November 2007/From the Annals of Customer Experience

Windsor Public Library

WPL Case Vignette #1 – LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service Data Supports Continued Hours of Operation Background Library funding had been significantly reduced and relations with the Library’s major funding partner was fractious and required attention. A strategy was required to mitigate sensitive budgetary issues and demonstrate that a constructive working relationship was achievable.

Requirement Obtain direct customer feedback as it related to the possible reduction in services (e.g., open hours) as a result of library budget reductions.

Solution Implement LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service so that library management would have the ability to obtain continuous feedback from customers.

Result Customer feedback overwhelmingly supported more hours of operation. As a result, management and the Library Board were able to demonstrate that reducing hours of operation would be detrimental to community wants and needs.

WPL Case Vignette #2 – LibPASLibrary Performance Assessment Service Strengthens Budgetary Negotiations Background Library funding had been significantly reduced and relations with the Library’s major funding partner was fractious and required attention. A strategy was required to mitigate sensitive budgetary issues and demonstrate that a constructive working relationship was achievable.

Requirement Supplement and support budgetary negotiations with better data.

Result Using LibPASLibrary Performance Assessment Service, library management was able to quickly and effectively examine and process its own data in combination with its library’s peers and strengthen their budget negotiation arguments.

Note: LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service and LibPASLibrary Performance Assessment Service (beta) has helped support an improved “evidence-based” reporting capability that assisted WPL management when arguing that funding levels were already near the bottom provincially on a per capita basis and that further cuts would be untenable.

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Jacksonville Public Library

JPL Case Vignette #1 - Outcomes-based Measurement Using LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service Background The Jacksonville Public Library (JPL) received a $200,000 private donation, to be distributed over the course of five years, for youth services during the summer.

Requirement Terms of the $200,000 private donation specified that outcome based measurements must demonstrate the impact of the funding.

Solution JPL used the results from the FY07 LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service SRP survey as a baseline for developing and measuring service based outcomes for the grant.

Result In FY08, the LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service SRP component will help us measure outcomes, report results and justify continued funding.

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Ajax Public Library - only ISO 9001 certified public library in North America.

APL Case Vignette #1 – LibPASLibrary Performance Assessment Service Saves Time and Effort Background Annually, the Library Director prepares a comprehensive statistical report for his Board. Being a participating data contributor to CULCCanadian Urban Library Council/Conseil des bibliothèques urbaines du Canada (Canadian Urban Library Council), an analysis of relevant CULCCanadian Urban Library Council/Conseil des bibliothèques urbaines du Canada data is available.

Opportunity The CULCCanadian Urban Library Council/Conseil des bibliothèques urbaines du Canada data analysis component was taking several days of the Director’s time.

Solution By participating the COCounting Opinions LibPASLibrary Performance Assessment Service beta process and employing its functionality, it has been concluded that the amount of time required by the Director to complete his CULCCanadian Urban Library Council/Conseil des bibliothèques urbaines du Canada data analysis can be reduced by over 75%.

Result Senior management time can be spent addressing other issues.

APL Case Vignette #2 – LibPASLibrary Performance Assessment Service Instrumental in Budget Increase for Collection Development Background Evidence from a number of customer areas (including data garnered from LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service and LibPASLibrary Performance Assessment Service) indicated a problem/need with regard to the library’s collection.

Opportunity With supporting data, confront the issue and attempt to achieve a solution.

Result APL was successful in obtaining a special budget increase of 20% of their current collections’ budget for each of the next 5 years.

APL Case Vignette #3 – LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service Tools Offer Practical Outcomes-based Solutions Background In order to maintain ISO certification, APL is required to demonstrate a methodology of managing all customer comments. In order to comply, APL had implemented a manual process of distributing, collecting and analyzing comments on paper forms. It was a time consuming process for staff.

Opportunity

To simplify the customer comment collection and management process.

Solution

Counting Opinions expanded LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service to include a comprehensive, built-in customer comment management system.

Result

1. A simple but sophisticated automated process for collecting and managing customer comments.
2. ISO certification review process no longer a major issue.
3. APL dramatically increased its ability to garner insight from its customers’ feedback.

APL Case Vignette #4 – LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service Improves Operational Insight and Action

Opportunity

Upon management review of LibSatLibrary Customer Satisfaction Management Service results, including the associated open-ended customer comments, a staff training need was identified.

Solution

Armed with the data, management sought and received approval for an un-budgeted expenditure to conduct a system-wide training regimen.

Result

By being able to track pre- and post-training customer satisfaction feedback results, management was able to demonstrate to its Board and funding partner that the training investment paid off by way of improved customer satisfaction results.

Federation of Ontario Public Libraries (FOPL) – Telling Our Stories (TOS) Advocacy Project

Background

FOPL decided to run an advocacy project as a contest called "Telling Our Stories" (TOS) in the Fall of 2006. The public was invited, in 500 words or less, to submit a story about how a public library had made an impact on their lives. The winners received cash awards that were presented at a gala awards function in January 2007. Each library in the Province of Ontario was invited to participate in the promotion of the program.

Opportunity

Counting Opinions contacted FOPL about the provision of a comprehensive web-based service to manage all aspects of the contest data collection, management and reporting. FOPL said “yes” to implementing a management system.

The Counting Opinions Solution

Counting Opinions provided (within 3 months) a comprehensive management system that provided the following functionality:

1. A set of secure access codes for distribution to every Ontario Library and Library location.

   Note: 234 Library systems and 836 Library locations participated. They represented over 93% of the ON population.

2. A web-based portal for FOPL and participating Libraries to securely access:
   • news, promotional materials and support information including video clips, audio clips, photos, graphics, …
   • location details (used for managing access codes, contest entry form options and scatter map reports)
   • custom links for promoting the contest from each library's web site (used for tracking referral rates)
   • test form for testing the contest entry process used by the public
   • on-line forms for local input of contest entries received in paper form (hand-delivered, faxed, mailed-in)
   • on-line rating form-enabling Libraries to review and rate contest entries (over 2,400 captured)
   • real-time reports (overall province-wide summary results and data specific to each library and library location)
   • access to short-listed (69), winning and all local (specific to each library) contest entries for local advocacy purposes 3) On-line forms for capturing public contest #* entries, supporting the following functionality:
   • full Canadian English and French language support (user option)
   • real-time address verification (ensuring contestants live within the province)
   • real-time checking and removal of duplicate entries (only one entry per person allowed)
   • real-time word counts (limit of 500 words to be eligible for prizes)
   • real-time validation of provided email address and phone numbers (Area-code & Exchange)
   • real-time selection of Library system/location (to which the story is applicable)
   • real-time CAPTCHA code verification to prevent web-bot and automated form submissions
   • customizable Style-Sheets (simplifying integration of web form on any web site for a localized user interface).

     Note: 782 contest entries collected over the 6-week period.

3. On-line forms for capturing public votes, supporting the following functionality:
   • full Canadian English and French language support (user option)
   • real-time postal-code verification (required to ensure voters live within the province)
   • real-time CAPTCHA code verification to prevent web-bot and automated form submissions.

     Note: Over 15,000 public votes collected over 8 week period.

4. Secure On-line portal for final judging panel (5 people) for rating short-listed entries submitted by all finalists, supporting the following functionality:
   • full Canadian English and French language support (user option)
   • random presentation of stories (to ensure no order bias)
   • suppression of personal details (to protect privacy and avoid potential for bias)
   • presentation of English only contest entries to English judges and French & English entries to bilingual judges.

     Note: 288 evaluations completed over 2 weeks

     Note: Winners were instantly determined without the judges ever having to meet, either in-person or by telephone.

5. On-line access for FOPL management, providing:
   • real-time access to contest activity and library participation (enabling FOPL to initiate a number of mid-contest adjustments and actions)
   • real-time reports of final judging activity
   • secure access to personal details for all finalists
   • functions for downloading story content and enabling select FOPL members to download contest entries for those running local advocacy contests
   • real-time reports (charts and graphs) summarizing all aspects of the contest
   • automated selection of short list finalists, based on combination of public votes and library ratings.
6. Incorporated Counting Opinions innovative mapping technology solution, to pinpoint the location of contest entries and associated judging input.
7. Continue to provide on-going, secure, web-based access for all FOPL member libraries to access their local stories, all finalist entries and the winning entries to be employed as desired for local advocacy purposes.

Results

The Counting Opinions solution helped contribute to a successful and professionally run contest. This project demonstrated the scope of the ability of Counting Opinions to deliver a solution meeting and exceeding all of the criteria of the client, within a fixed budget and tight time constraints. It demonstrates that we can support large-scale projects involving thousands of public participants and hundreds of library systems.