[Publib] Customer Service, Ids, etc.--LONG RESPONSE

[Michelle Swain]

Reading this thread, and waiting for my 7:00 p.m. library board meeting tonight, I thought I'd respond with a few musings.

I can understand both the supporters and detractors of the retail customer service model.  I know many of us got into libraries because we didn't want to be a part of that "rat race" or whatever someone wants to call the capitalist, consumer society we live in.  Selling is not always selling.  We positively promote our libraries, but we never have to feel like each individual circulation is what puts food on our tables or that we are compromising our principles.  Do retail workers often have to "sell" an inferior product due to pressure from their employers?  Yes.  Do library staff ever feel forced to try and get someone to read a really awful book because someone up the food chain told them to?  God, I hope not.

There's a disconnect between the service we provide and our paychecks.  Maybe if the connection was made a little clearer, library service would be better, but I'd hesitate to say that to the library workers in Oregon who are now out of a job.  I'm sure they worked just as hard and were just as customer friendly as any of us are, and they campaigned vigorously to get their residents to pick up the slack when the feds stepped out.  Even  the best customer service can't win over rabidly anti-tax voters, no matter how much they love you.

But I will tell you that even in a small community of 12,000, we struggle with all the same issues.  And it's hard to always smile and give 110 percent when your DVD collection has been devastated by non-returned items, when the teens start mouthing off, and when you can't seem to stop the internet cheaters (those who find ways to get more than their allotted time) no matter what you do.  And, hell yes, it makes me angrier than a hornet.  Sometimes it feels like a personal attack, like that graffiti in the stairway was meant to hurt my feelings.

The funny part about being in a public service job is that we are all human, and no one is perfect all the time.  I tell my staff to do their best, to think about the rude patron in a different way.  Imagine that person just found out her sister has cancer, or that man had his electricity turned off at home and it's 100 degrees (or 20 degrees) outside, or another person just lost her job and has three kids to feed.  The brief glimpses we get of our patrons tell us very little about their lives, and everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt.  Which includes the staff, who are all entitled to days when they just can't give it their best.  Mostly we just try to laugh at the zaniness of our work life.  Laughing is better than crying, I always say.

Picture IDs would be wonderful, even in a small town.  Our population is more transient than you might think, and it's hard to know everyone's name and face, especially the kids who make trouble and then lie and give you someone else's name when you ask.  But is it good customer service?  I don't know.  Protecting people from identity theft starts to sound a little too in loco parentis for my taste.  We don't have a book security system, mostly because I don't want the community to think that we assume they are a bunch of thieves, but things get stolen all the time.  Part of the cost of doing business, I say.  So we trust, and the library is taken advantage of over and over again.

We are always thinking of ways to help serve those who can't afford or access services elsewhere.  But people living in poverty do not have the same priorities as others.  Due dates?  Not important.  Blocked privileges from non-returned items?  Just another way that the system is designed to deny them what they want or need.  Requiring proof of address?  Hard to provide when they don't know where they are staying tonight.  And then there are the families who you know are terribly challenged, and yet they manage to return everything on time and in good condition and they love their library with a passion.

What we do every day is some of the hardest but most rewarding work I can imagine.  But I don't blame those who can't always smile at every patron and spend two hours answering every reference question.  We all operate under limits, external and internal.  If we try our best, if our hearts are in the right place, if we recognize the signs of irrational negativity in ourselves and actively fight our instincts to group all patrons in one big lump, then we already are providing the best customer service we can.  But there's always room for improvement, kind of like jello. ;)

Wouldn't it be great if someday librarians were called on to give seminars to retail about customer service?  What a day that will be...

Michelle

p.s. sorry for the long response.  I'm sure this will start a long thread on the appropriate length of a PUBLIB posting. :)
-----
Michelle R. Swain, MSLIS, PhD
Library Director
Arkansas City Public Library
120 E. 5th Avenue
Arkansas City, KS 67005-2604
620-442-1280, FAX 620-442-4277
MOBILE 620-506-8576
http://www.acpl.org