Enhancing the user experience: Promoting a service culture through customized staff training

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to highlight a series of initiatives generated from, and managed within, a major university library and aimed at improving a customer service focus.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper documents a series of approaches, including a customized staff training package, that were intended to enhance users' experience with staff. Over a period of six years the responses to a biannual user survey were tracked in order to identify improvements, or otherwise, in users' perceptions of staff performance in terms of their customer service.

Findings

The survey results seem to indicate that improvements in users' perceptions of staff performance have improved with time and have done so most dramatically following a series of self‐initiated workshops conducted by library staff.

Research limitations/implications

While it is difficult to directly correlate the successful outcomes with the initiatives, including the staff‐conducted workshops, it will be necessary to continue to track users' perceptions of staff to ascertain whether the trend is sustainable or an aberration.

Originality/value

The paper provides a unique perspective of applying a range of approaches aimed at improving the user experience with staff in a major Asian university library. The success of these approaches is linked to the outcomes of the library's biannual user survey.

Citation

Sidorko, P.E. and Woo, E. (2008), "Enhancing the user experience: Promoting a service culture through customized staff training", Library Management, Vol. 29 No. 8/9, pp. 641-656. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120810917279