A Reputation of Service

Over the course of my career, there have always been elements of service involved in whatever work I was involved in. In the early part of my career it came in the form of serving library patrons in a public library setting.  That service targeted the needs of specific individuals as well as the “general” library users. Now in a corporate setting, serving libraries on a broader scale, is very different in some ways, but in others very similar. But with connections in both industries, I’ve noticed one common, overarching theme: Service expectations have changed.

In the 32 years that I have served at the pleasure of libraries, and in libraries, the thing that strikes me most is that we are all expected to do more with the resources we have at on hand. The customers of SirsiDynix expect quality service, timely answers and software that allows them to efficiently serve their local communities. We have a reputation of providing excellent customer service and our libraries’ customers expect the same thing.

Now here’s the real challenge in delivering the same level of service with limited resources: speed.

Today, the speed of information distribution and consumption is the litmus test of quality service. We can all provide correct answers, neatly typed into a beautifully formatted response, but if it doesn’t come immediately we aren’t satisfied users.

The same frustration applies to software packages that we use. “Why can’t it just do what I want?” That is an oft-heard theme, isn’t it? Changing software takes time: the change has to be detailed; it has to be approved; coding has to be completed; testing then gets a crack at it to try to make it fail; documentation must be written; and finally, a delivery is made. 

All this is a bit daunting; however, we have always pulled together and adapted to change. We’ve continually improved upon processes that some thought were perfect, both on the service teams, and in our development organization. I’ve observed the same paradigm shift at some of the libraries we serve.

The bottom line is we all have to continue to change to improve and to survive in the new high-speed information age. We cannot afford to just maintain and meet current service levels.  At SirsiDynix, we have a reputation of quality customer service, but I know we still aren’t where we want to be. We always have to be looking for a better way to serve our customers, as well as a better way to design, develop and deliver our software platforms.

But I look forward to the challenge, and the prospect of continuous improvement. It takes that to maintain a reputation of service.