Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectation of Library Customers 3rd Ed.

Citation

Philip Calvert (2015), "Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectation of Library Customers 3rd Ed.", The Electronic Library, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 965-966. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-06-2015-0099

Any title that gets to a third edition must have found a significant place in the market and be filling that audience’s needs. Which, in a way, is what this book is all about: finding what it is that your customers want and then setting about meeting those needs and expectations. For this edition, Hernon and Altman have been joined by Dugan, who has worked with Hernon on several books before, most recently Managing with data: Using ACRLMetrics and PLAmetrics (ALA, 2014). The result is a winning combination of theory and practice.

There are many strengths of this book, and this review cannot describe them all. To start with my favourite, the confusion between customer satisfaction and service quality, which leads to many errors in data collection and analysis, is just one topic this book helps to clarify. In particular, the different ways to conceptualise and then evaluate service quality are described in full and clear detail. For example, not every library should be using LibQUAL+ (it can be a waste of resources in some circumstances), and the benefits of using local metrics are emphasised in Chapter 11 together with some ideas on how to start developing them.

The book is not just about evaluation, though. There are many practical steps suggested here that can be taken to listen to customers and then take concrete steps towards making the library match their expectations. It is not a guide in a specific linear format, for there are just too many ideas and suggestions offered to the reader; no, it is a smorgasbord from which the library staff can choose what will work best for their own situation and resources.

The new edition has been updated to include more on the use of technology. Technology is forever changing the way customers use libraries, so the library staff need to evaluate the impact of new resource and the services developed to deliver them. It also changes what customers expect the library to provide and about which the customers will be much more vocal than was once the case. This is visible in the author’s response to this, for example, in the addition of ways to use social media to get feedback from customers in Chapter 6. Other evidence of updating comes in the references to practical assessments made in libraries, news stories and even a popular television show (i.e. Undercover Boss). This book is highly recommended, and for libraries holding the second edition, it is still worth buying the third.