Customized Workshops & Services for Libraries
Library Roving Service
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..40 – 60% of your Library patrons/customers will not approach the desk to ask for the help they need. Many, feeling underserved, will not return. These “hidden customers” will only be found and served by Pro-active, Roving* Library Staff.
Pro-active Service and Roving is a powerful, effective workshop and follow-up program which has been successfully implemented in Libraries in Canada, the U.S.A., Australia and New Zealand.Joan Giannone, President of Mentor Group Training Inc. has over 9 years of experience consulting with and training thousands of Library Staff and Managers at dozens of Library Systems internationally. Her experience has shown clearly that many Libraries are grappling with similar issues when attempting to broaden their service model to include roving. Using this insight, Joan created the dynamic and practical workshop, “Pro-active Service and Roving”, which has provided Roving success and service transformation at Libraries in Canada, The U.S.A., Australia and New Zealand.
Designed to:
Enable staff to confront an increasingly complex and changing information services marketplace, especially regarding customer expectations and choices
Heighten awareness around the impact of poor customer service interactions
Introduce a simple, powerful professional standard of skills and techniques to improve the consistency and quality of customer service, system wide.
An effective, customized 1 or 2-day workshop and planning session for all library staff
Analysis of information services trends and the competitive landscape
Featuring…
Effective, non-intrusive methods for approaching people while roving
Review of the importance of body language when roving – yours and theirs
Application of 6 Steps to Proactive Service
Staff feedback on potential barriers to proactive and/or roving customer service, and solutions to remove those barriers
Reinforced By…
A simple and comprehensive 4-week Email follow-up campaign
Mentor Group Training Inc. communication and mentoring services as needed
For more information, contact Joan Giannone at joan.giannone@rogers.com, or 905-425-0362
The Future of Libraries on CBC Radio
The City of Toronto is facing down a serious budget shortfall. And as city council looks for places to cut, councilor Doug Ford, the brother of Mayor Rob Ford, started counting library branches. Listen to the Aug. 2nd debate over balancing the books by closing libraries at this audio archive.
The segment on the future of libraries which was due to air on “The Current” on CBC Radio1 on Monday was postponed and was broadcast on Tuesday. You can listen to the audio file of the segment, Whither the Library.
CLICK HERE: Listen: (Pop-up) or copy and paste this URL http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/08/02/whither-the-library/
Here’s an insightful, stick-with-you essay about what happens to books in a digital world. I ran across this article by Craig Mod in an email from Seth Godin, founder of The Domino Project and author of twelve books (all best sellers).
Seth points to two key insights from Craig’s essay, “Post-artifact Books and Publishing. Digital’s effect on how we produce, distribute and consume content”:
1. There are three stages–”pre-artifact”(there is no book yet), “artifact” (here it is) and “post-artifact” (what happens now? not much). Craig argues that all three stages are changing, and quite dramatically.
2. What it means to be an author is changing for the first time in a hundred years. This is a profound shift in one of the most leveraged professions of all. Instead of there being a clear box around who an author is and what an author does, that box is becoming blurred.
Craig Mod is a writer, designer, publisher and developer concerned with the future of publishing & storytelling. As of October 2010, he’s based in Palo Alto working with Flipboard. He is the founder of publishing think tank PRE/POST, co-author, designer and publisher of Art Space Tokyo and a startup mentor with 500Startups. He lived in Tokyo for almost a decade and speaks frequently on the future of books and media.
Responses to 8 Common Myths and Misconceptions about Roving
“Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.” -Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. 1898-1993, Pastor, Speaker and Author
In response to numerous requests, I am going to describe the 8 most common myths or misconceptions about Roving, and reveal some practical truths about them. I first identified and published answers for them about 6 years ago, and have found that these concerns are still troubling many Library Managers and Staff today (unless, of course, they have learned to dispel them by attending one of our “Pro-active Service and Roving workshops ). In the next 8 posts, I will share the best answers to these common issues, including the best ideas raised by over a thousand Library Managers and Staff in our workshops in Canada, The U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
A Few Caveats:
My first caveat about this “myth-busting” series is that with Roving …one size does not fit all, and therefore, it is possible that any one (or more) of the responses may not exactly fit your Library. The second caveat is to stop and think about these things from the perspective of your patrons / customers. The third caveat is a request for readers to not “extrem-ize” any of the responses or ideas. I know that’s not a word (!) – but I sometimes find that when people worry, they often imagine applying something new in extreme ways, until it is entirely unsuitable, and then dismiss any truth or wisdom from the idea completely. Roving is BOTH an “ART” and a “SCIENCE” and it is only by taking a “middle path”, using your best judgment, keeping an open mind, that the best approaches will be found. Final Caveat…I sometimes use the word “customers” instead of “patrons”. This is not a mistake…it is simply a better term to reflect the fact that Library patrons are truly now “customers”… in that they have far more choices than in the past as to where to “shop” for their information or entertainment (and that is a subject for a whole other discussion another day!). And although you might say – Hey – Library patrons don’t buy anything…because Library services are “free”…when you think carefully about it, they pay with their taxes, their fines, their time, their gas or transit fare to get there…so you might say they are “pre-paid customers”. (I think Joan Frye Williams first coined that phrase…)
So here they are, the “8 Common Myths / Misperceptions About Roving” as identified in our Library workshops over the past 7-8 years. I will “bust” each of them individually, over the next 8 posts.
- Myth: “Getting few complaints means our service is good.”
- Myth: “We’re already busy”
- Misconception: “We already care about customers, so we don’t need to do anything differently.”
- A) Myth: “Patron’s will hate it.” B) Associated Myth: “We can ‘do’ roving without any special training.” C) Associated myth: “Roving means we have to approach and talk to every patron, even disturbing those who are obviously happy.”
- Myth: “Roving can only be done when there are two or more people staffing the desk. You can’t leave the desk empty.”
- Misconception: “Roving really hampers our ability to get our work done.”
- Misconception: “When it is slow and yet we can’t go back to sit at the desk, then I feel that Roving aimlessly is a waste of my time.”
- Misconception: “If I rove and get a lot of “No’s” to my offers to assist, then my roving was a failure.”
I’ll deal with each of these 8 Myths/Misperceptions starting with #1 in the next post!
STAY TUNED!
“I Don’t Get It!”… The Library Manager brushed some stray hair out of his eyes and gave me a perplexed look over his glasses. “I don’t get it” he said, with a sigh that seemed to indicate that he thought he should.
I looked up from my salad, and stopped making notes on my “Official Library Conference schedule and Guide”. So far, the Library Conference had been very interesting, and I was hard pressed to decide which of the great presentations to attend in the afternoon. The food area in the Conference Exhibit Hall was really crowded and noisy, and I could see that many conversations had sprung up between strangers seated, of necessity, at tables together.
“Oh? Don’t get what?” I said with a smile.
He continued. “Our Director said that it is important for us to focus on “pro-active, patron-first” type strategies like roving, to build relationships and all that . But – I don’t get why this is so important right now. I mean – we’re so busy! Our desk is busy, and our statistics show some growth, so I don’t see the need right now.”
I looked at the Library Manager, now seated across from me, and smiled. “You’re not wrong”, I said. “It’s that kind of economy, when long line ups for library cards, and shortages of public computers are no longer a blue moon kind of thing like they were in the halcyon days before the economy started to slide. Layoffs continue to happen, families are tightening their belts, and many Library patrons have one thing in common; they don’t have access to a computer or resources at home – if they still have a home.”
“But,” I continued, “As we know, things will not continue this way, and may be vastly different in a year or two. To blithely paraphrase a profound Buddhist philosophy…all things pass. And that means the situation WILL turn around, more people will get jobs, they will be able to afford their own Internet or download all the DVDs they want or buy books or ebook readers…and all too frequently, they will drop away from the Library.”
Our conversation continued, and even began to involve a few other Library conference attendees, eating lunch at the table beside us. Their ideas and opinions and those of hundreds of my Library clients are the foundation for the upcoming posts in this blog. My response to this important question, which I have answered hundreds of times since that interesting lunchtime conversation several years ago.
Over the next few blog posts, I’ll address that question, and answer several others about the best ways to Rove, and how to overcome some of the challenges commonly faced by Libraries as they implement this as a service model. Stay tuned!
The intent of this this Blog is to add to the knowledge and insight that you, as a Library Manager or Staff Member need to know in order to understand the importance of proactive services (such as roving) to your patrons, to your profession, to their future and to the future of the Libraries. And, understanding that, learn some of the best tips for roving comfortably and effectively.
The digital revolution is unleashing creativity all around us. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection. To quote Seth Godin: “This is the best shot you’ve got.”
Not everyone believes the ease of entry is good for us. Does allowing everyone equal footing on the playing field result in better art, film, music, and literature? Are we democratizing our culture or just promoting widespread mediocrity? What is the impact of “unleashing an idea virus”?
I can’t help but wonder – what does this digital revolution mean to the publishing industry – and, more to the point, for you, the readers of this Library-focused blog – what does it mean for the evolution of Public Libraries?
I certainly don’t have the answers, and have not yet encountered anyone who would be foolish enough to claim they do! I’ve certainly got a lot to learn. My advice is to absorb as many smart, contrary opinions as you can. Next on my personal list of things to ponder: PressPausePlay, “a movie about hope, fear, and digital culture”.
The film’s creators just released this sneak peak which highlights Seth’s story about writing Unleashing the Ideavirus and how ideas that spread win.
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