John Blyberg from the Ann Arbor District Library recently posted an ILS Customer’s Bill of Rights, a very thoughtful reflection that you should definitely click through to. As I was reading it, however, I was also reminded of another bill of rights I recently came across, The Social Customer Manifesto. It’s actually a blog devoted to the social-software movement, but I found the tenets of the Manifesto quite intriguing (you can find them listed in the righthand sidebar on the site).
- I want to have a say.
- I don't want to do business with idiots.
- I want to know when something is wrong and what you're going to do to fix it.
- I want to help shape things that I'll find useful.
- I want to connect with others who are working on similar problems.
- I don't want to be called by another salesperson. Ever. (Unless they have something useful. Then I want it yesterday.)
- I want to buy things on my schedule, not yours. I don't care if it's the end of your quarter.
- I want to know your selling process.
- I want to tell you when you're screwing up. Conversely, I'm happy to tell you the things that you are doing well. I may even tell you what your competitors are doing.
- I want to do business with companies that act in a transparent and ethical manner.
- I want to know what's next. We're in partnership…where should we go?
Obviously, this is very much geared toward the business world, but it’s interesting to think about this list from the perspective of our patrons. They’re not all applicable, but maybe an equivalent list for libraries would look something like this:
- I want to have a say, so you need to provide mechanisms for this to happen online.
- I want to know when something is wrong, and what you’re going to do to fix it.
- I want to help shape services that I’ll find useful.
- I want to connect with others that share my interests.
- I want to use your services on my schedule, not yours. I don’t care if it’s noon, midnight, Sunday, or Christmas Eve.
- I want to know how your library works.
- I want to tell you when you’re screwing up. Conversely, I’m happy to tell you the things you are doing well.
- I want to interact with institutions that act in a transparent and ethical manner.
- I want to know what’s next. We’re in partnership…where should we go?
Libraries tend to know how to cover these bases in the physical world, but what else would you add for our online users? I love that librarians are finally exploring ways for libraries to use these new social tools to give patrons these kinds of options.