Listening to our customers

Attracting customers and treating them well so they will purchase your product is paramount for any business.

The Daily American Republic is no different.

We strive every day to provide the type of product our customers will continue to pay for and new customers will want to do the same. We sometimes come up short, but it’s not because of a lack of effort and enthusiasm by a lot of good people.

Thursday was Get To Know Your Customers Day, and the DAR reached out to our readers and asked them what they liked about their newspaper. We were pleased with the responses.

We don’t have our heads buried in the sand. We deal with negative comments weekly. In our business, there are times we unfortunately have to report bad news. A person arrested is someone’s husband, wife, son, or daughter. Family members get upset when they see relatives in the newspaper in those circumstances.

We try our best to be as sensitive to those types of issues as possible. As long as I’m the publisher of this newspaper, we will never intentionally go after an individual, group or organization. Such actions would be extremely unprofessional. It sends the wrong message to the people we serve.

I’m sure there will be times people may think we are going after them, but I guarantee that won’t happen. It’s our job to report the facts. If someone on our staff wants to voice an opinion in a column (not a news story), their name and picture will be there for people to see. They won’t hide behind a false or anonymous name.

Below are some of the comments people shared on our Facebook page. The names and comments are printed as they appear on the post.

• DougNtara Hart: Love keeping up with the news in town

• Ron Withrow: Enjoy news about locals and stories about our local sports stars and where they are now.

• Reba Kirkland: Can’t live without my Daily News!

• Ann Zukowski: I enjoy reading about local events.

• Cooper Hornbeck: I love to follow what the high school band is doing, and love to hear about local charities!

• Teresa Wilson Rose: Love to read the local news.

• Janice Hornbeck Duncan: Love the blogs! Human interest make a great community newspaper!

• Kim Clark: I enjoy keeping up with local news and events.

• Ann Zukowski: I enjoy reading about local events. It is nice to be able to know what is going on around the area.

• Erica LaTrasse: Seeing our community thriving, our children growing and Poplar Bluff prospering into a more beautiful community to live in everyday with each improvement made. And last, but not least, seeing our law enforcement working diligently to keep our community safe and sound are the articles I Love seeing.

• Sara Elizabeth: We get to read local news and always up to date!

• Chuck Rushin: The fairness and overall news coverage by the newspaper has greatly improved since it’s management change. I would definitely recommend subscribing to their Online Edition if possible, or the Print Edition.

• Paul Theodore Wilcoxen: I just started a subscription to the paper and I have enjoyed the stories. A quality newspaper for the community.

• Kathy Chapman Day: I enjoy things about the students in school, plus all the things going on in our community.

• Megan Hicks: I love seeing all of the wonderful things our schools are doing with the students!! It makes me smile to see local children on the front page having a blast at school.

• Stephanie Barber: The DAR stays UP to date on their information and helps to keep me informed on things that are going on in our community. They always have good articles to read . And I enjoy keeping newspaper clippings when my kids are in the paper for school activities!! I always enjoy drinking coffee and reading the newspaper.

Thank you to DAR reporter Amber Hornbeck for coming up with the idea for this project. The first five people who posted comments received coffee mugs, and one person was selected in a drawing of all the commenters for a free three-month subscription.

The winner of the free subscription will be announced via Facebook live on Monday.

Thank you for reading the DAR’s print edition and our website darnews.com .