Universal Information Services – An Introduction

Our main goal is simply said as, “Empowering the PR Professional”… with media monitoring and measurement solutions. From a development perspective our focus on complete integration of all media types, not just some of the media types or some of the hits. – Todd Murphy, Vice President Universal Information Services

The core of the business has two parts; the first core competency is comprehensive coverage from print, TV, Radio, web and social media; the second wraps the core competency in a laser focused customer service culture that begets solid customer loyalty.

In Todd’s own words “…this is what we deliver to our clients, but in a service package that is unique for each client. There are circumstances when a SaaS or firmly defined product offering fits a clients’ needs, but our clients are more interested in the ability to customize the service around their specific needs.”

Product offering includes:

SmartWire – through a partnership with engage121 users can create their media lists and send out their press releases through this feature. It is easily accessible from within the SmartView portal.
SmartView  – this is the portal where print, digital and social content is presented to the customer.
Qualitative PR Measurement and Impact Scoring – this is all human-based analysis. Automation comes into play in gathering content but the actual reading, scoring, tagging etc is all done by real people.

Universal Information Services product offering hits all the basics a communicator requires in the workflow. The expected ‘counts’ are all represented in the analytics and reporting (hits, impressions, tone (human-scored) etc.).

The reporting within the product and the samples I reviewed provide a helpful summary of what the news cycle contained.

As part of the service they read, edit and clip many publications directly through their Omaha office, thus not relying on a third party to provide content. However they also contract with affiliated, state bureaus to provide deeper reading of articles in other states as well as services like BurrellesLuce where needed to fulfill client business needs. All articles, regardless of their origin are clipped and processed through a proprietary system and are delivered via the SmartView platform.

What makes this process unique is that Universal Information Services provide what they have termed “State Level Reading”, which translates to the inclusion of more weekly publications than a national service.

What I came away with after running through the product offering and speaking to Todd and his team is that this company seriously focuses on customer service.

This focus is realized through product customization and that makes it their market differentiator.

It isn’t a sales pitch, it is how they work every day with every customer.

This is the reason Universal Information Services will continue to serve customers another 100+ years when others have been acquired, sold or simply shuttered.

Check out their newly launched website at universal-info.com or call them (800) 408-3178 for more information or a demonstration of their services.