RANT 6

Gosh- library staff are a helpful lot, and always looking for new ways to be even more helpful. I’ve been reading an article about delivering new, proactive approaches to the idea of service delivery. The concept called “service triage” (love this name, sounds frontline, purposeful with immediate service by a skilled, knowledgeable professional to solve your problem) was trialled last year for two weeks at the beginning of the semester at Swinburne University Library’s Hawthorn Campus. It brings library staff out from behind the counter and into the public space with the clients; usually located near the entry point and wearing lanyards which identify them as staff, they can approach the clients and ask if they can assist. Body language and eye contact help staff in assessing approachability towards students, staff can market the library services during their conversational interactions with the students as they roam without the physical barriers like the service desk. “The aim of the interchange is to engage with the client and provide the best possible result”.

The article I read was published in the Incite September 2011 issue so I phoned the Hawthorn Campus to see if nearly twelve months on the program was still running? It is - at the start of each semester “service triage” is taking place. It is now a valued component of the library support services at Swinburne, lessening queue lines and waiting times, helping new students become familiar with the library environment and campus services in general. It has not been expanded to other campuses as it is felt that student numbers are too low. Still - sounds like innovative customer service to me!

 

Source: INCITE Magazine, Volume 32, Issue 9, September 2011, P15, viewed 26/8/2012.

Author: Frank Ponte, Library Operations Manager, Swinburne University-Hawthorn Campus.