Good customer service

My trip to the ALA Midwinter conference wasn't exactly fraught with peril, but winter travel is always time consuming and never predictable. After arriving in your hotel lobby an hour before midnight, after spending 15+ hours in airports and on planes, the last thing you want to hear is that the hotel is overbooked and you have to go somewhere else.

I was very cranky with the Hyatt Regency, and with traveling, and with the conference, which I wouldn't have attended this year if my life had worked out in happier ways, more than five months ago. I was tired, self-pitying, and disappointed (but hopefully polite) as I took myself off to the room at the Comfort Inn that the Hyatt arranged for me that Friday night.

The next morning, as I returned to the Hyatt, it became clear to me that this place does customer service right. First, their manager admitted to making a mistake, then he apologized for it, sincerely and thoughtfully, letting me know that they new it wasn't pleasant for a customer arriving late in the day to encounter an overbooked hotel. They gave me access to the Regency Lounge (free breakfasts!), sent another note of apology with fruit later Saturday evening, and didn't charge me anything for Friday night's reservation. All nice things, but what still sticks with me is the sincerity of the apology I received. No one at the Hyatt knew how ambivalent I was about attending Midwinter this year, or that I haven't been the happiest of campers lately. But they recognized me as a human being and valuable customer; they took responsibility and made amends. They not only did the right thing, they made me feel better.

How often, in Libraries, do we make mistakes, admit to them, and make things right for our patrons? How often do we do this graciously and thoughtfully? It takes a lot of bravery to do this. To do this right, I think it takes a sincere desire to serve people well. I am now looking to serve my patrons better and more thoughtfully.

Thank you, Hyatt. I'll be back.

More Midwinter

Here's my brief report from yesterday afternoon and today (so far).

AquaBrowser is very fun to look at, and I've been comparing it (wistfully, I'm afraid) to WSU Libraries' OPAC, which is, don't get me wrong, still better than our old one.

Today was going to be my busiest day, but I was too worn out to do all that I'd planned. I think that this happens to lots of people at large gatherings like these. Even comfortable shoes don't keep feet from getting sore after running from hotel to hotel all day.

I'm starting to think that all discussions about Web 2.0, new technology, and new media are essentially the same. I still appreciate hearing the different viewpoints, and getting feedback from people experimenting with new (and not so new) tech, but I'm looking forward to the day where we have more measurable results and are no longer thinking of social software as "new," but as another avenue for reaching patrons and making them comfortable in their information searches. This morning I attended the LIRT discussion on Instruction and Millennials. I've posted on Millennials before, and still find the ways that different generations are so predictably different to be fascinating, and still worry about whether or not terms like "Millennials" cloak fear and resentment and lead to more generalization than is good for us, but this was a good discussion, with people from public and academic libraries, from systems, and with varying interests and skill levels when it comes to the "new tech" we associate with Generation M.

This afternoon I took minutes for the first time at an ALA committee meeting, and it was a great learning experience. If you are new and want to make yourself learn names fast, I'd recommend taking minutes. Just make sure, if you do it on a laptop, that you can also type fast. Ten minutes into the meeting, I found myself overcome with a wave of gratitude for my high school typing teacher.

I'm glad to be a librarian, to get to work with people who are in it for more than money (luckily for us, 'cause generally the money's not especially big). I'm glad to have cool colleagues in the WSU Libraries, and to have chances to hang out with them away from our regular library setting.

But I still wish I could sleep in!

From Seattle

This is my first full day of ALA Midwinter, and so far it is off to a good start. I had an interesting and (hopefully) productive discussion this morning about the particular challenges of providing instruction at the reference desk, and am enjoying my first meeting as a committee member. My only wistful comment so far is that I wish some of the sections would provide a bit more in the way of new member orientations than "here's how you sign up for committees." I realize it's Midwinter, not Annual, and that there may be fewer new members about, and that we're supposed to be outgoing and curious and just talk to committees anyway, but a little more hand-holding would be appreciated (and might help bulk up some section memberships).

Last night I attended the exhibit opening and realized that there is something irresistable about free advance reader copies. I worked at a bookstore for several years and never felt so inclined to pick up galleys as I did last night. The rush to get the "Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?" tote bags, the registration for free stuff, the food that more savvy colleagues ate while I ran around like a madwoman collecting swag - all very dizzying and exhausting. I followed the opening with some good Thai food (thanks, Thai Ginger) and an early bedtime, a good idea considering what's on for today and tomorrow.