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Enhancing the user experience: Promoting a service culture through customized staff training

Article Information:

Title:

 Enhancing the user experience: Promoting a service culture through customized staff training

Author(s):

Peter Edward Sidorko, Esther Woo

Journal:

Library Management

Year:

2008 

Volume:

29 

Issue:

8/9 

Page:

641 - 656


DOI:

10.1108/01435120810917279

Publisher:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Acknowledgements:

The contribution made by the IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section, in bringing this paper to publication, is gratefully acknowledged.

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Abstract:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight a series of initiatives generated from, and managed within, a major university library and aimed at improving a customer service focus.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper documents a series of approaches, including a customized staff training package, that were intended to enhance users' experience with staff. Over a period of six years the responses to a biannual user survey were tracked in order to identify improvements, or otherwise, in users' perceptions of staff performance in terms of their customer service.

Findings – The survey results seem to indicate that improvements in users' perceptions of staff performance have improved with time and have done so most dramatically following a series of self-initiated workshops conducted by library staff.

Research limitations/implications – While it is difficult to directly correlate the successful outcomes with the initiatives, including the staff-conducted workshops, it will be necessary to continue to track users' perceptions of staff to ascertain whether the trend is sustainable or an aberration.

Originality/value – The paper provides a unique perspective of applying a range of approaches aimed at improving the user experience with staff in a major Asian university library. The success of these approaches is linked to the outcomes of the library's biannual user survey.

Keywords:

Customer service management, Customer surveys, Hong Kong, Libraries, Organizational performance, Workplace learning

Article Type:

Case study

References:

12 references

Article URL:

www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/01435120810917279

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