Welcome! What's in a name? Ring, ring, ring...

Now we are free range librarians, roaming the Library Land wilds in our smart-non-uniform-work-wear and assisting our customers wherever they are, it is crucial that we all wear our name badges at all times. For our customers who do not know us, it is super important that when they wander through our doors they can easily identify staff members. Think about your own experiences - how frustrating is it to wander into a business and not be able to locate a staff member to help?

So there are a few simple keys things that we can easily do to ensure that we are visible representatives of Unley Libraries:

1. Captain Obvious says Wear Your Name Badge
   Just pop it on as soon as you get to work and the hard work is done! Too easy. We all have two name badges so you should always have a backup. For those who do stints down @ the 'wood, why not leave one at each branch so you are always ready to go? We should all be wearing them even when we are not STARing as we could get called out, or called upon whilst traversing through the public areas.
   
   
2. Welcome our customers
   This doesn't mean you have to stand at the door and personally ask how everyone's day is going...just have your STAR laser focus on, and be aware of customers entering the library. Helpful hint is listen out for the doors opening and closing - this is especially useful @ the 'wood. It's often the simple, non-verbal stuff that has the most impact. Make eye contact and smile...or say hello.
   
   
   We are all super good at picking up on body language, so if a customer looks like they might need a hand or some info, then ask if you can help them with anything. We all know the common sense place to fall on the spectrum that ranges from 'up-in-a-customers-face' to 'completely-ignoring-the-customer'...we want to be at the 'welcome-hi-we're-here-to-help-should-you-need-it-please-feel-free-to-ask-and-we'll-ask-you-if-you-look-like-you-need-it' mark. Catchy, right?
   
   Also the welcoming factor ties into another of our central tenants - STAR is all about the customer - always and unconditionally. Personal conversations and phone calls should not be a happening while being an Unley Libraries STAR crusader. Not only can the whole library hear you, but it also makes us look unprofessional and disregarding of our customers. Definitely grounds for a meh experience...and meh is what makes customers not come back to us.
   
   
3. STAR bell awareness
   No one knows better than all of us how our customers use our libraries - we are all out there STARing up a storm most days. So please use your honed STAR awareness skills to call for communicate and/or call for backup as required. For example, if you are on STAR @ Unley and need to head up to the non-fiction to help a customer? Then let your STAR buddies know. Wait, your STAR buddy is also busy but there is another STARer out on black boxes? Then ring, ring, ring that bell before you head up.
   
   
   Or, you are @ the 'wood and have to go assist a customer on the public computers and you suspect it's going to take a while, then ring that bell! We all understand the importance and priority of front line customer service and how the customer experience is impacted by that feeling of not being able to locate a staff member.
   
   Just as an aside on this, we are starting to think about how we could potentially utilise the bell system for our customers. Could we have them publicly facing so that customers can also use them to summon us, instead standing there feeling lost? Definitely a topic for discussion - so please add to the comments if you have any great bell related ideas :)

So go forth and be proud to be easily recognised as an Unley Libraries staff member, ready to assist our customers with a smile.