The Customer’s Library
The Travelin’ Librarian just put up notes from a presentation called ” The Customer-Centered Library: How to stop tweaking and start doing it with new steps for 2007.” It was given by Karen Hyman, South Jersey Library Cooperative, Columbus Public Library, Columbus, NE. A pdf of the presentation is available for download on the PLA Symposium 2007 website. Every library administrator and librarian should be thinking about how to make their library more customer-centered.
I think my Library is doing great in most areas, but the way I see it, there’s always room for improvement, especially if it means making our patrons happier! One thing I’m going to do right now is add another page (see top menu) on this site called “Brainstorm.” This will be where I keep a running list of ideas for ways to improve my particular library’s service to its community. Please feel free to add to this list by leaving a comment. If you’re a library staff person or a library user from the community, please share your ideas on how to make this a better library. If you’re a library staff person and reading this blog, one way to approach this is to note each time you say “No, we can’t…” or “No, we don’t…” to a patron and ask yourself if this is something we can change to improve our services.
Here are the 12 steps to a customer-centered library according to the presentation:
- Care
- Think like a customer
- See the problem(s)
- Change your approach, not the customer
- Abandon victimhood
- Organize your library to support quality service
- Walk through everything
- Get the book into the customers’ hands
- Transform the library experience
- Overcome overdues
- Take the library to the people
- Make something happen