[Publib] Overdue notice language

[Shannon Stiller]

I agree with Chris Ely here:

"If materials are coming back and patrons are complaining, it's quite 
possible what's been accomplished is patrons saying, "I'll never go 
back there again." And they may be passing that on to their friends, 
family and the rest of the community, without adding the reason why 
is because *they* were late with materials and miffed at the tone of 
the notice."

When I was in sales in a previous life, I learned that when a person has a good experience, they share it with one or two people, but when they have a bad one, they share it with 10.  Rarely do they share that information with someone who can actually *do* something about it, and rarely do they include their liability in their description.  

I do like the personal, conversational approach to them though.  I would guess that many who receive overdue notices in the mail-- and it seems that the ones who get them get a lot of them-- tend to just disregard them as the same old same old.  Changing the wording to sound more direct and personal may just get that patron's attention.

Shannon Stiller