I have tried this myself on a
few occasions now and noticed for the extra few seconds it takes when placing the holds
in alphabetical order, it saves minutes on the other end.
For our cluey borrowers who know
these holds are ready for pick up, they will also find these trolleys easier to
look through. Great customer experience opportunity!
When actually filing the holds,
it takes a third of the time to file them compared to filing a
trolley of non-alphabetised holds.
Thanking you in advance for
helping out with this time saver and customer experience improvement!
I have some concerns about this so would like to look at it from a pro and con perspective.
ReplyDeletePros if alphabetized:
Easier for patrons to find their holds.
Cons if alphabetized:
Double-handling - the spine label needs to be looked at twice.
Slows down processing in the workroom, increasing time spent away from customer service
My biggest concern is the double handling. You have to put items in order only to then put them in order again when shelving. If there is concern regarding a huge pile of holds sitting unshelved and patrons needing to sift through them, perhaps we should consider putting a higher priority on getting those holds shelved.
Basically we are looking at asking staff to increase time doing process work, on the chance that one or two patrons will want to look through the holds trolleys, and in turn denying general customer service a staff member who is out the back putting items in order that will be reordered the moment they hit the floor.
I don't see any decrease in shelving time as the shelves are only several paces long and it can be managed by grabbing several items with the same first letter, just as we do when shelving the main collection.
Anyway, these are my concerns. Perhaps this should be discussed?
Best wishes,
Ruth