"Customer Service & Service Excellence"

Presented by Moe Hosseini-Ara, Culture Services, City of Markham

This presenter shared his experience of seeking a "customer service revolution" at his library, with "massive change" as the long-term goal.

He suggested empowered staff by having them understand the reasons for policies, to get staff engagement and buy-in. 

He mentioned the possible need to change staffing structures based on desired goals.  For example, if we ask librarians to be out in the community, are we giving them off-desk time to do so?  His institution trained all staff to answer basic questions on desk, with librarians being called out to answer more complicated queries. 

He stressed the importance of training, providing staff the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as the result of teaching practical skills and knowledge.  Staff can’t/won’t be willing to change if they don’t know how.  His library changed hiring practices from requiring library experience/degree (for front desk staff).  For example, they considered experience from improv or working in Starbucks as giving some needed skills, with training provided on others.

Touchpoints to consider in providing customer service: Where customers find you, how they interact with you, signage, website accessibility, even cleanliness of washrooms. 

He suggested that libraries avoid creating rules designed for the small % of people who abuse the system if these rules diminish customer service for many more patrons. 

They decided to take down most signs, for example dealing with behavior (loud talking) rather than posting no cell phone signs.

Their staff went through and rewrote policies to have a different focus: this is what we’ll do for you, and this is how you’ll interact with us. As an exercise, they held a Manager’s Hotseat where staff members would mention issues and managers would try to solve the problems using the new policies. This helped all staff in learning how to troubleshoot challenging situations.

They went so far as to write a Charter of Failure… “We recognize the right of all staff to fail in the name of innovation with our full support and without penalty…”  Their public taglie was Imagine – Learn – Grow, and they even modified it to an internal staff tagline of Imagine – Fail – Learn – Grow.

They use a service called Yammer, similar to Facebook but closed to public, where staff can have online discussions about new things they could try, or things happening in the world. 
He suggested creating a Stop Doing List, business-as-usual things they were doing that weren't really necessary (no one actually noticed or cared about), for example doing away with paper pathfinders and putting them online.

According to his institution's surveys, their customers are happier with these changes.