part 1: Elisabeth Marrocolla She spoke a lot about how to communicate effectively and how communication and boundaries work together. She focused on how being clear is kind and how we need to remember that being assertive in a clear way is true kindness and to focus on being clear instead of being “nice”. This was good to hear as that’s been my thought too about what kindness really means. She also talked about the importance of “hello” and greeting customers. She gave a 10-4 rule telling us that within 10 ft you should acknowledge a patron, and within 4 feet you should speak some kind of hello to them. She talked about the importance of using language that patrons can understand and how to make sure you are explaining it in layman’s terms instead of using library jargon.
The 2nd speaker: Jolene Pickens had a lot of great information on how psychology relates to giving excellent customer service. her main points were: 1. Ask great questions 2. get outside your comfort zone 3. Work Hard do difficult things 4. Support and encourage -if you notice those who are doing great work let them know. She talked about empathy. She pointed out that if you have more of it you are typically better at customer service. This one was my favorite as I feel I learned the most here.
Speaker 3: Helen Rimmer She just repeated the basic of customer service about how to effectively speak to customers and honestly it was no different than speaker 1.
Speaker 4: Courtney Cox She talked about email etiquette and how it’s important to go no higher than an 8th grade level when composing emails. She applied this same method to writing policy and procedures. She outlined clarity and simplicity as being the two most important things when giving instructions in an email and also for written instructions for patrons and employees. I liked what she had to say as it was a new area of customer service she honed in on. Usually it’s about face to face or phone etiquette instead of emails. She also discussed using templates for specific emails you have to routinely send out to patrons/ customers. This was so nice to hear as this is also what I’ve been taught in all of my years of employment.