February 09, 2008

Customer Service as Community, Community as Customer Service

One of the most thought provoking sessions at the Customer Service is the New Marketing summit was the panel discussion on community as customer service. Patti Roll from Timbuk2 talked about creating a platform where everyone can do his or her own thing. "Come to the table with what YOU do, and other things will be done by the community". For instance, Timbuk2 knows how to make really good bags, but lets customers design their own bags. People build ugly bags everyday which upsets Timbuk2's designers, but builds great community among the customers.

What is it that we do as a Library to create a "platform", and where are the opportunities for our users to design their own experience?

We've taken some steps in this direction, certainly. Our Friday night film series has two movie slots where the movie goers vote for the film to be shown. John Blyberg is designing our new web site with community participation as an active feature. But even though we buy any book that a resident requests, we need to devise a more proactive way for our users to make the collections "theirs".

We're going to have new spaces in the new library for members of our community to make their own. We've already heard from many users who want us to expand our cultural programming. We would like our teens to tell us what they want in the new teen space. And parents and children to help us expand our services to the 5th grade and under set. Tara Hunt, founder of Citizen Agency, advised the participants at the customer service summit to "embrace the chaos of community". We're ready! What would you like to see in the new Darien Library?

Posted by louise at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2008

Customer Service is the New Marketing

Customer service is our highest priority, and we are always looking for ways to improve. We frequently find our best inspirations from sources outside the library field. It was in that spirit that I traveled to San Francisco for a one day summit entitled Customer Service is the New Marketing, sponsored by Get Satisfaction, a people-powered customer service site. I'm certain that I was the only library director there.

Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh led off with advice on instilling great customer service through out a large organization. Zappos is committed to "wowing" each and every customer. Everyone in the company embraces core values that promote excellent customer service. After initial interviews for skills, the HR department interviews specifically for culture fit, and all employees are evaluated on customer service and culture fit. Every new hire, even lawyers and accountants, spend 5 weeks of training that includes culture and core values, customer service, warehouse training, and staffing the customer service phone call lines. I was "wowed" by Zappos statement of core values, and by the process that they used to develop them. They did a lot of soul searching, looked at the people in their organization that were great, and asked why. Then they looked at the people who had been fired from Zappos and asked why. Tony's slides, including the core values, are online at Get Satisfaction. But you had to be there to hear his wonderful closing anecdote.

One night, Zappos employees were out of town and out late with some of their suppliers. They tried to order pizza from room service, but the hotel doesn't serve hot food after 11:00 pm. So they call Zappos customer service number and ask "where can we get pizza". Within minutes, the customer service rep. produced a list of pizza places that were open late and would deliver, near their hotel. In Tony's words, Zappos is a service company that happens to sell shoes. But they'll also help you find pizza.

Continue reading "Customer Service is the New Marketing"

Posted by louise at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2008

The Social Worker is In

Although our librarians are not trained social workers, a fair amount of what we do could be classified as social work. And a lot of people (1200 a day) come into the Library. Many might benefit from a chat with a social worker or psychologist, but are not ready to make "the call". Many are not aware of the broad array of services offered by agencies in town. At last week's Human Services Planning Council (HSPC) meeting, we were brainstorming ways to work together to meet the social services needs in our community. As Moira Rizzo from Family and Youth Options, Susan Jasko from Child Guidance, and Duane Lovello from the Darien Police department talked about preventive services and the importance of education in addressing Darien's human service needs, it suddenly hit me.

Why not have social workers and clinical psychologists from the HSPC agencies drop by the Library? Like our roving reference librarians, they could be roving social workers. We know that after our librarians visit the schools, children are pleased to recognize a familiar face when they come into the Darien Library. And when we do "roving reference", people ask more questions.

If the social workers were available in the Library, it might break the ice for some people to use their services. And it would bring greater attention to the information we have in the Library about the services offered.

Social workers could also offer training to our front line staff on making referrals to their agencies.

Susan Jasko emailed the next day to sign up! Watch for "the social worker is in" sign, soon.

Posted by louise at 11:47 AM | Comments (1)