PLA 2010 Conference: A Strategy for Redesigning the Staff for Better Customer Service
Public Library Assocation - PLA 2010 - Annual Conference - Portland
By Rebecca Miller -- Library Journal, 03/28/2010
- Experiential training model focuses on "connecting behavior skills"
- Developed by San Jose PL and California State Library
- Inspired by Paco Underhill's research
At "You Want Me To Do What? Innovative Training for Soft People Skills," Gould, with Mary Nacu and Molly Westmoreland from San Jose Public Library (SJPL), presented a training model developed after comprehensive observation of SJPL by Paco Underhill's Envirosell research firm (think Why We Buy).
That study found that the library space and wayfinding were great, but that people were still looking for staff but staff were not looking for customers. That gap alerted SJPL that it was time to "redesign the staff."
Breaking it down
Gould had participants pick partners for a mirroring exercise fostering cooperation. Standing face to face with palms toward one another pattycake style, they took turns leading one another through hand motions and then tried to share the leadership.
Increasingly a community place (think the "third place"), noted Nacu, the library's role "is now relational instead of transactional."
The experiential training model is designed to teach and instill "connecting behavior skills" around eye contact, tone of voice, listening, and body language. It assumes that these are skills that can indeed be learned through awareness and practice in a supportive environment.
Improvement at SJPL
Testing at SJPL branches, said Westmoreland, proved it, with more than 60 percent of staffers showing sustained improvement in six of eight behaviors.
(The two behaviors that didn't change much were body language, which is influenced by deep habits developed over a lifetime, and appearance, which didn't have as much play because of dress codes already in place.)
Branch culture also started to change, and people reported they were happier at work and felt more connected to colleagues by the training itself.
Learning to listen
A listening exercise at the session involved small groups working together to tell a story of a magic refrigerator. Each participant picked up where a teammate left off the narrative, with enough time for each to have several turns.
In one story, a big red refrigerator could clean itself, change its color on demand, anticipate food choices, and, eventually, clean the entire house. The telling required participants to focus on details, and also raised awareness about how one can too often be thinking about a response instead of listening. As a side benefit, it also had teams throughout the whole room laughing, appreciating one another's creativity.
If the connections zipping around among the hundreds gathered in that conference hall were any indication, the model is one to take home and put to use.
Supported by an LSTA grant, the project was also scaled for use at the state level. See the session handout for more information.
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