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Ensure a Welcoming Experience
Thu, 03/15/2012 - 18:00
#2
Strategic Plan Goal Thoughts
A possible rewrite could be as follows:
1) Atmosphere of Hospitality: Library customers of all ages are welcomed by exemplary service and friendly interaction.
2) Inviting Spaces: Library customers of all ages easily navigate physical and virtual spaces that are clean and safe, inside and out.
Generally:
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Restricting the population of these goals to that of customers actually experiencing the provided atmosphere and spaces would help to eliminate the need for extensive external data collection.
Atmosphere:
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If we choose to emphasize great customer service, friendly interaction and hospitality, is it then necessary to measure our customers' cognizance of these efforts and their subjective effect, or does it suffice to only measure progress made in the areas of emphasis?
Also, it could be beneficial to generalize friendly interaction to include the customer to customer relationship, emphasizing the role other customers play in a given customer's experience.
Spaces:
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If "fresh" and "neat" are similar enough to "clean" and "easily navigate" to warrant elimination of these first two variables, analysis/interpretation would be simplified.
These could then be measured:
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I. Qualitatively
a) storytelling
b) group discussions
c) focus groups
II. Quantitatively
a) encoded qualitative data
b) administrative data (eg. Incident Reports for measuring safety)
c) randomized customer feedback questionnaires (perhaps included on loan reciepts?)
Mon, 03/19/2012 - 07:59
#3
RE: Strategic Plan Goal Thoughts
Jon,
Thank you for joining me on this strategic plan project and the discovery of how to use the forum on our new Intranet!
I'm delayed in responding because I was in Philadelphia last week attending the Public Library Association where I heard lots of great ideas.
Excellent thoughts, Jon, to help us get going! Our previous SP focused on awareness of services so that we would not be limiting ourselves to those who already use our services, to help us broaden our base of support. I think that approach has value as well focusing on those who are currently experiencing our services. As we continue to move through the other responses and goals, maybe we want to consider whether we want to measure current users experiences as well our efforts in reaching those who are not current users. How would the language in the goals be different? Or, similar?
Wed, 03/21/2012 - 16:51
#4
loan receipts
Jon, what a great idea. Are you thinking something like we see on sales receipts in stores now to get consumer feedback? I think that would be great.
Thu, 03/22/2012 - 13:33
#5
Re: loan receipts
Exactly! I think its worth mentioning that we'd need to direct customers to a Web questionnaire via the receipt. Printing the questionnaire directly would require us to manually enter every response, which would surely be time/cost prohibitive.
Fri, 04/06/2012 - 12:23
#6
loan receipts
I think that this is a good idea to have a web questionnaire via receipt. By having something like this we could have the customer rate their customer service at whatever library they had gone too, and they could give us feedback of what their experience was like. This would give us statistics and feedback from our customers and it could some how be worked into our daily links.
Mon, 04/09/2012 - 08:32
#7
survey
Cheryl, thank you for joining in on this discussion. We need to ensure that the language of the goal will keep options for measuring such as a questionaire open. As we get further into the strategic plan we can review the specifics on where to advertise such a survey.
Fri, 03/23/2012 - 09:01
#8
Loan receipts
While I like the idea in theory, how often have you completed a survey on a sales receipt? Often, there is a financial incentive or offers for future discounts to entice customers. My hairdresser does something different. After I get my hair done, I get an email from her thanking me. What if we send an email to the customer with the link to a survey and thanking them for using the library? Would that be something that could work?
Fri, 03/23/2012 - 09:40
#9
Measuring
I love that we are having these discussions!
What language in the goals can we consider that encompasses measurement of the goal that is a balance between a simple check list type and more elaborate surveys, as described in the We Want You video?
Using the suggestion of language below, is surveying customers the only way to measure our attainment of the goals? Does this language offer us a balance between easy and difficult measuring? Are there other suggestions we want to consider?
1) Atmosphere of Hospitality: Library customers of all ages are welcomed by exemplary service and friendly interaction.
2) Inviting Spaces: Library customers of all ages easily navigate physical and virtual spaces that are clean and safe, inside and out.
Jon offered qualitative & quantative measuring ideas in his post above. Does the language of those goals seem to offer us flexibility for both types of measurement? If so, good. If not, what do you suggest?
Fri, 03/23/2012 - 10:10
#10
Measurements of Welcoming
The suggestions Jon made are excellent, but I heard a suggestion that the library use "secret shopper" visits to evaluate hospitality, cleanliness, and safety. I think much of what is in the goal can be seen by anyone of our customers and staff.
I'm not quite sure that the choices offer much independent quantitative measuring. Both areas are really qualitative in nature and very subjective. What one customer finds as hospitable and friendly, another customer may not agree. Unless we counted the number of events, activities, and interactions, but that number doesn't tell you whether they were quality visits. If we just want to "check off" a list and say we did or didn't do something, we could but that information does not give us anything to work on. Do we want to evaluate those areas (qualitative or quantitative) separately?, I think this goal of Welcoming is really inter-related and we should combine them into one measuring tool.
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 20:10
#11
measurements of welcoming
I'm in agreement with Linda - most of this area is so subjective. Her suggestion about the use of 'secret shopper" I think has more merit. My daughter works for a credit union and they use secret shoppers for both the frontline and those behind the scenes who may only have phone contact with customers/members as the CU calls them. The secret shopper had 10 points that the staff member must complete in any interaction to score 100. I can get a copy from her if you are interested.
Wed, 03/28/2012 - 14:08
#12
survey
Maybe a QR code for a survey could be printed on the loan receipt. Someday MLS might even be able to offer a QR code that would direct customers to their accounts.
Thu, 03/29/2012 - 08:54
#13
Thanks!
Amy,
Thanks so much for taking part in our discussions! I hope that you're enjoying the great new features of MyMetrolibrary!!
Thu, 04/05/2012 - 09:25
#14
Incentive to complete surveys
We can't give out $1000 a month like Walmart, but how about doing a monthly drawing for a book bag or copy of a bestseller that has a long waiting list?
Mon, 04/09/2012 - 08:09
#15
RE: Incentive...
These types of things can certainly be considered as we get into the implementation of this strategic plan.
Thu, 04/05/2012 - 17:26
#16
Semantics
I agree with the points Jon made. We don't necessarily have to change the core meaning of the goal, we just need to address the way we measure it. It's similar to when writing goals for lesson plans in a school setting. We are discouraged from writing, "The student will learn," in favor of demonstrable verbs such as, "The student will verbalize understanding, recite, describe, identify, demonstrate,” and so on. In this case, we should shift the focus from what the customer perceives to focus on what the staff is doing to welcome the customer, and if any changes need to be made to the space itself in order to be clear of hazards, be more accessible to those with mobility limitations, or have appropriate lighting and cleanliness. Jon's #1 can be measured in those terms. #2 can as well, but we probably still need to play with the language a little to be more specific about what our goal for the space is, such as clear from debris, or more accessibility features beyond basic ADA compliance.
Mon, 04/09/2012 - 08:26
#17
Re: Semantics
Annie, Thank you for logging in and sharing your thoughts!
The demonstrable verbs are so much more powerful and probably easier to measure. Sometimes I fear we can focus too much on what we do rather than the value or impact to those who receive. It is how someone "feels" about what they receive that motivates him/her to actions such as use and support. I realize that what we do as well as what the receiver will "do" and how the receiver "feels" are all extremely important. It's a tough balance to find when developing the goals.
All of this is to say again how much I appreciate you participating and adding to our thinking as we develop our next goals.
Tue, 03/27/2012 - 19:38
#18
Measuring
We've been following this discussion here at the Capitol Hill Library and have a couple of comments.
First, we're happy to leave the qualitative and quantitative measuring to Jon! He seems to have a good grasp of what it is going to take to gather that information. Regardless of how it's measured, we're convinced that constant evaluation and interpretation of that data is important. Acting on what is gathered will help keep our library system and the services we offer relevant to our community.
A couple of thoughts:
--Expand on what our current customers need and want from their library experience. We can find ways to measure our customers’ current level of satisfaction with an eye toward the future types of service offerings our customer’s would be interested in seeing.
--Find ways to reach those customers who are not current users in a more creative or cutting edge way. Also, though it may not be cutting edge, direct mailings, TV and Radio advertisements are still quite effective.
--Perhaps when customers log-in to their account or utilize a public computer (from time to time) we could have a short survey pop up. Not sure what we could offer as incentive but Marketing could probably come up with something (perhaps one of those cool jute bags?)
--Secret shoppers: we definitely like this idea!
jhausburg, ahill, jtolle, gmelchor, and the entire CH library staff!
Wed, 03/28/2012 - 08:21
#19
Re: Measuring
I like the idea that measuring of the goals takes place at the system as well as the local level. It takes each of us individually and as a cohesive group to have great impact. I hope that you will share your efforts in the strategic plan highlights page or whatever we have similar for this new strategic plan. Our Commission likes to hear about the things we do that moves us toward attainment as well as the overall results.
Fri, 03/30/2012 - 12:57
#20
Thanks for Comments!
Hello Commenters!
Thank you for your thoughts on types of measurement tools! I think now that we have some great examples of measurement tools, let's take a step back.
Before we can measure, we have to figure out what we will be measuring, so let us know your thoughts on rewrites for these responses.
We can always continue the conversation of ideas under the Strategic Plan Talk forum.
For additional background information you may wish to read the minutes from the February 2012 X-Change minutes.
What are your suggestions on rewrites of this goal to meet the type of measuring we want to use on our new Strategic Plan?