Prince William Public Library Customer Service Program

About the Program

Category: Libraries (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The Prince William Public Library System in Prince William County, Virginia needed a new customer-service training program to align with the library’s new vision strategy and to ensure consistency, in service, among new and existing staff, especially as two new branches were being built. In June 2015, a Customer Service Team was formed and a standardized training program was developed to support the library’s vision and new customer service philosophy. The training program’s first phase, Customer Service 101, was delivered to 90% of staff in 14 sessions during late 2015 – early 2016, followed by quarterly sessions to train new hires. In addition, Customer Service Team Builders were recruited from the 11 branches to assist with staff training, convey customer service messaging to branches and to observe their peers in their customer service behaviors. Implementing a new customer-service training program resulted in an increase of customer satisfaction from 95% in 2014 to 98% in 2016, achieving the highest customer satisfaction rating of any Prince William County agency, according to the Prince William County Biennial Community Survey. This customer satisfaction rating is built into the performance review of every library staff member, thus improving not only Prince William County’s survey rating, but also improving the performance evaluation of library staff.