Service Quality
The Ultimate Aim
Service Quality
Definition
Service quality encompasses the interactive
relationship between the library and the people
whom it is supposed to serve. A library that
adheres to all the professionally approved rules
and procedures for acquiring, organizing,
managing, and preserving material but has no
customers cannot claim quality because a major
element is missing- satisfying people’s needs,
requests, and desires for information.
Hernon & Altman, Assessing Service Quality
Service Quality
When library and customer measures
of quality are not congruent, the library
may be meeting its internal standards
of performance but may not be
performing well in the eyes of its
customers
Francoise Herbert
Serving our…
Patrons?
Users?
Clients?
Customers?
Unless customers and the collection come
together in a way both interesting and
meaningful to customers, the library is
nothing more than an expensive warehouse.
Customers
The customer is not always right, but they do have
a right to express their opinions and to learn about
the library’s service parameters
Most customers have expectations about service,
though they may not always be reasonable or
realistic.
What is reasonable and realistic? What is core and
peripheral? We must decide.
Satisfaction vs. Service Quality
Satisfaction: the emotional reaction to a
specific transaction or service encounter. A
state experienced inside the user’s head.
May or may not be directly related to
performance
Service Quality: a global judgment, or
attitude, relating to the superiority of a
service. Satisfaction levels from a number
of transactions fuse to form an impression of
service quality
Service Quality
Multidimensional- content and context
Content: what prompted a visit-
particular materials or information,
study space, etc.
Context: the experience itself-
interactions with staff, ease/ difficulty
of navigating a system, comfort of
physical environment
Service Quality
Performance/ performance-
expectations gap
What is expected and what is actually
experienced.
LibQual
For Customers
Perception is reality.
Addressing Service Quality
Mission: Accomplished?
What is our mission?
Scrutinize plans and activities/ practices:
Ideal- essential to accomplishment of a given
mission
Useful- supportive of mission accomplishment,
but not essential
Useless- irrelevant to mission accomplishment
Counterproductive- obstructs mission
accomplishment
Creating a Plan
Customer Service Plans
Commitment to high-quality programs and
operations
Openness to concept of change
Responsiveness to the needs and priorities of
customers
Commitment to providing equitable access
Willingness to work together as a team
Availability of training and professional
development of staff.
Hernon & Altman, Assessing Service Quality
Extensive list of questions
Reprint Guidelines for Customer
Satisfaction Surveys
Provide sample data collection
instrument