ALIA 12th National Library Technicians Conference 2003

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12th ALIA National Library Technicians Conference
9-12 September 2003
Bridging services - embracing reality

Back to the future: Acquiring customer service skills

Jenny Hale, managing director, Resource Options.

Overview

Customer service is something we associate more readily with the retail industry, and we can all tell stories of the lack of customer service that appears to be the norm in today's society. Have you considered that customer service is also something that needs to be addressed in today's libraries?

Today I want to look at a few of the key issues relating to customer service, including the customer's expectation, your skills and abilities, what customer service is, service delivery, quality service and finally action plans.

Who are your customers?

Those of us who are working in public libraries or academic libraries have a wide range of customers, with different requirements and expectations, while the special libraries have a much more focused group to deal with.

Customers can include:

others staff
students
the public
your boss
and probably a lot of others not listed here

Each of these groups will have a different idea of what customer service from the library is, so you need to be sure you know and understand what makes up good customer service in order to deliver.

To begin with, think about:

What customer service means to you
What do you like or dislike and why
How do you measure up?

In other words what is good about your service and what can you do better?

The other thing to think about at this point is what skills do your customers expect you to have?

The obvious things include:

Professionalism
Subject knowledge (and library knowledge)
Research skills

They also expect you to be:

Efficient
Diligent
Attentive
Friendly

Can you think of other skills your customers want or expect you to have?

How to you measure up? Do you meet their expectations???

Lets look at some simple strategies for success.

Self esteem

High self-esteem is an essential ingredient for any successful service organisation. If employees feel good about themselves and who they work for, some of that positive outlook transfers to the customer. In some cases your customer's perception may influence your self esteem.

You need to consider whether you are confident in your abilities, if you enjoy your job and if you feel as if you are successful.

The Macquarie dictionary offers the following definitions of the word 'service'

The performance of duties as a servant
AND
An act of helpful activity

With this in mind, we should consider customer service as being an act of helping our customers achieve their goals. In the library world, this may be at the circulation desk helping our customers loan or return their books, or at the reference desk where we need to assist our customers to find the information they require.

It is also important though to consider that every job in the library is important, no matter what it is.

If someone in your library is always moaning about the jobs they have to do, does that rub off on the rest of the staff?

What happens if you set an example and show a positive attitude to your work - no matter how tedious it may be.

You do not have to be a supervisor or the boss to lead by example - the positive vibes will rub off anyway!

All staff should be encouraged to feel important in the workplace, and feel that their jobs are just as important as the next one. In this way, they will feel good about themselves and this in turn assists staff to provide not just good, but outstanding, customer service.

Respect for the individual should be the underlying principle for any organisation

If you are in a position of authority and involved in the hiring of staff, your choice is one of the most important decisions you will make.

If you take an interest in your job, does it become more interesting?

Your attitude to your job will determine how interesting it is, and ultimately how you relate to your customers.

All employees need to have that attitude and management needs to ensure that every employee, regardless of their status in the organisational hierarchy, is made to feel their role is very important.

Remember, there are no interesting jobs - only jobs! The interest is built in by you, the individual!

Consider the dishwasher who could consider him or her self as 'just a dishwasher' OR as the 'backbone of the hotel' - without the dishwasher, the restaurants and room service would not function. Translate this into the person who shelves books or who covers and repairs books. Are they 'just the shelver or repairer' or are they the 'backbone of the library'. Without them, customers would not be able to find the books they require and if they do, the books may be in such disrepair they are unusable.

Another way to improve self esteem is through job titles. The term 'shop assistant' is meaningless. It implies that the person is assisting the shop, rather than the customer within it. Why not call the same person a customer consultant? The job would be the same, but the employee's self image wouldn't be. Such superficial changes do not necessarily make a service success, but are small fine tunings which may add to self esteem.

You need to consider what you can do to improve your self esteem if this is appropriate.

Focus on customer service and treat your 'customers' with respect.

Successful customer service begins with a knowledge of your products, services, competition, and - most importantly, a true understanding of your customers.

Skills you might require are:

Subject knowledge
Technical ability
Research skills
Communication skills
And probably a lot of others...

Increasing your skill base is an ongoing process that is gained through experience and training.

In service-focused organisations, training is continuous. It needs to be because service is an intangible product. Like other products, it has no shelf-life and is only as good as what is delivered at any time. The books your 'customers' borrow are exactly the same product from another library. It is the service that differentiates one library from another.

What do you believe your proficiencies are?

As service providers, we need to recognize that our customers have higher expectations than ever before. We need to stop to reassess the service cultures of our organisations and ask if what we did to be successful yesterday will be appropriate for continued success in the future.

It should be the role of every employee to improve customer service through continually assessing the quality of the service provided to customers and through continuing education and training to improve skills of staff.

Empowerment

The following points are some of the things you can do to improve customer service, and the spin off is that they also help improve your attitude and response to your job.

Consider the following:

Make yourself responsible and response-able
Say 'yes' instead of 'no'
Risk and learn from mistakes
Support and coach each other
Incentives, recognition and rewards
Make everyone a valuable team member

These lead us directly into essential customer service skills.

Service delivery

Service delivery is made up of a number of different components, in particular :

Listening
Anticipation - don't anticipate - you don't know what your customers need
Expectation - what do your customers really want?
Anticipate changing market expectations - what is happening 'out there' - are there new services being offered - if so, what are they
Exceed expectations - at all times!

Communication

Service in any organisation, regardless of reputation, is only as good as you get at any one point in time from any one individual. By understanding the role of effective communication and paying particular attention to this aspect of customer service skills you can ensure your customer service will meet the expectations of your customer.

Use positive language

Service providers should eliminate 'no' from the vocabulary of employees. Rather than look at problems, look at ways to say 'yes' and help a customer in any given situation. For example, if a student wishes to borrow a reference book, the library staff member could respond in one of two ways:

'No, you can't do that - it is a reference book'
'This item is a reference book reserved for use in the library. You are welcome to use it here'

It is also important not to use technical terms (jargon).

Use positive body language

If you do not greet users as they approach your desk or work area, but rather keep your head down and pretend they are not there, your customers will very rapidly come to the conclusion you are considered a pest and not worth helping. Positive body language, such as eye contact, a smile and a friendly face will make the customer feel comfortable and willing to do repeat business with you.

Library staff often need to instruct customers in the use of the library, particularly the catalogue or other computer aids. If you are not comfortable with this you need to gain these skills. Imagine trying to tell an alien how to put on a tennis shoe without demonstrating.

Effective listening and understanding

It is important to listen to what is being said to you - there are all sorts of distractions in your everyday life which can lead to you not understanding your customers. Listen to what is being asked, confirm that you understand by using a confirming statement, eg 'Let me make sure I understand your request' or summarise key facts.Create the right impression through your attitude, voice, words and body language

Jargon

Think about the amount of jargon we use in a library - when you leave this conference take time to write down all the jargon you use and look at different words you could use instead.

Put yourself in your customers shoes - when you are speaking with someone outside your profession and they start using jargon, how do you cope? Do your customers understand what you are saying?

How can you improve?

Training skills

Your use of language and the other skills we have talked about will also be used every time you need to train or instruct a customer in the use of the library. Skills like the ability to communicate will impact directly on the success of your training session.

You need to be sure your customers understand what you are saying and don't use jargon.

Complaints

Most of us are very uncomfortable with complaints. They can take a number of different forms including direct complaints which can be either verbal or written.

Another form is the indirect complaint. In most cases you don't even know this has happened as the customer usually doesn't return, and nearly always tells others.

Complaints are opportunities - not problems - and you need to turn them around to your advantage.

Dealing with difficult customer situations

The following steps will help you to handle customer complaints:

Don't be defensive.
Be composed at all times.
Don't take criticisms personally. It's not you the customer is angry with. Try to be objective and put yourself in their shoes.
Offer an apology even if the disservice is not your fault 'I'm terribly sorry you are so upset' does not admit blame but does establish some rapport with the customer.
Show empathy by using such phrases as: 'I understand how you feel', 'I appreciate what you're saying'.
Address customers by name.
All communications should be in the first person. Use 'I am sorry' not the royal 'we'.
Don't make excuses or blame others in your organisation. The customer wants a solution to their problem, not an inquisition of your internal operations.
Give the customer your full attention and establish eye contact. Sympathetic nods help difuse situations and many customers feel they are receiving a fair hearing it they see someone jotting down a few notes.
Paraphrase their complaint in your own words to determine if you have correctly understood the situation, play the situation back to them to check for understanding: 'I just want to check that I have understood you correctly'.
If you don't know the answer to their problem, don't lie. Adopt the old teaching maxim and admit you don't know but make a commitment that you will find out and get back to them within a specified time.
Do call back when you say you will, even if, for some reason, you haven't been able to obtain a satisfactory answer by then.
Make the customer part of the solution - not part of the problem.
Tell them what you can do... not what you can't do.
Find out what it will take to turn their dissatisfaction into satisfaction. Offer a solution and obtain the customer's agreement that this would satisfy the complaint. Ask: 'Will this problem be solved if we...?'
If they agree to that solution, act quickly before they change their mind. If they don't like your solution, ask them what they think is a fair outcome.
Follow up.
And remember: You can never win an argument with a customer!

Have you thought about turning complaints into opportunities? Consider the complaint carefully and see if there is anything you can do to improve your service, firstly so this complaint does not occur again, but more importantly so you can implement an improved service for your customers.

Set, meet and exceed expecations

What's possible?

What's expected?

Basic product.

Nine actions you can take to deliver superior customer service

Walk your talk - your actions and deeds must support your verbal commitment to delivering superior customer service. Empower all staff to be proactive in solving customer problems and do what it takes to meet their needs and exceed their expectations.
Ask your customer, 'How are we doing for you? What can we do to better serve your needs?'
Be a solutionist. Help customers solve challenges and maximise opportunities for their success.
Keep in mind that when you help others succeed, you succeed!
Insure that every transaction with your customer is a win-win.
Constantly examine your policies and procedures from your customer's perspective. Be customer friendly
Stay focused on retaining the customers you have. They will help you obtain new customers.
Insure that the lines of communications with customers (internal and external) are always open.
Seek even more ways to exceed your customer's expectations.

* Michael LeBoeuf ' How to win customers and keep them for life'

Develop a customer service strategy

A customer service strategy provides quality service and resolves customer complaints. The strategy should look at developing processes to measure satisfaction, implementing changes to increase customer satisfaction and communicating the enhancements to the customers. As well, deliverables can be set which will assist in the outcomes being achieved. These include:

Customer satisfaction plan - this deliverable develops a customer satisfaction measurement process, assists with tool selection and provides sample surveys.
Marketing plan - a marketing strategy to inform customers of the library services - helps to change the perception of the library and establish customer expectations.
Customer service training - train staff on how to improve customer communication skills, develop effective listening skills and develop strategies for dealing with difficult customers

During the development of the customer service strategy, it is helpful to develop a mission statement for both the library and yourself as well as a vision. One of the key elements in a mission statement and sision for the future lies in providing a high standard of quality and service to all of your customers. This is very much a team effort and relies on total commitment from all staff, including management.

In creating your customer service strategy, consider the following points:

Mission statement
Vision for the future
Recognising and making sure you are dealing with customer needs (not what you think they need)
Communicating how your service will satisfy those needs
Recognising and handling constantly changing customer attitudes
Giving priority to customer complaints
Empowering staff to manage complaints and provide follow-up
Set standards of service
Providing for constant improvement

Get to know your customers

Not only must you get to know your customers intimately; you must also understand them totally. You need to know what they like about you, what they dislike, what they want changed, how they want it changed, what needs they have, what their expectations are, what motivates them to use the library, what satisfies them and what you must continue to do to maintain their loyalty. The most effective way to get this information is simply to ask your customers. This can be done through the surveys, questionnaires or focus groups.

How do you measure results?

Before you establish a superior customer service culture, it's a good time to measure where you are now and establish a benchmark for future action.

Six steps to a successful relationship

Determine what your customers value most - List ten values, convenience, quality, procedures, etc, and conduct a survey with your current customer base. The method, written or verbal, of conducting your survey, is determined by what's appropriate to your business.
Assess your performance in each value. How do your customers rate your service in the areas they value most? If you ask, they will tell you. Don't assume you know. This step is part two of your survey.
How do you measure up against the competition? (Who is your competition - the internet, fellow employees, friends, etc). This area can be a little sensitive and customers may feel uncomfortable discussing this with you.
This step involves a more in-depth probe of your customer's responses in the first three steps. Probing deeper helps uncover the root cause of your weak areas as perceived by your customer as well as identifying and maximising your strengths.
When you objectively accept the findings in the first four steps, you are ready to address the challenges identified. If for example, there is a consensus among your customer base that they feel you take their business for granted, you must immediately correct the situation. You must demonstrate that you truly appreciate and value their business.
The final step is to turn this gathered data into an action plan that demonstrates you are serious about building loyalty and delivering superior customer service.

Then, implement your plan!

Once you have completed the six steps above you now have a benchmark, After a specified period of time, determined primarily by the degree of adjustments necessary based on customer feedback, it's time to conduct the same survey again and measure your progress. You should survey your customers annually to insure that you are retaining current customers and obtaining new customers.

Develop standards of service

Customer service is not as intangible a concept as you may think. Each business has specific business practices that could be improved. For example, how many times does the phone ring before someone answers it? How many call transfers does it take to find someone to answer the customer's question? How long does it take to process a request? When standards are set for ordinary business practices your employees can assure you of superior performance.

Work toward continuous improvement

Even though you have desinged a friendly and accessible customer service system, and have gone out of your way to learn how to satisfy your customer's needs, you must remember that no system, business or program is perfect. Therefore you must continuously work to improve your customer service and retention programs.

Your attempts at continuous improvement will be reviewed positively by the customer and your fellow employees. They will see that you are trying to become even better than you already are, and when you become better your service to them will also be better. The result is more satisfied customers, more business for you and your staff and greater security for the library.

Conclusion

One way to ensure that customer service is high on the priority list of all library staff is to develop a customer service strategy. This includes a customer satisfaction plan, a marketing plan, and staff training to improve their customer service skills.

A customer service strategy provides a means to deliver quality service. Processes to measure satisfaction, implement changes to increase customer satisfaction and communication of the enhancements to the customers are included. Other areas to be considered include your role as a professional, essential communication skills, the customer service transaction and how to resolve customer complaints or difficult customer situations.

The benefits of this approach will include more satisfied customers who are willing to support you in any troubled times, a more motivated library staff who strive to provide the best service they can to their customers, and ultimately, management who can see the benefits of supporting and resourcing the library.

Even though you have designed a friendly and accessible customer service system, and gone out of your way to learn how to satisfy your customer's needs, you must remember that no system, business or program is perfect. Therefore you must continuously work to improve your customer service programs.

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