Customer Service

POLICY STATEMENT

Manhattan Public Library staff strive at all times to provide the best personal service and a clean and welcoming facility for all library users. Staff offers services in a fair and professional manner that treat everyone with courtesy and respect. The MPL customer service experience educates, entertains, and informs.

OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE PROMISES

Since our customers are our first priority:

  1. We will treat every customer with equal respect and every request with equal importance.
  2. We will offer the same quality of service to everyone, honoring cultural and other personal differences.
  3. We will offer the same quality of service regardless of how customers make their requests: in-person, via phone, e-mail, mail, or chat/text.
  4. We will be courteous, patient, and attentive, so that all our customers have a positive experience at MPL.
  5. We will remain calm and maintain a professional demeanor in all situations.
  6. Our skilled staff will use their knowledge of library resources to fulfill requests in a timely manner or present alternatives when requests cannot be met immediately.
  7. We will regard all interactions and transactions between ourselves and our customers as confidential and will discuss them only in a professional context.
  8. We will be familiar with and be able to present or explain library policies.

GUIDELINES

In serving customers, staff are expected to:

  • Greet customers when they enter the library
  • Make eye contact
  • Smile
  • Exhibit body language that is welcoming
  • Be aware and approachable at all times
  • Ask customers if they need assistance
  • Work with customers to clarify and best address their needs
  • Follow-up to ensure customers have found what they need
  • Walk with the customer when referring to another department. Don’t point.
  • Express gratitude to our customers

Telephone etiquette:

When answering the telephone:

  • Use a pleasant tone of voice, give the name of the department, identify yourself, and ask “How can I help you?”
  • If you are with a customer, ask the caller if they would like to hold or be called back. Example: “I’m with another customer, but your call is important. Can I put you on hold for a minute? Or, if you’d like, I can call you back.”
  • If the person with whom the caller wants to speak is on another line, ask if the caller wants to be placed on hold or transferred to voicemail. Example: “{name} is unavailable at the moment. Would you like to hold, or I can transfer you to {name’s} voicemail?”
  • If you’ve placed a caller on hold, monitor the time and offer to have the call returned if the person called is not available within a reasonable time (a maximum of 2 minutes).
  • When a caller leaves a name, number, or message, make sure you’ve recorded it correctly, and be prompt in either returning the call or delivering the message to the appropriate individual.

Approved by the Board, January 30, 2017

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