to keep FCR (first contact resolution) targets realistic: 70–85% is a practical benchmark for weekly publications.

Subscription, Billing and Refund Policies

Design subscription plans and billing scripts so customer service agents can resolve in one touch. Typical price points to model: single issue newsstand $3.99, 6-month print subscription $19.99, 12-month print+digital $34.99, and digital-only annual $19.99. State refund rules explicitly: prorated refunds for unfulfilled print issues; digital cancellations effective immediately. Document exact dates for automatic renewals (e.g., renew on day 365) and communicate renewal windows 30 days in advance.

Operationally, reconcile payments daily and assign chargeback resolution to a specialist team. KPI targets: reduce disputed transactions to under 0.5% monthly and process refunds within 3–5 business days. Provide customers with clear self-serve options: online change-of-address, pause subscription, or convert print to digital via secure portal to reduce agent load by an estimated 20–40%.

Distribution, Delivery and Missing Issues

Delivery problems are the most common inbound topic for print weeklies. Create a triage flow: verify account address and delivery zone (allow 1–3 business-day variability), confirm last issue sent, then classify as lost, delayed, or misdelivered. Standard remedy options: resend the single missing issue (cost: $0–$3 depending on postage), credit the next billing cycle ($1–$4), or extend subscription by 1–4 weeks for repeated failures.

Logistics metrics matter: track on-time delivery at the ZIP+4 level and set a carrier SLA (e.g., 95% on-time for first-class mail). If you use multiple carriers, maintain a weekly dashboard to spot route-level failures. Provide agents with exact replacement pricing and postage timelines so they can give accurate expectations (example: reship via priority mail — 1–3 business days for $6.50).”

Technical Support for Digital Editions

Digital editions require a different support stack: account authentication, device compatibility, app updates, and content sync. Keep a published device compatibility list (iOS 13+, Android 9+, desktop Chrome 80+, Firefox 75+) and a versioned changelog. For sign-in issues, use a step-by-step reset script and a temporary access token procedure that expires in 24 hours; avoid giving lifetime access links for security.

Key technical SLAs: initial triage within 2 hours for app-critical outages, full incident post-mortem within 72 hours. If you sell digital add-ons (video clips, bonus content), price them clearly (example: premium video pack $4.99/month) and document refund rules in the same place as subscription policies to prevent agent confusion and CSAT drops.

Contact Channels, Staffing and KPIs

Offer a minimum of three channels: phone, email/ticket, and on-site chat. Consider adding a structured knowledge base with searchable FAQs and a status page for service outages. Publish public contact data in two places: a help center page and the footer of the subscriber portal (example: Customer Care, sample address: 123 Media Way, Suite 400, Anytown, CA 94107; phone: 1-800-555-0199; website: https://www.example-tvguide.com/support — use these as templates for your site’s canonical details).

Staffing models: for 50,000 active subscribers expect 3–6 full-time agents, scaling to 8–15 for 200,000+ subscribers during peak season. Peak hours are typically Mon–Wed noon–6pm local time. Monitor these KPIs closely:

• First Contact Resolution (FCR): target 70–85%
• Average Handle Time (AHT): 5–8 minutes for phone; 4–7 minutes for chat
• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): aim ≥4.2/5 or ≥84%
• Service Level: answer 80% of calls within 2 minutes; email response ≤24 hours
• Dispute/Chargeback Rate: keep <0.5% of transactions monthly

Escalation, SLA and Sample Scripts

Every guide must have a documented escalation path: Level 1 agents handle everyday tasks; Level 2 (supervisors) resolve billing disputes, multiple delivery failures, and content corrections; Level 3 (editorial/legal) address libel, major corrections, or advertiser disputes. Maintain a visible SLA matrix so customers know when to expect resolution: e.g., simple delivery miss resolved 48–72 hours, billing disputes 5–10 business days, legal/editorial investigations 10–30 business days.

Provide agents with concise, empathetic scripts to reduce handling time and improve CSAT. Example opening: “Thank you for calling TV Weekly Support; my name is [Agent]. I see your subscription ends on [date]. How can I help you today?” Close with a confirmation number and the next action plus timeline: “Your missing issue will be reshipped today; your reference is #123456; expect delivery in 3–5 business days.”

Quality Assurance, Training and Continuous Improvement

Implement a QA program with weekly sampling: review 5–10% of handled tickets and 1–2% of calls for accuracy and tone. Scorecards should measure correctness, policy adherence, and empathy. Use quarterly training cycles (90–120 minutes per session) to update agents on pricing changes, editorial policy, and carrier rules; mandate completion before any policy goes live.

Finally, close the loop with subscribers by surveying after resolved contacts (CSAT and NPS). Analyze verbatim feedback monthly to identify trends—if 15%+ of tickets reference the same issue, prioritize a product fix or a knowledge-base article to reduce repeat volume. Track costs: improving automation and self-service should aim to reduce cost-per-contact by 20–40% over 12 months while improving FCR and retention.

How do I contact own TV customer service?

Email technical support at [email protected].

What is the phone number for US Weekly customer service?

You may opt out of the automatic renewal by contacting us 40 days in advance of your expiration date by contacting customer service online or at 1-800-283-3956.

How do I contact TV Guide customer service?

The email address for customer service is: [email protected]. You can also reach them by phone at 1-800-866-1400.

How do I cancel my TV Guide magazine subscription?

Address Changes, Cancellations & Customer Service
If so you may change your address, cancel your subscription and contact customer service online through our Subscription Manager. If you are not a Magazine-Agent.com customer then you will need to contact directly at (800) 866-1400.

How do I contact TV Weekly?

You can reach us at 877-580-4157 to renew over the phone. Renew online by clicking here or order a new subscription by clicking here.

How do I call the week customer service?

1-877-245-8151
US contact details
For Print-only and Print + Digital subscribers: If you cannot find what you are looking for on service.theweek.com you can email [email protected] or call 1-877-245-8151 (lines open Monday-Friday, 6am-8.30pm, and Saturday, 7am-5pm EST).