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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 February 9, 2008 12:05 PM