Before I worked in libraries, I worked in the service industry, mostly waiting tables in upscale restaurants, but also in bars and some chain restaurants, and even once, a sweaty stint as a fry cook. I learned lots from the service industry that has aided me in my subsequent careers; how to manage stress, for example, and the importance of keeping a clean work area. Most importantly though, I learned the fundamentals of service excellence. I couldn’t really find evidence of this same ethic in any of the handful of public libraries I worked in during or just after library school, and was regularly shocked at some of the poor service I saw from some of my coworkers, who are great people, but sometimes not so good with greeting people or managing difficult patron interactions. But, in 2016, I went to work for the Whistler Public Library in British Columbia, a library that has made service excellence their brand.
WPL participates in a program known as “the Whistler Experience,” which is led by the local Chamber of Commerce, and informed by the research of Mark Colgate, a professor at the University of Victoria. Through the Whistler Experience training, everyone learns the importance of the “three R’s,” reliability, responsiveness, and relationship building. At WPL, we recognized that these applied not just in the context of patron interactions, but also within our team. Our Materials Management and Technical Services departments began to recognize their coworkers in Public Services and Youth Services as their internal customers, and the management team took this approach to our reports, fully recognizing our responsibility to provide them with great work experiences.
While I no longer work at WPL, having moved on to a new role and library this past year, I was thinking of the 3 R’s this morning, as they might apply to this website. And, I was thinking about what is known in food service as the check back, which is one way servers demonstrate the 3 R’s, even if they don’t know it. You see, one of the tricks I learned as a server, when I had several tables and found myself “in the weeds,” was to communicate with my guests; for example, I would explain whenever I stepped away, “I am going to get such and such for you, and meanwhile, I also have to run to the kitchen and the bar, and check on my other tables. I will be back as quickly as possible though.” This helped my tables to know that I wasn’t off on a smoke break, I was hustling! It would be meaningless if I didn’t come through reliably, or was not responsive to their needs, but also bolstered these two R’s, and was also good for relationship building.
Now, this is on my mind this morning as I find myself weeded, hustling to get a paper revised and back to an editor by a due date, and feeling very guilty about not having any new content for Renewed. Alas, it came to me, the check back! I am just working on this other project that I really care about, and which is quite honestly, very difficult: a literature review regarding bureaucracy in public libraries. But that does not mean I am any less fired up about consulting, evaluation, Agile in libraries, or critical librarianship. (Actually, it is critical librarianship!) You pretty much can’t see that I am in the kitchen, preparing to deliver something exciting, so I wanted to just quickly post, and let you know I’m on the ball, here if anyone wants to get in touch, and committed to practicing these ideas in public libraries.
