Well hi there!

Hey gang. Just wanted to share some feedback we got on one of our cool feedback forms. Not a complaint, just feedback - I love that. It encourages so much more useful and constructive improvement cycles between our customers and the library service.


Anyhoo, customer was letting us know that she loves the efficiency of our RFID kiosks but had concerns around the potential for there to be a lack of social interaction with staff. As we have discussed many times before, the potential for this can be a concern because there are lots of socially isolated people in our community that value their library interactions more than we know.

I was pleased to be able to reply to her and share that we have had lots of positive feedback from customers who now engage with us all the time that were previously reticent to do so because they felt like they were interrupting us while we returned and issued.

She did mention two terms that I wanted to highlight though - ones which we have talked about a lot over time but just wanted to reiterate - eye contact and greeting. We don't want to be all up in customer's faces being fake and american-shop-assistant-working-on-commission-intense but we do want to make eye contact with people and say hi or smile or nod. We want them to know who we are and that we are there to help them. People need to feel welcomed and comfortable in approaching us or being approached.

We have all worked in customer service long enough to be body language experts. You know when people are up for being approached and when they want to be left alone. So use those skills to improve the customer experience for our users and maximise your enjoyment of and pride in our customer service brilliance.

Okay, I'll leave you with one last story... this part is totally optional when-you-have-time reading btw...

I'm sure I've probably told you about a customer I chatted with a few months ago on a Monday eve, who came back the following Monday and eve so I asked her a follow up question on our previous week's convo. After we'd talked she told me that previous week she was having the absolute worst day and her library interaction cheered her up and turned her day around! I had no idea of the impact of that one less than 10 minute interaction.

But the converse is also true...I had a day the other week where I was feeling pretty darn rotten and my STAR shift was such a welcome distraction from that - there were lots of interesting, different enquiries, some tricky reader's advisory and I had some wonderful conversations with customers. Two customers in particular were so grateful for the help that it made my day. I learned some new stuff, got to meet new peeps, and got to feel and see that what we do professionally is valued and makes a difference in people's lives no matter how small. It absolutely made my day. So what goes around comes around!