Coping Even Better at the Counter [Event Ref. No. TG4/CEBC1]

This course offers you theory and practice in the skills supporting good customer service and will help you to conduct effective face-to-face interactions. Intended for those with some experience of working in libraries, it will also help you to respond to the changing customer expectations and needs of a wide range of users.

There will be discussions and exercises as well as theory, to explain why certain strategies work better than others, and exchanges of experience are encouraged.

Trainer Sheila Ritchie has worked in LIS for many years. She trains people in personal and interpersonal skills using practical and transferable methods.

Programme

09.30 Welcome, coffee and introduction
Course objectives and current issues
What do customers want and need? What is bad and good service?
10.45 Break
11.00 Assertive behaviour and how it aids communication
12.45 Lunch
13.30 Non-verbal Communication: matching message and meaning to the words
Diverse user communities – helping everyone to benefit from our services
14.45 Break
15.15 My skills for good face-to-face communication
Building on your strengths to benefit yourself and others
16.30 Plenary review and personal action plans
16.45 Course ends.

Pre-course Preparation
Please write notes on some of the customer service situations you have experienced – good and bad. We would like to gather material to use as real examples on the course.

Go into a library you do not know well. Act as if entering it for the first time – observe and make notes on the foyer, signage, layout, counter, queues, bookstock, PCs and staff. Imagine yourself as someone with impaired mobility (in a wheelchair or unable to reach high for materials); how would you fare if seeking to use all the services?

Venue: Room B211, Brunei Gallery, SOAS: http://www.soas.ac.uk/visitors/location/

Please note that there are limited places available for this event.

To book a place please use our online booking form or email the administrator via cpd25@lse.ac.uk

Cost: £180 for CPD25 members and £220 for other institutions.

Cancellations less than one week before the event will be charged a 50% cancellation fee. In the event of a ‘no-show’ on the day, the full fee will be charged.