Felix Haest

Why Customers Must Come First

Felix Haest, Project Manager, Library Customer Service, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

In the dim and distant past, before e-publishing, most of Elsevier’s relationships with institutional customers were conducted through agents, a system continuing on the print side today. The electronic era brought dramatic changes — first the introduction of Elsevier electronic subscriptions, then ScienceDirect. Elsevier chose to sell and provide support for ScienceDirect directly to our librarian customer base. Since then, increasing numbers of customers have opted for electronic-only subscriptions. The seismic shift from print to electronic, from relying on middlemen to trading directly with customers, required the creation of significant new internal infrastructures and corporate cultures. Like all publishers, over the past decade Elsevier has been feeling its way in the digital environment, learning how customers work with our products and what their needs are when dealing with this new and interactive medium. To be truthful, this has been an organic, sometimes hit-and-miss process.

At the end of 2003, with ScienceDirect a well-established platform with customers across the academic world, Reed Elsevier chief executive Sir Crispin Davis encouraged Elsevier to put customer service at the heart of everything we do. Setting out the company’s strategy for continued growth and success, he highlighted customer service as an important factor through which Elsevier could differentiate itself from our competitors.

TACKLING PROBLEMS

It was already known, however, that the goal of excellent customer service and the reality of Elsevier’s customer service record were quite some way apart. For a company with premium products and content, customer service lagged well behind.

Starting with librarian feedback

As the first step in rectifying this situation, we spent much of 2004 asking librarians what we were doing right, what we were doing wrong, and what should be done to improve our performance. Customer research included focus groups, in-depth interviews and market surveys, boosted in spring 2005 by more than 1,000 telephone interviews with librarians worldwide.

Managing customer queries

Our research indicated that following the introduction of ScienceDirect problems arose, principally as a result of issues of systems, data quality and data maintenance. Shortcomings in data management included ineffective fulfillment of entitlements. For example, journals to which institutions subscribed were sometimes inaccessible, especially across complex multi-site campuses and for members of consortia. Customers also told us our invoices were often inaccurate or lacking in transparency; sometimes they were issued for wrong amounts or wrong titles and arrived late, out of sync or without consideration for budgeting cycles. Discount fees were difficult to understand and obtain. In comparison to the level of detail provided by some other publishers, and by agents for print subscriptions, Elsevier’s invoices provided insufficient detail for librarians to link them to orders.

Failures on these “hard” business issues were reflected in shortcomings reported on the “softer” customer service issues. Inadequate or unclear explanations of Elsevier’s business models and products led to a lack of understanding of what these offerings really meant for an institution. Perhaps the most frequent and fundamental complaint from customers, however, centered on the way customer queries were managed internally. Time and again, customers told us that when they had a problem they did not know who to turn to within Elsevier to get it solved. Whether for sales support, licensing, financing, account management or helpdesk issues, the lack of clear contact points and apparent reluctance of designated individuals to take ownership of queries caused frustration. Queries were left unfulfilled, and customers often had to explain the same problem several times to different individuals. Poor query management left some librarians feeling that dealing with Elsevier was like dealing with a black hole.

In summary, librarians told us they felt genuinely confused about Elsevier’s processes, burdened by complex inflexible negotiations and frustrated by poor — or non-existent — responses to their queries. We weren’t being nearly human enough in our customer communications or interactions. While Elsevier had expended much time and energy making sure delivery and archiving systems were working as they should, customer service was allowed to take a back seat. Our Library Customer Research Program has changed Elsevier’s perspective for good.

PROVIDING SOLUTIONS

Improving systems and increasing transparency

The result of Elsevier’s consultations with librarians is a new drive to improve customer service within a streamlined organization. Our new Library Customer Service Program is designed to put internal systems right with a view to making external relations more efficient and effective — providing what Elsevier’s customers want and expect from a major player in academic publishing. The program, developed in association with our librarian customer partners, will be continuously monitored and refined through constant customer feedback.

Data management and invoicing issues have been addressed and changes made so these processes work as customers have a right to expect them to and are, at the same time, clear, transparent and easy to understand.

The global invoicing process has been improved, and all relevant customer details are now checked directly with the customer before an invoice is sent out. Legal language supporting terms and conditions of licensing has been substantially simplified. Later this year, to further improve transparency, pricing details for ScienceDirect products will be made available at www.info.sciencedirect.com. Of course, there is still room for improvement on contracting and licensing issues, invoicing and data quality, and we will continue to monitor customer response to changes we make in these areas.

Taking responsibility and changing culture

Based on librarians’ feedback, our query management system is currently being overhauled. Under the new system, details of customer queries will be stored centrally, so if customers need to refer to a problem, its history will be immediately accessible. A culture of ownership of problems and queries is being introduced throughout Elsevier. For instance, there is now a commitment that, if helpdesk queries cannot be solved within 24 hours, ticket numbers will be issued and clear ownership for solving problems will be allocated to an expert, dedicated individual. The job performance of these dedicated query managers will be indexed by the speed and efficiency with which they resolve queries. It is anticipated that this new system will be fully functional by the end of 2005.

Actively monitoring customer service levels

To form a real-time impression of how librarians perceive our commitment to customer service, Elsevier has introduced a “dashboard” to monitor service levels. The dashboard covers 10 service areas. Customers who have recently experienced service from Elsevier, in any one of these areas, may receive an email invitation to complete a short questionnaire about that last specific experience. We’re now reporting quarterly on results from questionnaires completed and returned by librarians.

These reports are receiving much attention throughout Elsevier. The dashboard acts as a thermometer of current customer satisfaction levels. By tracking service delivery, it also supports the setting of customerfocused service-level agreements. Feedback has already resulted in a new helpdesk procedure under which, if a customer providing feedback is dissatisfied with any aspect of our service and indicates a wish to be contacted, contact is made within 48 hours.

Analysis of the fundamental causes of customer dissatisfaction is the only way to turn problems around. Elsevier is extremely grateful to all our customers who complete satisfaction questionnaires. We are committed to using this feedback to improve the service we offer. The end of the beginning

Our Library Customer Service Program has just started. It’s about changing cultures and expectations. Customer service has been identified from our research, and by our senior management, to be a hugely important issue. A clear understanding of this fact is now being turned into action. It’s too soon to claim the program is delivering the wholesale changes in service our customers want, although there are suggestions of improvements in some territories and on some issues. This same message has been given to Elsevier’s Director of Library Relations, Tony McSeán, in his consultations with our library advisory boards. Board members tell us improvements have been made, and are visible — but there’s still a long way to go.

Customer Feedback

 “If our “business” is the same (to provide information and knowledge to faculties, researchers and students), we need to share problems and solutions. In the new information space created by e-publishing this need is more pressing and libraries should work side-by-side with the publishers. The question is not to be good friends but to be faithful and reliable partners. Customer service is the key to this.”

Gerardo Marraud, Director Biblioteca Universitaria, Universidade de Vigo, Spain

“As libraries have moved from the print-only serials world to electronic plus print and electronic-only access models, managing these collections has become complicated to say the least, particularly when dealing with large journal packages. In the early stages of this migration, neither publishers nor librarians knew how to cope with the vast amount of information related to these agreements: title lists, content fees, access fees, inflation caps, administration fees, print add-on costs, base package value, and so on. Imagine creating documentation that tracks all this information, and then reconciling this data with the publisher. This proved impossible, and still is in cases where the publisher has not committed the staff time and energy to managing these agreements.

“In those rare cases where journal package management has worked, the publisher has devoted staff to the tracking of data needed to manage title lists. Staff longevity also plays a major role in successfully migrating to electronic access, because they learn the nuances of each customer’s agreement, and can quickly and correctly answer questions. Publishers’ high personnel turn-over rates are not able to provide this level high level of customer service. So, providing necessary training to sales and support personnel, and then offering incentives to encourage them to remain with the company are necessary steps in improving e-journal package management.

“Elsevier account manager Kelechi Okere, and Denay Lewis, sales support coordinator, have each dedicated themselves to providing the highest quality customer service and the most thorough journal package information. While many librarians continue to be concerned about the licensing terms and pricing of STM titles, these two outstanding Elsevier staff members have made managing our content stress-free.”

Becky Albitz, Electronic Resources and Copyright Librarian, Penn State University, PA, USA