QuestionPoint: 24/7 reference services

Quality Tip: Always say Hi and Bye!

Consider the following fictitious chat session:

Patron: Hi, I have a question…

Librarian: Yeah? Whaddaya want?

Patron: Is there an online copy of Emily Post’s etiquette manual?

Librarian: http://www.bartleby.com/95/

Librarian: Librarian ended chat session.

Of course, this was not a real chat session--no librarian monitoring the Cooperative would answer a patron's call in that manner! But this session does illustrate that something is lacking in the interaction--a hello message and a goodbye message.

The Best Practices document recommends, in the section "Greet the Patron": "Send a personal greeting, identifying yourself and indicating your willingness to help. Identify the name of the library or group you are affiliated with, in order to set expectations with the patron." 

Use the greeting as an opportunity to not only welcome the patron to our service, but also to describe the cooperative nature of this service.  This will help reduce any confusion the patron may have when the chatting librarian is not physically located at the patron's own library. For example, the librarian could greet the patron with a message such as:

Hello! Welcome to our chat service. My name is Jane, and I am a librarian from the XYZ library in <state>. Since no one from your library is available at the moment, I will be assisting you now; I can always send your question to your local librarians if it becomes necessary.

When the session is coming to an end, a goodbye message completes the interaction. The Best Practices describe how to send a goodbye message.  If the patron indicates that no additional information is needed, send the appropriate Goodbye script provided by the patron’s library.  If no Goodbye script is available, thank the patron for using the service and encourage the patron to return.

Thanks to Virginia Cole (from Cornell University) for suggesting this Quality Tip (and the title)! 

Questions or comments about this post? Comment below or email Susan McGlamery at [email protected]

ALA 2008 QP User Group meeting notes

The QuestionPoint user group meeting was held on Sunday, June 29 from 1:30 to 3:30 PM at the Anaheim Convention Center.  Approximately 50 people attended the meeting.

Nancy Huling (University of Washington), representing the QP User Council, opened the meeting shortly after 1:30 PM. After welcome and introductions, the QuestionPoint team provided an update:.

I. QuestionPoint Service Enhancements

The following new features were discussed – see below for notes, and review the PowerPoint slides.

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1. Queues:

Susan reviewed Queue Management: when librarians are online monitoring their Primary Queue, they will see all of their patrons first, for 40 seconds, before any other librarians also monitoring that queue will see the patrons. This rule applies in any cooperative situation where libraries agree to monitor each others’ queues, and it is designed for local librarians to get their own patrons first.

Now, any library or group may purchase its own queue without having to buy an additional BME. This will enable new staffing arrangements and greater flexibility both for groups and individual libraries.

2. Qwidget update:

Jeff reviewed the new Qwidget feature, introduced in March 2008 and showed some sites that have deployed the Qwidget. Since the March install, 3 updates have been done in order to make the Qwidget more effective. QP has received lots of helpful feedback from member libraries – please keep sending comments!

3. Review of other features from March install

Jeff also reviewed the new Patron chat form (if the frame is used, chat appears on the left rather than the right), spam management, form manager, and reports.

4. Latest update

The HTML-based librarian chat monitor will be retired by the end of the calendar year, this does not impact 24/7 Reference Cooperative users or those already using the Flash-based librarian chat monitor. More information will be forthcoming about the retirement of the HTML-based librarian chat monitor by August.

The next major install will see a continuation of the form manager work, relating to chat forms (the current form manager relates only to email web forms).

II. 24/7 Reference Cooperative

Susan provided the Cooperative update. New York Public Library joined the Cooperative on June 23, and the Enquire (UK) public libraries became full Cooperative members on June 12. Both NYPL and Enquire had been using QP for chat for several years.

Several attendees had questions about the Enquire service and the UK patrons. Susan will be setting up a webinar on Best Practices for handling UK patrons for sometime in July.

Cooperative libraries should be sure to review their session transcripts and send any problematic sessions to Quality. Less than 1% of sessions are sent to Quality, and we rely on you to help us ensure that the Cooperative is providing good service to your patrons. Tip: if you want to send a session to Quality, first recover the session and finish with it (ie respond to patron if that is needed), then send to Quality. Sending to Quality removes the session temporarily from your list, so be sure the patron has what s/he needs before referring to Quality. Check the QP blog for Quality Tips, posted several times per month.

III. Discussion

After the QP update, attendees divided into small groups, based on library type: publics, academics, statewide cooperatives, non-Cooperative members. The groups were encouraged to discuss any issues and concerns, then report back to the group. Some of the discussion topics reported were:

- Surveys

- Qwidget roll-up to the 24/7 Cooperative - desired by several members of the 24/7 Reference Cooperative (without this, some are not deploying the Qwidget)

- More advanced training is needed

- Policy pages should be more current; some frustration with limits of current policy page format. Susan suggested adding a help guide for policy pages

- Co-browsing: will it improve or go away

- Online help needs better searching/improvement

- Libraries in the Cooperative should standardize the order of scripts

- How to deal with anonymous patrons (how to promote licensed resources with anonymous)

If you attended the user group meeting please add your comments to the discussion. Also, please suggest topics for further discussion on the blog, such as: policy pages, Qwidget, training and documentation needs, etc.

Thanks to all who attended the QP user group meeting at ALA!

Quality Tip: The most important question is: “Does this answer your question?”

At Quality we have long emphasized the importance of the “final satisfaction” question as a key component of a virtual reference session. [See the Best Practices section on Concluding the Session: Before closing, ask the patron if the question has been answered (“Does this completely answer your question?”) or if additional information is needed.]

The importance of the “final satisfaction” question is borne out by an article in the most recent RUSQ: “The Effects of Librarians’ Behavioral Performance on User Satisfaction in Chat Reference Services”, by Nahyun Kwon and Vicki L. Gregory. The study analyzed 422 chat reference sessions and corresponding user surveys of a 24/7 Coop public library, for the period January – June 2004. The purpose of the study was to determine whether chat reference can be more successful (as measured by user satisfaction expressed on surveys) when librarians employ the behaviors recommended in the revised RUSA guidelines.

Based on analyzing these session transcripts, the authors conclude that users were happier when the librarians do the following:

• used the patron’s name during the reference interview;
• communicated more receptively and listened more carefully;
• searched with or for the patron;
• provided pointers;
• asked the patron whether the question was completely answered; and
• asked the patron to come back if they needed further assistance.

The authors conclude that: “user satisfaction was most strongly predicted by the simple behavior of asking follow-up questions, such as “Did you find what you needed?” “Does this completely answer your question?” or “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

So, be sure to ask that final question - you will have more satisfied patrons as a result.

Comments on Quality? Post to the blog, or email Susan McGlamery at [email protected]