CUSTOMER SERVICE

In Academic Libraries

SERVICE Definitions Purpose Planning, Policy, and Process Evaluation and Outcomes

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CUSTOMER SERVICE“To deliver effective and high quality services,

libraries have to assess their performance from the customer point of view”

“At a time of fiscal retrenchment, meeting changing customer expectations becomes very challenging”

Lakos & Phipps (2004), 345.

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DEFINITIONS

What is “customer service”? What entails good (or bad) customer service?

Identify one positive and one negative customer service experience you’ve had.

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WHAT ARE OUR “SERVICES” To which aspects of the library could we

apply customer service? How would it work in each of these areas?

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CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

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Service Quality: Viewed as the

interaction between users and the library

User expectations measured against user experience

Satisfaction “happiness” with

service

WHOM DO WE SERVE? Patrons Users Customers Guests

What difference what we call them?

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WHY?

Why focus on customer service? What is the purpose of our focus?

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PLANNING, POLICIES, & PROCESS What goes into implementing a customer

service policy? What do we base our policy on?

Is the customer always right? To what extent can library customers determine expectations and quality?

To what extent can a “customer service model accomplish the goal of meeting user needs without creating a set of conceptual and practical problems” (Budd, 1997, p. 310)

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PLANNING Review mission, values, goals Set goals/ outcomes specifically for customer

service Define your customer base, segment markets Define your approach (i.e. customer, patron,

or guest; commodities, services, or experiences)

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POLICIES Guidelines for behaviors, transactions, and

processes Delimits parameters Requires training

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/about/care.php

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ASSESSING & EVALUATINGCustomer Service12

SERVICE QUALITY (GAPS MODEL) Gap 1: Customer expectations of service and

management’s perspective on these expectations

Gap 2: Service quality specifications and management’s perspective of customer expectations

Gap 3: Service quality expectations and service delivery

Gap 4: Service delivery and external communication to customers about that delivery

Gap 5: Customers expectations of service AND perceived service delivery 13

EXPECTATIONS Subjective Comprise desired wants, or the extent

to which customers believe a particular service attribute is essential for an excellent service provider

Expectations change over time

Perceptions are judgments about Perceptions are judgments about service performanceservice performance

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HOW TO MEASURE SERVICE QUALITY Self-reporting (SERVQUAL, LibQUAL+, and

Hernon/Nitecki) How go beyond self-reports…

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SATISFACTION Emotional Influenced by overall experience and

“experience of the moment” How measure? For instance, satisfaction with library’s

home page?

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RESISTANCE…To Service Quality17

REASONS FOR RESISTANCE TO SERVICE QUALITY Teaching faculty and librarians may not

regard users as customers, dismissing the value of knowing such information (may not translate the data into service improvement)

Customer service and idea of users as customers may be seen as a shift away from “core values” of profession. Service may not be a high priority

Librarians may perceive themselves as educators not service providers, or more as educators than service providers 18

Staff might resist the adoption of a program or attitude of quality improvement because they think that a focus on improvement implies an initial baseline of inferior or substandard service.. Or, they may believe that they already provide high quality service and that an emphasis on assessment detracts from completing their regular tasks, duties, and routines

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There might be a perception that service quality only applies to public service, not the entire organization

In a climate of organizational downsizing and restructuring, libraries may increase staff workload and responsibilities, and decrease the importance of service or at least the time to which staff feel they can devote to service.

There may be a concern that improved service adds to the workload—staff fear success adds a burden 20

Library administration may not favor customer focused service. They might now empower staff to help users

If the staff feel they already know what customers want, need, and expect, there may be reluctance to set outcomes and engage in benchmarking—dismissing customers and their expectations

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Staff may believe that customer service applies only to private section and businesses

Library staff may think that customers lack the expertise and judgment about what resources or information are good for them

There may be a belief that libraries do not face competition or that libraries need not be concerned about competition

Some staff believe service is not crucial to the library’s survival 22

Some resistance might be inferred from two questions: If libraries develop a service will customers come

in sufficient numbers to justify the continuance of that service?

If they do not come (or if they seldom do), do librarians really care?

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Libraries may prefer to gather outputs showing how busy they are and seek to use the data for request additional resources

Catering to customer expectations makes staff appear less professional

Thus, how customer focused are we really?

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Libraries can tell you what they purchased for their first “one millionth” holding, but they cannot tell you about their millionth customer and how they honored that person. Is this important?

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WRIGHT STATE PLEDGE

Adapt it for a particular setting

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SOMESOME RELEVANT READINGS Assessing Service Quality (ALA, 1998) Budd, J. M. (1997). A critique of customer and

commodity. College & Research Libraries, 58(4), 310.

Delivering Satisfaction and Service Quality (ALA, 2000)

An Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment in Your Library (ALA, 2002)

The Journal of Academic Librarianship (Jan.-Mar. 2002)

“Measuring Service Quality” Library Trends, 59 (4) (Spring 2001): entire issue

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