Congratulations on another incredibly successful Book Circle. I was so glad that I was able to attend. What I found there was a cozy, intimate, welcoming atmosphere full of great conversation. What a great event sponsored by the Access Services Advisory Council and made successful by everyone who attended. Yet another reason why I'm really proud to be part of Access Services.
I just returned from a vacation that included a really long plane ride and no household responsibilities (I do love my in-laws) so I actually had some time to read for the first time in a long time. I'm reading a book called Setting the Table, written by restaurateur Danny Meyer of the Union Square Cafe. If you've never been to USC, I highly recommend it. By New York City standards, it's a high quality restaurant (Zagat top 10) that's pretty reasonably priced. But, what sets USC apart is its service, or what Danny Meyer calls hospitality. It's a very relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. Making the distinction between hospitality and service, he writes:
I just returned from a vacation that included a really long plane ride and no household responsibilities (I do love my in-laws) so I actually had some time to read for the first time in a long time. I'm reading a book called Setting the Table, written by restaurateur Danny Meyer of the Union Square Cafe. If you've never been to USC, I highly recommend it. By New York City standards, it's a high quality restaurant (Zagat top 10) that's pretty reasonably priced. But, what sets USC apart is its service, or what Danny Meyer calls hospitality. It's a very relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. Making the distinction between hospitality and service, he writes:
Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery makes the recipient feel. Service is a monologue--we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on one's guest's side requires listening to that person with every sense and following up with a thoughtful, gracious, appropriate response. It takes both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top. (p. 65)
If library service is the technical delivery of a product, we certainly have excellent service. We know how to place claim returns, create reserve links, create guest passes, shelve books and borrow materials from other libraries without problems. There is no question that with all of the demands on us, we are getting the job done. But there is another level of service that we have yet to conquer, and that's hospitality. Delivering hospitality is what stands between providing good service and providing excellent service.
Tomorrow, we roll out our Service Excellence Initiative. Unlike other one-off customer service training classes, this is a semester long series of experiences designed to get all of us thinking about how we can provide welcoming, hospitable service. How we can listen and be genuinely empathetic to our users. I know this is possible because Access Services has created an exemplar of a welcoming, hospitable environment in the Book Circle, so we simply need to extend this to our communications with users and co-workers. This will be a shared goal that we will all work together on through the Spring semester. Eileen, Eric, Deb and I, aided by the rest of the Access Sups and the Access Services Advisory Council, have devised a program that will be both fun and informative and we look forward to experiencing this process together.
No comments:
Post a Comment