Resources for Holiday questions

Hi all!

Just wanted to let you know that the following bullietain (that goes out to all our "friends" on MySpace was posted:

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Happy Holidays from Maryland AskUsNow!

Need help figuring out how long to cook a turkey for 25 people? AskUsNow!

Need resources on stress-relief? AskUsNow!

Don't know what to get someone at the last minute? AskUsNow!
(or findgift.com)

No matter what you need help with this Holiday Season, AskUsNow! is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week- even on Holidays!

Happy Holidays from your friends at Maryland AskUsNow!

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If you actually get these questions here are some resources for you:

Turkey Info: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Lets_Talk_Turkey/index.asp

Stress Relief: http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/MH/00030.html CNN article, " Stress, depression and the holidays: 12 tips for coping"… same article also available at the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/stress/MH00030/METHOD=print

Last minute gifts: http://www.findgift.com, http://mt.essortment.com/lastminutegift_ryfi.htm

Happy Holidays everyone!

QuestionPoint Quality Tip Tuesday

Don't forget to check the QuestionPoint blog on Tuesdays (or Wednesdays) for the Quality Tip of the week! (link is to all posts marked with the Quality tag)

Verifying Customer Information for Better Customer Satisfaction

Have you ever had a customer who came in through one library only for you to find out after you've sent some resources that they are really from another library? Or that their question wasn't what you thought?

One way to avoid this is to Verify Customer Information!

Why Verify?
How else will you know if you and your customer are on the same page? They don't know what information you have / understand- nor do you know what they're thinking unless you ask!

It's important to verify the customer's question and information to make sure you're giving them the best answers / resources available to them. A customer may come into the service from Baltimore County asking about "diving lessons." You can save yourself (and them) a lot of time if you verify what they need right off the bat. If you do, you may find out they need information on dRiving lessons- and they're from Baltimore City!

What kind of stuff should I verify?
You should be clarifying / verifying anything you think would be important in getting your customer the best help.

You should always make sure you understand the question (or what they need, which may be different than the question*) and in what form they're looking for answers in (books, websites, etc).

You may also want to verify the customer's home library, email address, how fast they need this information- anything that you think would help you get a complete picture what and how the customer needs.

When should I verify?
Definitely IN chat while you've got the customer's attention. :-)

You should verify information as it becomes important- You may verify the question right off the bat so you can start thinking about where to go for the answer / resources. Then you might want to verify what format the customer is looking for the answer in- and then their local library so you know what resources they may have access to that could help answer their question.

If you need to send a customer's question to follow-up mode, you definitely need to verify an email address- but it also helps to verify what their library system is (if you haven't already)- "I have your email address as librarycustomer@email.com and it looks like your local library system is the Baltimore City system, is that correct?" That way, not only will we be able to get back to the person- but we'll already know if we need to route it to a different library than the system says.

How do I verify?
You can verify the question by doing a "reference interview." I like to think of it more as "question clarification" to get it out of interrogation mode and more into the conversation realm.

You can ask questions like:
"It looks like you're looking for information on diving lessions- is that suba diving?"
"You need information on driving lessons, is that correct?"
"What aspect of driving lessons do you need information on?"

If you need to verify the customer's local resources you can ask things like:
"I see that you're from Baltimore County, is that correct?"
"It looks like you came in through Baltimore County, is that your local library?"

Regardless of what you ask- remember that you're verifying this information for the purpose of being able to get the customer the best help you can. Make it conversational- don't interrogate the customer or they may get turned off or defensive as to why you're asking a lot of questions. If they do ask why you're asking so many questions- tell them! You just want to make sure you've got your information straight so you can help them!

Take the time to verify information- and save yourself time in the long run (and increase customer satisfaction!)

As always- if anyone has any questions or suggestions in successful clarification- please don't hesitate to let me know / share.

Happy chatting!! :-)

Julie's "Listening Tour" Update

Julie will be visiting Villa Julie on December 18th.

Fan us on Facebook!

Maryland AskUsNow! is now on Facebook! If you have an account already, please feel free to "fan" us!

Also, don't forget about our MySpace page!

Tell your friends, your customers, everyone! :-)

Big list-o-sites that teach you how to do stuff

I'm all for learning new and random things and when i can find it free on the web it's even better.

ReadWriteWeb.com just posted "A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff."

Some of my favorites from the list are Instructables.com and Squidoo.com.

There is of course always MAKE (which is a zine of awesomeness... and whose website has video and podcasts of projects) and my old standby (though it doesn't have video), soyouwanna.com, which, oddly enough, was created by my boyfriend's cousin back in the day. Small world.

Julie's "Listening Tour"

My job is to help you do your job better. As I mentioned at yesterday's liaison meeting, I'd like to propose a "listening tour" where I would make myself available for face to face meetings with liaisons and providers at a time, place, and arrangement that will be most convenient and beneficial for you.

This is an opportunity for liaisons and librarians to ask questions- anything from troubleshooting to AskUsNow! mission to higher virtual reference vision questions- ANYTHING that is on your minds. The goal here is to make sure that you- the folks on the front lines- feel connected to the project, feel comfortable with your part in it, and have an opportunity to be heard. I want to know how I can help you succeed.

I know everyone is very busy and it is hard to get people in the same room at the same time. This is all going to be very informal and structured however you decide will be best for your group. If you already have a meeting planned and you'd like be to be an agenda item, I'd be more than happy to be.

My only request is that you keep in mind I'd like to visit folks that are close together around the same time, especially if you're far away from the Balto county area. :-)

Please let me know if you're interested and if you had any ideas on possible dates.

Thank you!