About 3 weeks ago PVLD launched a new customer service effort to try to ensure that people who call the library during our open hours with a question about library services or their library account get to talk to a real person rather than, as was happening all too often, being sent to voicemail.
The basic goal is to heed this advice from Nicholas Bate - "be easy to speak to, all the time, every time".
The challenge was that, after exploring many different options, we found it impossible to provide the desired level of telephone service within the constraint of our current staffing levels without adversely affecting the face-to-face service we provide to customers within the library.
The solution we have implemented on a pilot basis is to have most incoming calls directed to a call center operated by our long-time business partner, Unique Management Services, whose trained staff can deal with many basic questions or redirect the call back to PVLD employees as appropriate. It is a brand new service for Unique, and we are their very first customers, so there are a few kinks still to be worked out, but so far it seems to be delivering the desired outcomes in terms of enhanced customer service.
At least, as we discovered today, it is delivering the desired outcomes for those customers who call the library's actual telephone number. What we learned today is that, depending on how someone looks up our number they may not get an answser at all.
The back story is that nearly a year ago the newly hired Development Director for the Peninsula Friends of the Library reported that when she got into the elevator that services our back-office staff areas someone was talking through the elevators speakers as if they were calling the library, saying "hello? hello? is anyone there?" A library volunteer then chimed in that she had had the same experience in the public elevator. Our maintenance staff checked all of the wiring and tested the elevators' communication systems but could not identify what caused this mysterious problem.
Months have passed, and no more was heard of this issue until today when James Davis of our maintenance staff got into the elevator only to hear "hello? hello? is anyone there?" James knows how to operate the elevator communication system, so he was able to talk back to the person whose voice he heard. What he learned? This customer had looked up the library number using the "Yellow Book" yellow pages.
James went online to yellowbook.com, searched for PVLD, and discovered nearly two pages of phone numbers almost none of which go to phones that people actually answer! When he called the first number listed it indeed went to the telephone line dedicated to emergency communication with people who might be trapped in the elevator. The next couple of numbers were for fax machines, and then there was one that is used to generate telephone notices to tell customers about overdue items or holds that are ready for pick up. The only one on the list that might occasionally be answered was for the book sale room, which is staffed by volunteers who aren't always there and don't necessarily answer the phone if they are. The main library number wasn't even on the list!
Now we are wondering how many people have tried to call us using one of the listed numbers and gotten no response.
Our IT Manager is contacting yellowpages.com to correct their information, but yellowpages.com obviously just data mines the telephone company's account information and lists whatever numbers it finds without any analysis and we we have to wonder how many other directory services do the same. The good news is that a Google search for "Palos Verdes Library District" or "PVLD" gives the correct library information as the first hit, so hopefully the problem isn't too widespread.
Just goes to show that no matter how hard you try to do something, you don't always know where the weak link is going to be.
Thank you James for solving this mystery, and apologies to anyone who thought they were calling the library when they were actually calling our elevator!
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