Serving Online Customers: Lessons for Libraries from the Business World

Citation

Philip Calvert (2015), "Serving Online Customers: Lessons for Libraries from the Business World", The Electronic Library, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 862-863. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-12-2014-0214

The intention of this book is to identify best practice customer service in online businesses and apply those lessons to libraries. Moving in to the online world is essential, as most librarians realise that if we do not, then Google will become the default source of all information. Barclay has read widely in the business literature, has obviously thought carefully about the implications of online customer service for libraries and, as a result, has written a sensible, practical and at times humorous book on the subject. Not so long ago, the thought that librarians should learn from business would have caused cries of horror, but not so much now (although there are still some who would object, and, oddly, they are often young librarians). This book, then, should be read alongside others that suggest what librarians can learn from business and commerce.

One chapter is devoted to self-service. This is an area that libraries have embraced, I would argue, and as customers have been able to find books they want on open shelves long before retail stores allowed such largesse, it suggests they have been keen on the concept for a long time. Because customer self-service allows libraries to offer more services with finite resources, most managers learn to accept it, though as Barclay points out, there is a need to provide rapid response in the event of failures. That, in my experience, is still an area in which libraries need to up their game. Subsequent chapters on serving remote customers and making our websites easier to use are sensible but hardly stunning. The importance of trust is well-made, however.

Interestingly, Barclay has written a chapter that informs librarians about what they can learn from the pornography business. Done with cheeky intentions, no doubt, but he has a point that the pornography business has always been willing to go where its customers are to be found, and it moved rapidly into the online environment in the 1990s. Never hang on to a product that is losing market share is one simple lesson we can learn; be prepared to change and adapt to new technology and the sorts of products and services that it makes possible is another. A feature of the modern pornography business is the rise of user-generated content, which, in the guise of reviews, libraries are starting to adopt in some forms. Barclay also points to niche markets and premium content, which some libraries have started to develop in their own context, for example fee-based best-seller collections. But perhaps we should not take the analogues too far […].

This is a book that should be read by all librarians working in the customer service field, and all those involved with digital delivery. It will be a good book to recommend for students who might be reluctant to learn from business practices.