Neuroscience
Knowledge @ Wharton talks about marketing from, naturally, a business perspective, but this podcast has lots of implications for libraries, too.
Some folks at Wharton conducted a "Retail Customer Dissatisfaction Study" which found that "... only 6% of shoppers who experienced a problem with a retailer contacted the company, but 31% went on to tell friends, family or colleagues what happened."
So if our patrons are dissatisfied with the library, not only won’t they not let us know, they’ll tell their friends and their friends will effectively be dissatisfied with the library, too. "Paula Courtney, president of The Verde Group, says the exponential power of negative word-of-mouth lies in the nature of storytelling."
Courtney later talks about how the customer (patron?) wants to save time, and many retailers prevent this by "jamming stores with inventory that overwhelms customers and cuts into the time they have to shop." Would this be comparable to libraries? Not because we jam stuff in, but because we make it hard to find – "check the catalog", then "check the electronic journal locator", then search this database – it’s overwhelming for patrons, and we’re jamming it in their faces.
Nothing new, in a way, but it’s good to be reminded of this sober lesson.
- More Library Instruction Or Better Database Interfaces?
My librarian friend Emily Alling recently posted a question on Facebook asking if you were the head of a reference department: which should / would get more priority, more instruction on how to use library resources, or better interfaces for those resources?...
- Public Library Marketing Toolkit
ProQuest & CSA have come out with a terrific public library marketing toolkit that could benefit ALL libraries. It includes some great material that savvy librarians can use to publicize their offerings, and not just those from ProQuest / CSA (tho'...
- The Future Of Reference
A colleague (hi Terry!) asked me to speak on a panel in his class about the future of reference. I'm a poor prognosticator (tho' I like to say the word), but I have a few thoughts. Here's a bit of what I said in class: Even before I talk about...
- Usability Results Very Promising!
I spent the past year working with some colleagues on a redesign for our Research Database Locator. That's the database mechanism we use to maintain & deliver the Libraries' electronic resources to our end users. You can see the existing product...
- Libraries 4 My Friends
Coupla posts going up at my sister blog, Libraries 4 My Friends. Today's is about using worldcat.org / Find in a Library. You've used it, right? If not, search for a book -- any book (cd, dvd, manuscript, anything!!) in the box to the left of...
Neuroscience
Beware of Dissatisfied Consumers: They Like to Blab
Knowledge @ Wharton talks about marketing from, naturally, a business perspective, but this podcast has lots of implications for libraries, too.
Some folks at Wharton conducted a "Retail Customer Dissatisfaction Study" which found that "... only 6% of shoppers who experienced a problem with a retailer contacted the company, but 31% went on to tell friends, family or colleagues what happened."
So if our patrons are dissatisfied with the library, not only won’t they not let us know, they’ll tell their friends and their friends will effectively be dissatisfied with the library, too. "Paula Courtney, president of The Verde Group, says the exponential power of negative word-of-mouth lies in the nature of storytelling."
Courtney later talks about how the customer (patron?) wants to save time, and many retailers prevent this by "jamming stores with inventory that overwhelms customers and cuts into the time they have to shop." Would this be comparable to libraries? Not because we jam stuff in, but because we make it hard to find – "check the catalog", then "check the electronic journal locator", then search this database – it’s overwhelming for patrons, and we’re jamming it in their faces.
Nothing new, in a way, but it’s good to be reminded of this sober lesson.
- More Library Instruction Or Better Database Interfaces?
My librarian friend Emily Alling recently posted a question on Facebook asking if you were the head of a reference department: which should / would get more priority, more instruction on how to use library resources, or better interfaces for those resources?...
- Public Library Marketing Toolkit
ProQuest & CSA have come out with a terrific public library marketing toolkit that could benefit ALL libraries. It includes some great material that savvy librarians can use to publicize their offerings, and not just those from ProQuest / CSA (tho'...
- The Future Of Reference
A colleague (hi Terry!) asked me to speak on a panel in his class about the future of reference. I'm a poor prognosticator (tho' I like to say the word), but I have a few thoughts. Here's a bit of what I said in class: Even before I talk about...
- Usability Results Very Promising!
I spent the past year working with some colleagues on a redesign for our Research Database Locator. That's the database mechanism we use to maintain & deliver the Libraries' electronic resources to our end users. You can see the existing product...
- Libraries 4 My Friends
Coupla posts going up at my sister blog, Libraries 4 My Friends. Today's is about using worldcat.org / Find in a Library. You've used it, right? If not, search for a book -- any book (cd, dvd, manuscript, anything!!) in the box to the left of...