Measuring Service Quality in the Perkins Library

1
Measuring Service Quality in the Perkins Library

• Library Advisory Board
• 1 November 2002
• Tom Wall, Director of Public Services
• Duke University, Perkins Library System

2
Perceptions Rule the UniverseBene Gesserit,
Dune
3
Overview

• Service Quality Basics (Outside the Library)
• LibQUAL and ServQual
• LibQUAL in Perkins Library
• Perkins Library General and Comparative Findings
• Discussion/Questions Throughout Presentation

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Service Quality Assumptions

• Success depends on delivering a good product with
  excellent service
• Service improvement can only happen through
  customer input
• Perceptions of customers are the key to achieving
  and sustaining continuous service quality
• Best Practices are scalable or adaptable across
  industries

5
Customer Serviceoutside the library

• Nordstrom
• http//about.nordstrom.com/help/help.asp?originfo
  oter
• Never criticized for doing too much for a
  customer
• Following through is important
• Make sure customers are acknowledged
• Know your product and your customer

• K-Mart
• http//www.kmartcorp.com/corp/cust_service/index.s
  tm
• Lines, lines, lines
• Find someone to help?
• No sense of ownership
• No smiles
• Just a place
• Do not know product or customer

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L.L Bean Golden Rule

• "Sell good merchandise at a
• reasonable profit, treat your
• customers like human beings, and
• they will always come back for more."
• Leon Leonwood Bean  

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ServQual and LibQual History

• ServQual methodology widely used in retail since
  mid 1980s
• Adapted for tourism, health professions, and
  virtually all service professions
• Basic premise is to learn from customer
  perceptions of service quality
• LibQual is the adaptation of the ServQual
  instrument to the library environment
• The ARL LibQual project is three years old
• Duke University Libraries implemented Spring 2002

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Measuring Service Quality

• The ServQual instrument identifies three customer
  perceptions minimal, optimal, and current
  service levels
• The relative ranking of the current level to the
  minimal and optimal levels provides a gap, which
  is the basis for service quality analysis
• Likewise, LibQual focuses on user perceptions of
  service excellence (correlated with relative
  importance) current level of service and
  minimal level of service acceptable
• Zones of Tolerance - Area between excellence and
  minimal levels of service perception
• Gaps of opportunity between current and
  excellent levels of service perception
• Provides longitudinal data from customers for
  service improvement

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ServQual Metrics

• Tangibles appearance of physical facilities,
  equipment, personnel, and communication materials
• Reliability ability to perform the promised
  service dependably and accurately
• Responsiveness willingness to help customers
  and provide prompt service
• Assurance knowledge and courtesy of employees
  and their ability to convey trust and confidence
• Empathy the caring, individualized attention
  the firm provides its customers

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LibQual Metrics, Spring 2002

• Service Affect Human dimension of service
  quality
• Library as a Place Library as center of
  intellectual activity physical facilities
• Personal Control Interaction with modern
  library digital personalization and navigation
  web presence
• Information Access Ease of access
  comprehensive collections relevant and timely
  information content

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Survey Administration

• Decision made to survey only users of Perkins
  Library
• Roughly 1500 surveys sent via e-mail (600
  undergraduate, 600 graduate, and 300 faculty)
  Participants were randomly selected
• 607 completed surveys returned (approximately
  40) 217 undergrads 268 graduate 46 faculty 76
  library staff
• Entire survey administered via the web
• One initial e-mail message from David two
  follow-up messages from Tom
• Incentives provided
• Comments section invaluable

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Preliminary Survey Results

• The more research intensive library use was, the
  higher the expectations
• Personal Control identified as most important
  area
• Affect of Service showed the greatest degree of
  participant satisfaction
• Faculty generally dissatisfied with
• general access to collections and incomplete
  journal runs
• web design, access and navigation
• noise level in the library
• Undergraduates and Graduate Students identified
  no areas in which Perkins fell below minimal
  expectation level
• These results are not inconsistent with the
  aggregate ARL data

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Duke Aggregate Metric Gaps
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ARL Aggregate Metric Gaps
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Duke Aggregate Radar Data
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ARL Aggregate Radar Data
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Duke Faculty Radar Data
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ARL Faculty Radar Data
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Duke Aggregate General Satisfaction Ratings
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ARL Aggregate General Satisfaction Ratings
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Service Quality

• Demands understanding, appreciating and
  responding to user perceptions
• Commits to continuous evaluation and improvement
• Learns from good and bad services outside the
  library
• Integrates as a core value throughout the
  organization a way of being
• Acknowledges the interdependence of content,
  technology, facilities and (human) service
• Requires a staff knowledgeable of content, savvy
  with technology, and committed to listening to
  and valuing user input
• Encourages advice and suggestions for service
  innovation

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Service has always been important, even in the
Old West I think well require a little
respectAmong the things we dont put up with is
dawdling service. Augustus McCrae, from
Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry 1986) after
breaking the nose of a surly bartender (circa
1880)