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I am looking for a good customer service program or training techniques for library staff. I attended the Unshelved program at the California Library Association and was impressed with the amount of customer service techniques passed on at the program (and thus buried in the Unshelved Comic). Does anyone have suggestions for programs, techniques, or trainers in this area?

edited Nov 20 at 0:25

asked Nov 19 at 1:03

Jeff
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Glad you liked the presentation, Jeff. – Gene Ambaum Nov 23 at 16:51

fredrose0501 · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-19 18:59:18Z UTC

I recently attended a customer service seminar put on by SkillPath Seminars, they're based in Kansas but I'm in MA so obviously they travel to different places. I thought it was a pretty good seminar, the instructor went into various psychological reasons for some of the more annoying aspects of patron behavior. It definitely gave me some ideas of things I need to work on.

Eric · Answer 2 · 2009-11-20 22:06:46Z UTC

There is a nice video/book set put out by the Noel-Levitz company (see their website here) that focuses on customer service on college campuses.

Some of the situations are set in a library but it would all be useful in any institution where there are multiple service points and offices with different responsibilities. It does a good job of talking about specific behaviors and also reminds us that we all, even those not officially on the public service desk, have an impact (good or bad) on the customer (in this case the student).

Gene Ambaum · Answer 3 · 2009-11-23 16:59:15Z UTC

Seattle's Pike Place Fish Market guys do presentations and workshops about customer service: http://www.pikeplacefish.com/philosophy.html I've never been to one, but would go if it was possible. I have seen one of the videos they produced (http://www.enterprisemedia.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?talent=Fish%20Philosophy&gclid=CIyRoLzKoZ4CFRlcagodyVQLkQ) and would say they're well worth the value in terms of empowering and motivating employees.

Bill Barnes · Answer 4 · 2009-11-23 23:51:08Z UTC

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I've always heard good things about Zingerman's ZingTrain workshops.

answered Nov 23 at 23:51

Bill Barnes♦♦
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Our co-op had them for an inservice several years ago. They were good. As a bonus we also had sandwiches for lunch that day. – Holly Nov 25 at 3:01

Baldgeekinmd · Answer 5 · 2009-11-30 16:49:53Z UTC

For customer service, we use a couple of different things at our library system (in MD.)

At first day orientation we present our new staff with a shortened version of our home grown customer service training and Maryland's Learning Libraries training.

Then at their full day orientation we do an hour of our internal customer service training along with learning libraries. In addition we view the video Diversity in the Library which really speaks to may different interactions between staff and people of different populations.

Then twice a year we do a Culture and Concepts training which focuses on many different organizational culture skills including the FISH customer service training philosophy (official FISH home.)

Good Customer Service Programs/Techniques

5 Answers