The Library Leadership Network Commons

Good Customer Service:  It's Not Just for McDonald's Anymore!

• The first, and possibly most important thing for you to do, is to talk about it - a lot. Without nagging or micromanaging (the kiss of death for managers), keep reminding staff that you think customer service is the most important thing they do each day. You need to encourage an atmosphere where working with the patrons is valued as the most important task for every person in the library.

• Establish a written standard for your expectations. Having a written standard will let both you and staff understand what is considered good customer service. Should they greet patrons whenever they are near? Should they be off the desk part of the time, roaming the stacks, looking for lost and confused patrons? What is the appropriate way to answer the telephone? Are nametags required?

• Make customer service training a part of all employee orientations. Including a discussion of your expectations for customer service right from the beginning will help to emphasize how serious you are about ensuring quality customer service. This may not be as obvious to lower-level staff in public and academic libraries alike – but be sure the pages and shelvers you employ understand about dealing with the patrons.

• Many libraries put out comment cards for patrons to fill out, but then ignore the comments. This is a waste! Put out comments cards all over the library, not merely right at the checkout desk. Two or three times a year, hand them out to every single patron for a week to check on customer service. Consider setting up a form on your website for customers to use to send you comments at their leisure. Email faculty to ask for feedback on their library experiences. Encourage staff to ask patrons questions while walking around the library.  

• Create training programs for your staff. It is helpful for them to hear from other people just how important this really is to your library. Bring in some atypical people to talk with your staff: police officers can talk about dealing with conflict and angry patrons, psychologists can discuss working in teams and working with different kinds of people, an officer from the local chamber of commerce can discuss the impact of customer service on the community.  In academic libraries, you might even want to have some students talk to the staff about how they would describe a great service experience!

• An increasingly important thing for any organization is to train staff to communicate in other languages. Translate at least your general material, such as library card applications, into the languages spoken in your library and your community. Although not all staff need to be fluent in a second or third language, it is not difficult for everyone to learn a few phrases to make patrons feel more comfortable. This is particularly important in a lot of academic libraries, where many of your patrons may be international students who could really use a little extra assistance.