A Complaint Is A Gift Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller, 2nd Edition

A Complaint Is A Gift Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong, 2nd Edition by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller

This book is about how to use complaints as a way to improve customer service and quality in corporations. Places like Zappos.com, Dell, Amazon, and IBM are covered. It would have been nice if they included material for nonprofits and government agencies.

A process of dealing with complaints called the "Gift Process" is described. It focuses on thanking the customer for the complaint, acting immediately, and getting feedback on how to improve service quickly. There are numerous examples of how to do this both verbally and in writing.

There are many other things covered as well; the proper way to complain to get results, why people do not complain, how to create goodwill, and how to interact with angry customers. The authors remind us that most people who complain are regular users of a service. Those who do not complain and are dissatisfied stop using your service.

I found the section on how to handle personal complaints and criticism interesting and potentially useful. There are guidelines for distinguishing between constructive criticism and personal attacks.

This book was recommended to me by a librarian at the Westchester Library Association conference. It is worth reading.

Daily Thoughts 6/17/2009

Soren Kierkegaard in the coffee-house. Sketch in oils by Christian Olavious, 1843

Daily Thoughts 6/17/2009

Proposed layoffs for libraries and cuts in service have been reduced considerably. This is good news for libraries in the five boroughs of Manhattan. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6665611.html

I spent a few minutes looking through http://books.alltop.com/ this morning. It is a news feed for books. I liked the blogs and sources they chose. I even found a few things to order for our library. It seems to cover a nice selection of news.

Queens Library in New York has won the library of the year award from the American Library Association. This is an article from the Daily News, a newspaper I sometimes read during lunch with my coffee. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/06/15/2009-06-15_boro_wins_library_of_year.html

American Library Association has created its own social network called ALA Connect. They are seeking librarians to come join the network. It is a fairly new network for librarians. http://connect.ala.org/

Today was a solid day. We are preparing to lay carpet on Friday, so we had to clear off some of the display space. I also filed some law looseleafs, Guide to Employment Law and Regulations. We are preparing to do some more organization in the technical services area. I think it will be helpful to do this. I am also hoping to get some of the gift books processed.

I read some more of A Complaint Is A Gift on the train home. It is a practical book on customer service; it includes things like service recovery and how to reduce the number of complaints.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2009

In 1867 Hans Christian Andersen was subrenting an apartment from a female photographer, Thora Hallager, at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. This photo of Andersen was taken in October 1867.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2009

I did not have any books to read on the train with me this morning. I picked up a copy of the New York Times for today instead. I read about books. There was this article from the Times which I found entertaining. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/books/16kaku.html?ref=books We have the title Fools Gold, but don't have the title Dumb Money by Gillian Tett.

Today has been a steady day. I have done some more weeding in the oversize books, this time it was in the music and film books. I mainly looked for very old technical books. There were a number of books that needed minor repairs as well. The repairs were mainly replacing old plastic covers on the books or mending tears in the books. This will go to technical services for mending.

I also spent some time thinking about doing a survey for the library. Sometimes it is good to think about things and plan. Our computer technician put a copy of Professor Teaches tutorials on the different microsoft products, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and Publisher. I have to go back and do more of the tutorial on Publisher. I may do a bookmark on writing. I am caught up on most of the detail work around the library. I kept up the current events display and checked the new books display this morning.

I also updated the list of websites for reviews which we use in collection development. It is mostly internet sites on books and graphic novels right now. Many of the sites are in my sidebar.

My diet is going well. I am down a pants size. I still do my exercises from the book Yoga RX and listen to the cd from I Can Make You Thin. It is working slowly and steadily for me. I still have quite a way to go.

I picked up two more books to read, Creative Capitalism A Conversation With Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Other Economic Leaders by Michael Kinsley and The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics and Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt.

There is another business book which looks interesting, A Complaint Is A Gift, Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong, 2nd Edition by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller. This was recommended by a librarian at the Westchester Library Association conference. I started reading this book on the train on the way home. It is about how to use complaints for "service recovery." The authors point out that most people who complain are regular customers. People who don't complain and have problems simply don't come back. Complaints are an opportunity to fix problems with service and products. The book is mainly focused on businesses, but I think it applies to service agencies and libraries as well.

I spent a little time on Google Webmaster Tools. It was rather interesting. Apparently the words most used to find my blog are "mature manga" and "jim collins good to great". The two sites with the most links to my site are http://www.chicagohistoryjournal.com and http://www.apolloalliance.org . The Chicago History Journal is a fine organization and the Apollo Alliance is a very progressive alternative energy organization. Both are excellent sites. I can say that the Apollo Alliance does have a book based on them Apollo's Fire Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy.