Reexamining Customer Service

In the July issue of Successful Meetings there was what some might consider a controversial piece on customer service. In these days of cutting back customer retention becomes quite critical (even in libraries). After providing some great examples of "customer disservice", Dr. Tom McDonald suggests some unconventional options for improving customer service -

• give everyone who interfaces with customers a personality test - find out whether or not they like people
• choose staff to engage with customers based on the level of their experience and the quality of customer feedback
• reward staff for the positive feedback you get about them from customers
• if we reward people for doing a good job, we ought to give some punishment for doing jobs poorly - this could take the form of an assessment

He ends with some interesting thoughts. "It has been said that people buy people, not products.... If we don't improve our relations with customers during this tough time, they will soon be gone, and our business will migrate to someone else." Definitely something to think about.

And if your looking for customer service training to reinvigorate yourself -- check the NEFLIN workshop schedule. There are some great workshops coming up on stress management, working with difficult patrons, and improving communication skills. There are also a number of great items in the Multimedia Lending Library that you can borrow for your personal viewing or to share at a staff meeting.