Secret Shopper Experience
I thought this would be a fun experience. I love RA, so I had high expectations :) . Also I travel weekly to see my aging father in another city, so I was pretty sure no one there would identify me as a library employee. Well I visited what I will call Library A - I told the employee I encountered that I read a lot of nonfiction, but was wanting a good fiction book to read. The employee was very friendly and LITERALLY pointed me in the direction of the fiction collection :( . I left his area and walked down the long aisle to the next information desk where 2 employees were, they glanced in my direction and continued there conversation. Before I could ask a question, a 3rd person came up and that was that. So I left Library A with a list of books (I had written down as I looked at the bookshelves).
I went to Library B - a smaller library in another city and there was 1 employee at the information desk. She greeted me with a smile and I gave her the same line I gave Library A. While she didn't ask what kind of things I like to read or what I had been reading, she did get up from her seat, show me the new book selections, I asked about an author and she took me to the shelf where that author was. She was a lot more helpful. I'm yet not sure there was an RA interview or conversation.
We don't always have optimal staffing in our libraries and sometimes it's busy, but I like to always be prepared to have that discussion with patrons when they come in. This experience made me kind of sad - but it helped me see ways I can go back and work with my staff at my branch.
I went to Library B - a smaller library in another city and there was 1 employee at the information desk. She greeted me with a smile and I gave her the same line I gave Library A. While she didn't ask what kind of things I like to read or what I had been reading, she did get up from her seat, show me the new book selections, I asked about an author and she took me to the shelf where that author was. She was a lot more helpful. I'm yet not sure there was an RA interview or conversation.
We don't always have optimal staffing in our libraries and sometimes it's busy, but I like to always be prepared to have that discussion with patrons when they come in. This experience made me kind of sad - but it helped me see ways I can go back and work with my staff at my branch.
Sorry it was a strike out, but great job on the summary and on the paper!
ReplyDeleteNo pointing, people! Sheesh...bummer about that. I like your experience with library B. It seems to have been much more pleasant. It's nice to have things just go well sometimes. (And in our work world, I hope that call I transferred today didn't take too long!)
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the librarian at the first library didn't even try to engage with you. When people ask me where the fiction books are, I always try to ask them if they need help finding anything specific or if they have any questions. That's definitely a missed opportunity on that librarian's account. I hope that's not how he answers questions all the time, but it's possible he was busy with other work, but helping patrons should come first. Sometimes I forget to look up and watch out for patrons who look like they need some guidance, so I definitely need a reminder sometimes. At least the librarian at the second library was more pleasant to work with and took the time to make conversation, even if she didn't exactly do as expected. It's the small things that make a big difference.
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