Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers - Softcover

American Library Association

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0838934897 ISBN 13: 9780838934890

Publisher: ALA Editions, 2000

Synopsis

Assessing Service Quality puts customers at the center of the evaluation process. It provides cutting-edge measurement strategies and data collection methods to measure service quality in academic and public libraries.
The authors examine service quality standards and explain how services can be quantitatively and qualitatively assessed. Librarians can select the service factors and customer expectations they want to assess. Practical assessment tools provide the keys to measure service quality and identify strengths and weaknesses to narrow the gap between business-as-usual service delivery and customer expectations.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Hernon is a professor at the Graduate School of Library Science, Simmons College.

Reviews

Hernon and Altman intend to approach assessment of library service anew, beginning from certain "touchstones critical to the well-being of libraries: customers, satisfaction, loyalty, and reputation." They argue that measuring satisfaction has received much emphasis, but measuring the quality of service provided library customers has not (they believe customer most accurately reflects the library service relationship). Customers should be the primary source of information about the quality of services, because they are the library's reason for being, not merely captive service-receivers. Hernon and Altman cover using surveys and focus groups to collect information about a service and interpreting findings, and the "separate but intertwined" matters of satisfaction and service quality. They include numerous model forms that any library can adapt to measure quality of service. Edward Swanson

As a complement to their earlier Service Quality in Academic Libraries (Professional Media, LJ 2/1/96), authors Hernon (GSLIS, Simmons Coll.) and Altman (Graduate Library School, Univ. of Arizona) now concentrate on how to assess service quality and customer satisfaction. Here they suggest new ways to think about library services, clarify the distinction between service quality and customer satisfaction, present strategies for developing a customer service plan, identify procedures to measure service quality and satisfaction, and, if you havent already guessed, challenge conventional thinking about these powerful principles. These ideas are built on long-held important elements that guide any successful business; the bibliography is replete with library literature indicating the wide-ranging adaptation of these vital components in libraries and the prevailing awareness of how important it is to focus the operations of a library around the expectations of the customer. Numerous excellent tracking forms and survey and satisfaction instruments provide mechanisms to carry out a commitment to satisfying the needs of customers, especially for leading librarians who long ago tossed that useless suggestion box. Kudos to these authors for providing an essential resource for librarians who understand that folks who walk into their libraries are not patrons but customers. Highly recommended, especially for MLIS faculty and students.Dale F. Farris, Groves, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: ALA Editions
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0838934897
• ISBN 13: 9780838934890
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 243