Frank Vrancken Peeters

WELCOME

Customers should always come first. The theme of this Library Connect issue deals with — in the broadest sense — the challenge of improving customer service. Articles frame the subject from a number of perspectives, and parallels can be identified in how customer service is being addressed by librarians and Elsevier.

It’s clear customer service is on everyone’s radar screen. We all agree the main ingredients required for excellent customer service are “get the basics right,” “listen, listen, listen to your customers” and “measure your success.”

The importance of listening to your customer is underlined by the interview with lab administrator Jane Rigg from Caltech, who offers pragmatic advice for librarians and publishers alike. The success of customer-focused projects such as those at Griffith University in Australia and Malaysia’s Multimedia University further demonstrates how customer satisfaction increases when services are developed with users’ needs at the core. At Elsevier, we’ve recently engaged in serious listening efforts in the form of more than 1,000 telephone interviews with librarians worldwide.

In the article from Colette McKenna, we hear how information services at the University of Ulster work together to better serve their customer groups, and how they measure success against performance indicators based on access, user support, facilities and services, consultation with users, and staff development. This is a comparable approach to that taken by Elsevier’s Librarian Customer Service Program outlined in the article by Felix Haest, project manager. During 2005, we’ve introduced point-of-service customer surveys resulting in an ongoing internal “dashboard” to monitor customer satisfaction.

I’m pleased we are devoting an issue of Library Connect to customer service because it has become clear to us that Elsevier must improve in this area. The good news is Elsevier management has given a high priority to improving our service. We’re now implementing concrete and positive changes to improve the service experience for you and our mutual end-user customers. It is my hope that you will find the articles in this issue of interest. I’m confident we can learn from each other, so please let me know, via libraryconnect@elsevier.com, if you have specific feedback or suggestions.

Best regards,

Frank Vrancken Peeters Managing Director Sales, Science and Technology, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

STAYING CONNECTED

Elsevier’s Newsletters for Librarians

• Receive timely updates on changes to Elsevier services.
• Access tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your resources.
• Be the first to hear about new content, new product availability, and enhancements to Elsevier services.

No one knows the value of keeping abreast in an environment of constant change quite like a librarian. At a recent focus group, we learned we need to do more to make you aware of information Elsevier product teams produce for our librarian customers.

This issue sees the first of two handy pull-outs edited by Shaun Briley, Library Connect marketing intern and LIS graduate student at San José State University. Pull-out #1 focuses on Elsevier’s free newsletters for librarians. We know you already receive plenty of email, so we’ve put together our list in such a way that it should be easy to decide which will be of value to you.

Staying connected has never been simpler.