LIBRARY LOUNGE

I am always looking for examples of exceptional customer service. Here is an example from the Library Marketing - Thinking Outside the Book Blog:

“The CBS Early Show aired a segment this morning called The Friendliest Skies. The star of the piece is a United Airline pilot, Captain Denny Flanagan, who takes it upon himself to bring customer service up to a whole new level. Here are the highlights:

Flanagan…

*buys McDonald’s hamburgers for passengers on delayed flights.
*takes pictures of pets stored in cargo to reassure passengers.
*makes sure children flying alone get window seats; calls their parents if there are unexpected delays.
*asks passengers to play in a contest in which they write down their best or worst flying experiences; he later posts them on United bulletin boards so that employees can learn about customers’ experiences. (Contest winners, by the way, get a bottle of fine wine).
*writes personalized thank-you notes on the back of his business card for first-class passengers who are frequent fliers.

Flanagan insists it only takes a minute to provide these little extras that put the “service” back in customer service. Makes one think about what small surprises we can add to our own services to make them exceptional.”

Something New Every Day
Just saw this picture and loved it on the Something New Every Day Blog which is written by a director of a public library in Central Wisconsin who believe that learning is both a personal and organizational core value and she can’t imagine life where there isn’t something new every day. Sounds like someone I would like a lot ;0)
Mindy

Librarian Like Me Blog

“Whatever services we provide to people online need to be better than what we provide in person. If they’re walking in the door, they’ve made the commitment. They’ve driven, they’ve parked, they know we exist and they are a user. By contrast, online users will leave us in a second, and this is where people live. We are getting more hits to our web site than we are getting visits to our physical space and we are turning them off. We are alienating more users every day than are visiting our physical buildings in a month.
We have to be better than that.”

The above quote is from a posting at the Librarian Like Me Blog. It is from notes that Jami (Blog Owner) took during Joe Janes Keynote speech at Internet Librarian 2007.

I’m looking for a few good bloggers to join the team over @LISNews ( http://lisnews.org/ ). There’s no pay, but it’s a good way to get your name out there, and gain the respect and admiration of librarians from across the globe! Along with the enormous sense of well being that comes with helping your fellow librarians stay informed, you get your name and writing in front of about 8,000 librarians a month.

Founded in 1999, LISNews is a collaborative weblog that focuses on items of interest to the librarian community. We’ve amassed a collection of almost 20,000 stories, and we could use a little more help as we push onward.

The “job” requires only a minimal time commitment, and just some basic knowledge of HTML & Blogging. If you’re interested in joining the blogging team @LISNews, or have any questions please let me know.

-Blake Carver
LISNews.org

This story came off of the Feel-Good Librarian Blog.

Only the Shadow knows
I wonder what goes on inside our schizophrenic patrons’ minds. They are really on edge sometimes, but other times, they just take things in stride. There are times when it seems like nothing fazes them.

A couple of days ago, the man who calls himself Mr. Bush came in again. He sat down at the express computer – he is always careful to stay only 15 minutes – and raised his hand while staring at me.

I walked over and asked, “How can I help you?” He began his usual mumbled, nonstop commentary, introducing himself to me again, and asking for help with printing pictures off the internet.

He wanted pictures of the presidential limousine, a classic mustang, and a Lamborghini. I did fine finding the first two. Google images is great, except that he can’t work it for himself. There are too many steps and he gets confused. He can get to Google, but not images, and once there, can get the thumbnails, but not the full-size images.

So. I clicked on a few of the Lamborghini pictures and printed the front view and the side view. When I clicked for the full-size image of the rear end, what I got was a close-up FULL-SIZE IMAGE of a naked woman in an extremely compromising position involving……

Never mind.

I was stunned. For just a moment, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move the mouse. Mr. Bush, without skipping a mumbled beat or changing his tone of voice, switched from, “Yes, that’s the one I want, isn’t it a beauty? My dad had one like that….yeah, that’s what Playboy magazine looks like, oh, maybe I’d better keep that to myself…..”

I finally said, “Well, that’s not a Lamborghini, I can’t print that one for you, “ and clicked away from the page.

Back on the thumbnails, it’s still a car. If that’s what lurks, I think I’d rather leave it for the Shadow.

This is one of the reasons that blogging is so fun - you can be entertained and learn at the same time!

http://www.google.com/blogsearch
Google’s search engine for blogs.
“Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger; our blog index is continually updated, so you’ll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results; and you can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and other languages as well.”

A Gallery of Thoughts, Images and Sounds in response to Hurricane Katrina