Bridging the gap between service provision and customer expectation

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to serve as a reminder to all managers that they must understand their customers, from the customers’ perspective, and not make assumptions about customer needs. Design/methodology/approach: Customer Value Discovery workshops are held with undergraduate on-campus students and academic staff at Nottingham Trent University to identify customer values and irritations. Library staff participate in the workshops and vote as they expected their customers to vote. The gaps identified between staff assumptions of customer perceptions of service importance and performance serve as a catalyst for staff engagement in the change process that is necessary to deliver on the value propositions and reduce customer irritations. Findings: Library staff assumptions of customer perceptions were not always accurate. The gaps identified helped to engage staff in the change process that was necessary to improve perceptions of value and to reduce irritations. By explicitly addressing the value propositions with the aims of adding value and reducing irritation, student satisfaction with library services, as measured by two independent satisfaction surveys, improved considerably. Research limitations/implications: The research is based on two customer segments of one university library. The research should be repeated after a gap of three-four years to check if the value propositions and irritations have changed in that time. If so, the goals of the library’s operational plan would have to change to reflect the new value propositions

Are there common academic library customer values?

Abstract: Purpose – This paper endeavours to provide answers to the following questions: Is there a correlation between what library customers value and the questions asked in benchmarking satisfaction surveys? Is there a core set of academic library customer values? Are there differences between what academic library customers value in Australia when compared to their counterparts in England? Do library customer values change over time?Design/methodology/approach – The results of two similar university libraries' customer value discovery research are compared with each other, and also with the question set in the LibQUAL+™ survey. As the customer value discovery research was undertaken six years apart, the results are compared to see if there has been change over time.Findings – Academic library customers identified a core set of values, and these values mapped reasonably well to the LibQUAL+™ instrument. However, there were unique value factors identified by the various customer segments that did not map. Some questions in LibQUAL+™ were more detailed in their exploration of library staff attributes than customers identified in their value proposition. Customers identify their values +without reference to library jargon.Originality/value – The paper shows that customer value discovery and LibQUAL+™ are both valuable management tools that identify services and resources of importance to library customer

The expatriate library director

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide library managers with information about what to expect if they are considering a post in another country. It challenges a suggestion that a senior manager's major value is their local network. Rather, the skills, experience, culture and attitude, as well as networks, can contribute to a successful career in another country. Design/methodology/approach - The paper provides an example of an Australian expatriate senior library manager who took up a post in the United Kingdom. It draws upon literature on cultural differences and knowledge transfer across international borders. Findings - The paper provides an example of a successful transfer of management knowledge to a new country, highlighting actions taken to form a new management team. Also provides practical advice on personal and social matters that have to be addressed for the relocation to be successful. Practical implications - Leadership, good management, and an awareness of, and sensitivity to, cultural differences are required for a successful transfer of management knowledge. At a senior level, it is not so much about expertise in librarianship, but management and leadership that are important. Originality/value - The paper provides a positive example of an expatriate senior library manager moving to a new country. It will be of interest to anyone contemplating an international professional relocatio

Identifying customer expectations is key to evidence based service delivery

As librarians and information professionals we share a common rationale: to deliver enhanced services for our customers. The importance of this is self-evident - if we don’t have customers we don't have a job. We therefore put our services at peril if we don’t put the customer at the heart of what we are trying to do. The now-familiar description of evidence based library and information practice reminds us that we need "to integrate user-reported, practitioner-observed and research-derived evidence as an explicit basis for decision-making" (Booth, 2006). This begs several important questions - Who are our users? How can we best capture reports from these users regarding their expected outcomes? How might we as library practitioners observe (and act upon!) what our users require? In attempting to answer such questions we discover potential value in methodologies with a business orientation; utilising tools from the commercial sector such as Customer Value Discovery research (McKnight, 2007a; McKnight & Berrington, 2008)

Improving customer satisfaction: changes as a result of Customer Value Discovery

Objective: To identify Gold Standard Services for customers in an academic library and determine whether interventions following the identification of customer value increased student satisfaction. Methods: “Customer Discovery Workshops” were undertaken with academic staff and undergraduate on‐campus students to provide managers and library staff with information on the services and resources that customers valued, and what irritated them about existing services and resources. The impact of interventions was assessed two years after the research using a university student satisfaction survey and an independent national student satisfaction survey. Results: The findings resulted in significant changes to the way forward‐facing customer services were delivered. A number of value adding services were introduced for the customer. Overall customer satisfaction was improved. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 2008, 3:1 34 Conclusions: The Customer Value Discovery research has created a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. An operational plan was introduced to track activity and performance against the objectives identified in the customer value research. However, there is a constant need to innovate

First look analyses of five cycles of ERTS-1 imagery over County of Los Angeles: Assessment of data utility for urban development and regional planning

Significant results have been obtained from the analyses of ERTS-1 imagery from five cycles over Test Site SR 124 by classical photointerpretation and by an interactive hybrid multispectral information extraction system (GEMS). The synopticity, periodicity and multispectrality of ERTS coverage, available for the first time to LA County planners, have opened up both a new dimensionality in data and offer new capability in preparation of planning inputs. Photointerpretation of ERTS images has produced over 25 overlays at 1:1,000,000 scale depicting regional relations and urban structure in terms of several hundred linear and areal features. To mention only one such result, a possible new fault lineament has been discovered on the northern slope of the Santa Monica mountains in the scene 1144-18015, composited of MSS bands 4, 5, 6,. GEMS analysis of the ERTS products has provided new or improved information in the following planning data categories: urban vegetation; land cover segregation; man-made and natural impact monitoring; urban design; and suitability. ERTS data analysis has allowed planners to establish trends that directly impact planning policies. This new source of information will not only assist current methods to be more efficient, but permits entirely new planning methodologies to be employed

Librarians and academics - partners in teaching and learning

Students are demanding digitally enhanced learning environments to supplement traditional face-to-face teaching. In some countries, such as Australia and Canada, many students undertake entire degree courses without regularly attending a university’s physical campus. These offcampus students are supported by print and multi-media resources, and virtual learning web sites. In Great Britain, because of the expectations of current and forthcoming generations of university students, online learning spaces that provide a virtual door to the university campus are becoming mainstream. These ‘Net Generation’ students expect and demand flexibility in their studies: alternatives to on-campus lectures; online access to lecture notes and resources; and online access to all the traditional university campus services, including library, student advice and support services

Library decision making informed by customer values

“Customer value” is a much used and, in a number of cases, a misunderstood term, with emphasis placed on a priori categories of what provides value for the customer, rather than an effort to understand value from a customer perspective. The research presented in this thesis spans more than ten years in two academic library services, (one in Australia and the other in the United Kingdom), using a methodology that does not use pre-determined value dimensions but, rather, dimensions identified by the customers themselves. This action research was carried out with different customer segments in the university libraries to identify customer values and irritations. By longitudinal tracking of student satisfaction in the UK university, changes in customer satisfaction were noted and related to interventions agreed by library management based on the research data gathered. The thesis answers four specific research questions. By focussing on customer-defined dimensions of “value” and the concept of “customer irritation”, through use of the Customer Value Discovery methodology, this research has been able to identify a set of core academic library customer values that traditional library benchmarking instruments have not previously highlighted. The attendant results of the application of the methodology to discern these values, and their use to inform subsequent change management processes, show that customer satisfaction is improved if changes are made to services and resources to both deliver customer-defined values and reduce customer-defined irritations. Further, they show that library staff assumptions regarding customer expectations and customer perceptions of service are not always accurate. Therefore, management should seek input from customers and base decisions regarding service changes and improvements to meet customer expectations on customer-derived evidence. At the same time, the active engagement of library staff in the Customer Value Discovery process, their engagement in modelling potential interventions to add value and reduce irritation, and then in the decision-making and implementation of agreed actions, encourages greater staff “buy-in” to the change management process, as the changes are customer-led, and staff driven, rather than being management imposed. The research supported the awarding of the UK Cabinet Office’s Customer Service Excellence accreditation, attesting to the usefulness of the methodology to ensure customer-focussed services. Taken together, these findings fill a number of gaps in the professional literature, and make a series of contributions to the extant knowledge base, by providing details of the Customer Value Discovery methodology and its usefulness in an academic library context; by presenting the application of a methodology that enables easy and precise identification of value dimensions from the perspective of the customer; and by providing practitioners with case studies of actions that improved customer satisfaction of the library services. As such, the research constitutes a significant contribution, not only to evidence-based library and information practice, informing library management decision-making, but also to the wider field of customer service management