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
Continuing with our Roving “Myth Busting” series, here’s Myth #
4(a): “Patrons will hate it.”
Some of the statements I have heard from Library staff members who are imagining an aggressive retail model, and who are unfamiliar with the most professional methods of providing roving reference include:
- “When I go to a store, I don’t want someone hovering over me. I hate that when I’m shopping!
- “Most patrons do not appreciate getting harassed with the dreaded “Can I help you?” question used by retail sales clerks.”
- “I didn’t go into this field to become a floating sales rep.”
- Patrons don’t want us stalking them!
Response: Can’t disagree with any of this – IF this were a true picture of roving! I too hate to be badgered or stalked in a store. If this was what was being advocated as the correct method for Roving Reference, then I would be against it too!
Having said that, the truth is that providing a professional standard of roving service is both “an Art and a Science”. Doing it successfully requires “Artfulness” such as: using your own natural style of friendliness and approachability, showing discreetness, sensitivity, keen observation (to determine which customers look like they would like some guidance), and good judgment and common sense. It is also a “Science” involving certain laws of Communication and Psychology, with proven methods, most useful approaches and best practices – all of which generate positive responses from patrons more often. For these reasons, training in the best professional roving practices may be essential to success. We’ll deal with that statement in our next post.
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!
Over the past 6 and 1/2 years, in Roving workshops with over 1200 Library managers and staff, I have found that people commonly need clear answers about some important questions before they can successfully implement Roving. Our Pro-active Service and roving Workshops address all these questions, and much more.
I have summarized the most common of these “frequently asked questions” for you in the following list.
“10 FAQ’s To Answer For Smoother Roving implementation”
1. Why is this important? (What is the objective? How does it link to our Vision, Mission, Goals?)
2. Who will be Roving? (which roles, positions, departments, branches, F/T/ P/T)
3. When should I rove? • Will there be a schedule, or will it be just a percentage of my shift, or will it be just at my discretion? • If there are to be shifts…how long will a roving shift be?
4. Where do I rove?
• Just in my department?
• On this floor only? Other floors?
• Beyond the Library walls?
5. How do I rove?
• What if there is no one else staffing the desk? Can I leave the desk empty?
• Do I have to do my roving time in one “chunk”?
• What if there are no patrons in the department?
• How do I deal with multiple customers or answering phone calls?
• How do I deal with questions outside of my departmental or role related expertise?
6. What tools or support will be provided to help me rove?
a. INFORMATION
i. Trends affecting libraries
ii. Other libraries’ approaches
b. TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER TOOLS
i. Computer Technology (i.e. Notebook computers, PDA’s etc.)
ii. Communication devices (i.e. Vocera, Walkie-Talkies, or portable phone headsets etc.)
iii. Clipboards, “Tick sheets”
iv. Identification (i.e. badges) c. TRAINING i. Roving Training ii. Pro-active Service (at a desk; in stacks(pages/shelvers), at Ciric. desk) iii. Cross training d. COACHING i. Managers participating and/ or demonstrating roving ii. Dialogue, Feedback (i.e. from Co-workers, Managers and/or from Patrons?)
e. REINFORCMENT / SUPPORT
i. What follow-up will there be?
ii. Practice sessions
iii. Other support (i.e. Reminders, posters, newsletters, staff meetings)
f. TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION
i. Committees of representatives of supervisors and staff
ii. Dialogue, what’s working, what’s not, solutions. Make it part of every staff meeting agenda
7. How can I get my other work done? Will Managers help by scheduling off-desk work or automating, eliminating or re-assigning other tasks/priorities
8. What if there is no one else staffing the desk?
9. What if there are no patrons in the department?
10. Do I have to do my roving time in one chunk??
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