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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, August 14, 1979
Page 7
PT PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE UPDATE
As promised in a previous Pastor's Report, here's an update on the PT
Promotional Brochure which we inserted in the San Diego and Sacramento
Sunday newspapers. (One is enclosed for your interest.)
As of last week, we have added over 5,400 new subscribers from both cities.
This is over a 1% response which we consider excellent on a cost per re
sponse basis. Several outside direct mail consultants have told us that
this response is very good by industry standards. We feel that these
subscribers will be of fairly high quality because the insert was designed
to accurately describe the religious content of the magazine. Successful
as we feel the insert has been, we are working on improvements to increase
future responses even more.
--Roger Lippross, Publishing Services Director
THE WATS LINE GREETING
The telephone operators in the WATS area of the Mail Processing Center in
Pasadena .,are greeting callers with the words: "Thank you for calling. May
I help you?"
Frequently we receive questions as to why we use such a general greeting,
rather than specifically mentioning the Church or "The World Tomorrow."
The reason for this simple salutation is primarily to avoid confusion in
the minds of many new "first-time" callers. The WATS number is occasionally
used in nationwide spot commercials--as well as in many of our booklets
and magazines. Calls to the WATS number come from spot ads, booklet cards,
PT newsstand copies, as well as from ministers and members. And, because
the Work has many entities--Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, the Worldwide Church
of God, Ambassador College, AICF, PLAIN TRUTH, GOOD NEWS, etc.--calls can
be in response to media efforts of any of .these entities.
In answering any given call, the operators have no way of knowing the
background of the caller, and are therefore using a general non-specific
approach which will be appropriate for whoever is calling.
This simple greeting is being used, then, as a means of avoiding confusion
--and yet is a friendly acknowledgment to each call.
(Unfortunately in
the past, some new callers have responded to booklet spot commercials and
when hearing our operators say "The World Tomorrow program," they thought
they had a wrong number and hung up!)
So, if you happen to use the WATS number and hear this general greeting,
this is why we use it. It allows us to respond to a wide variety of
listeners--some who know a great deal about the Work, and some who know
very little. Our goals are to serve everyone as equally well as we can.
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
July has been ·the best month for income in Canada for about three years!
A 24% increase for the month puts the year-to-date income figure at +11%.
Coupled with -4% on expenses, the financial picture is looking very healthy
as we move into planning fall programs.