Service Truck Magazine recently put its reputation on the line by asking for feedback from its readership on how it was doing in providing content that mattered.
We broke the survey results into our print magazine—which we will cover in the next issue of our print issue—and digital materials, which we’ll talk about now.
While the Service Truck Magazine editor, Andrew Joseph, describes himself to anyone stuck near him as a glass-half-filled kindda person, even he admitted that he didn’t hold up much hope for more than a handful of people caring enough to respond.
You showed him. A total of 233 respondents took the time to make their opinions known.
At the start of 2024, our monthly digital newsletter was upped to twice a month—more bang for your free buck as a reader.
As readers of both the newsletter and the print magazine are aware, we do our best to ensure that content is not duplicated in both mediums—unless we feel it is appropriate to do so.
Why is that important? Because 94 percent of respondents noted that they subscribe to both the print magazine and the digital newsletter.
We know that people in this industry are busy, but still, 49 percent said they read the entire newsletter, 36 percent said they read most issues, and 14 percent said they read it occasionally.
How much do you read? Most of it, said 49 percent; all of it said, 30 percent; and some of it, said 20 percent.
While the editor thought the following was a silly question, he underestimated the readership. Do you share or forward the newsletter to other members of your team? While he expected a resounding “no,” 47 percent of you said you did share. Might we humbly suggest that everyone you shared with instead sign up for their own free digital subscription?
A pleasant surprise was the readership response to how much time was spent reading the newsletter, which opens up to the full article on our website. While 34 percent said they spent one to nine minutes reading, an impressive 65 percent said they typically spent 10 to 29 minutes. Of course, the result does not consider the speed-reading capabilities of some of you.
Is the newsletter too long or too short? Coming in at just right were 55 percent of respondents; 22 percent said it was too long; 16 percent said it was too short; and eight percent had no opinion.
We asked for commentary on the statement, “I feel engaged by the content": 35 percent strongly agreed; 51 percent agreed; 11 percent neither agreed nor disagreed; seven percent disagreed; and no one said they strongly disagreed.
We also wanted feedback on the statement: “It keeps me up to date about industry news and events: 31 percent strongly agreed; 48 percent agreed; 15 percent said neither agree nor disagree; five percent disagreed, and one person strongly disagreed. It seems like there’s some work we could improve on here.
As for the articles we provided: 29 percent found them excellent; 43 percent good; 16 percent found them average; six percent said poor; five percent said very poor; and one percent had no opinion.
Regarding ease of reading: 26 percent said excellent; 39 percent said good; 22 percent said average; six percent said poor; three percent said very poor, and another three had no opinion.
For layout and design, 17 percent said it looked excellent, 46 percent said it was good, 23 percent found it average, three percent thought it was very poor, and four percent had no opinion.
Overall, a total of 75 percent of the survey respondents rated the newsletter above average, with 26 percent saying it was excellent. Twenty-one percent said it was average, two percent found it poor, and one percent did not have an opinion.
Lastly, we asked what you liked most about the newsletter. Surprise, surprise, nine percent said it was the Event Listings; 32 percent said it was our Sponsored Content; and the remaining 59 percent said it was the articles.
To those of you who took the time to provide us with feedback, thank you very much.
We will look to implement your suggestions where we can to cater to your needs.
This magazine does want to point out that it did receive a critique that we spend too much time discussing battery-electric stuff. It’s a criticism we take seriously. But, for whatever reason, whenever we publish an article about EVs, it quickly becomes the most-read article of the week. By far.
For us, it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. In other words, we know it’s tough to make everybody happy. But we’re gonna try.