Week 3: Online Meetings

I tuned into Revitalizing Your Library Experience! hosted by Joan Frye Williams and George Needham. They challenge those of us in the library world to stop giving lip service to great customer service and to re-examine what we do as a library. Their claim is that 90 % of what we do is all about us and focused on what we do rather than respecting what the customers want. We need to focus on the other end of the equation.

Joan and George suggest that we layer our customer service to speak to the customer's situation and to make the most of "now". For example, time is valued more perhaps than anything today. So they suggest that we provide information that customers are able to digest it in small peices now when they are less busy, in larger pieces when they have a little more time, and in great detail when they need that information and have the time to read it. Service can be layered by time, place, hospitality (treat them like a welcome guest, not a walking work load), the discovery process and relationships (customers want familiar faces, want to be remembered, want to be treated as people we want to return).

Joan and George contend that the challenging environment we are operating in today is exactly the time when we should be focusing on these equations. I found much of what they were saying to be counter to what we seem to be doing as a system right now. This is paticularly true in terms of the relationship piece and respecting what the customers want. We decide what we will market to the public and to the schools and the customers should be quiet and gladly take what we decide to offer them. After all, we know exactly what they want and what is best for them right? This is based on whose opinions? I was, however, very glad to see our director hold public focus group opportunities to discuss prioritizing service if and when service will be cut. This is a step in the right direction in my humble opinion.