culs 2009 presentation give em the pickle

Give ‘em the Pickle: Give ‘em the Pickle: Customer Service Customer Service ImprovementImprovement Terri Summey, Associate ProfessorHead of Access and Children’s ServicesEmporia State University

Customer ServiceCustomer ServiceHardy Franklin, ALA President 1994Hardy Franklin, ALA President 1994

“Service is the heart of our profession. Thinking of patrons as ‘customers’ is an apt way to remind ourselves - and our staffs - of the manner in which we wish to associate with the public. Our customers - whether they be students, faculty, or members of the general public - are why libraries exist. We must not take them for granted.”

Customer Service: The Heart of a Library.” College & Research Libraries News. 2(Feb. 94): 63.

Customer Service in Customer Service in Libraries: Not New! Mr. Libraries: Not New! Mr. Green’s AxiomGreen’s Axiom“A librarian should be as unwilling to allow

an inquirer to leave the library with his question unanswered as a shopkeeper to have a customer go out of his store without a purchase. Receive investigators with something of the cordiality displayed by an old time shopkeeper. Hold on to them until they have obtained the information they are seeking, and show a persistency in supplying their wants similar to that manifested by a successful clerk in effecting a sale.”

Why Emphasize Customer Why Emphasize Customer Service?Service?Libraries have:

◦Variety of patrons, varying needs◦Different employees and tiered

servicesPerception of Library

◦“Each individual encounter has power”

Double Standard – “Define own vision of customer service”

Evaluating Customer Evaluating Customer ServiceService360˚ ReviewSurveysUnobtrusive EvaluationComment BoxQualitative MethodsOther methods???

ImprovementImprovementTraining, Training,

Training◦All Staff including Students◦All Departments

New Employee Orientation

Customer Service Philosophy

Be Aware of Customer Service Experiences

Empower Employees

Customer Service: Not Just Customer Service: Not Just for Front Line Employeesfor Front Line EmployeesCirculation / ReferenceInterlibrary LoanShelversTechnical Services / Acquisitions /

Collection DevelopmentInternal / External Customers

The Pickle Principle: The Pickle Principle: Service: Make serving others your #1

Priority. You work in a noble profession, be proud of what you do.

Attitude: Choose your Attitude. How you think about your customers, is how you will treat them.

Consistency: Set high standards, and stick to them. Customers return because they like what happened last time.

Teamwork: Look for ways to make each other look good. In the end, everything ends up in front of the customer!

Give ‘em the PickleGive ‘em the PickleBob FarrellConceptPickle

PrinciplePickles??

Customer Service ModelsCustomer Service ModelsSeattle’s Pike Place

Fish Market◦Attitude◦Play◦Make Their Day◦Be Present

Nordstrom Principles

Ritz Carlton

Celebrate SuccessCelebrate SuccessCustomer

Service WeekRewards and

RecognitionsOther Ideas?

“Customer service is more art than science. Like art, where beauty is in the eye of the beholder, learning the art of customer service takes training, patience, and an “eye.” Skills associated with customer service can best be gained through example, practice, and mentoring. For the challenging staff member, stress that the positive response from customers is, for many of us in public service, the reward that makes our work most enjoyable.”

“Mr. Green’s Axiom” Reference and User Services Quarterly 42:1(Fall 2002)

“So, for today, let’s transform our own individual, professional behavior – reflect not on a colleague’s, an employee’s, the dean’s or director’s behavior – reflect upon our own behavior.”

“It’s not who is right, but what is right.”

Chief Keith Ranney, Bloomington Fire Dept.

Jane Chamberlain, (2008) “What Does It Take? Transforming Customer Service Today.” ILA Reporter 26(1): 4-7.

Bibliography of SourcesBibliography of Sources Bernstein, Mark P. (2008) “Am I Obsolete? How

Customer Service Principles Ensure the Library’s Relevance.” AALL Spectrum 13(2): 20-2.

Brown, Linda C. (2006) “Go Fish! Seattle’s Pike Place Fish Market Offers Inspiration for Exceptional Customer Service.” AALL Spectrum 10(6): 6, 27.

Chamberlain, Jane. (2008) “What Does It Take? Transforming Customer Service Today.” ILA Reporter 26(1): 4-7.

Tooulias-Santolin, Christina. (2006) “Customer Service Training at the University of Toronto: creating excellence through flexible and responsive training.” Feliciter 52(6): 252-3.

Vilelle, Luke and Christopher C. Peters (2008) “Don’t Shelve the Questions: defining good customer service for shelvers.” Reference and User Services Quarterly 48(1): 60-67.

VWallace, Karen. (2007) “Marketing Mindset: Focusing on the Customer, from Technical Services to Circulation.” Feliciter 53(3): 126-9.