College and Research Libraries Custom.er Expectations: Concepts and Reality for Academ.ic Library Services Christopher Millson-Martula and Vanaja Menon As academic libraries continue to evolve as service organizations, they should focus on their users as customers and develop programs of service that meet or exceed user expectations. The overriding goal will become customer satisfac- tion. This article deals with the elements that determine expectations as well as the existing gaps that relate to customer expectations and service performance. Possible strategies for narrowing these gaps include enhanced communication between the library and its customers and improved management. ver the past two decades tech- nological innovations have provided libraries with the means to not only meet but also surpass customer needs and expec- tations. Initially, technology involved the automation of library staff functions, and customers experienced few benefits directly. With the development of the online catalog, customers experienced a faster, easier, and more efficient method of searching. As online systems became commonplace, librarians began to real- ize the new and exciting possibilities to which increased automation can lead. The flexibility of electronic data led to shared catalogs, dial access, and remote charging, thereby allowing customers to search multiple catalogs remotely, even from the comfort of their own homes or offices. In addition, the use of telefax machines has dramatically reduced the turnaround time for the remote process- ing of photocopy requests. Innovations such as full-text databases and docu- ment delivery systems are increasing. Consequently, students and faculty have experienced directly the benefits of technology through enhanced student performance and increased faculty pro- ductivity. However, while these and other ad- vances successfully have increased cus- tomer satisfaction, they have likewise raised customer expectations. As a re- sult, academic libraries should be searching constantly for new ways to keep up with those expectations. Multi- media products and an explosion of net- worked information add a whole new level of complexity for information seek- ers and providers alike. Unfortunately, this complexity, coupled with today's fi- nancial constraints, often makes it diffi- cult to decide which products and services are best for the library. Blindly embrac- ing sophisticated technology does not necessarily translate into optimal or even enhanced service. Rather, academic librarians should implement technology within the context of a grand service vi- sion that library staff and customers Christopher Millson-Martula is Associate Librarian at the Fletcher Library, Arizona State University West, Phoenix, Arizona 85069-7100. Vanaja Menon is Associate Librarian at the Donnelley Library, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois 60045. 33 34 College & Research Libraries have jointly established on the basis of customer input and feedback. It is crucial for academic librarians not to for- get the customers for whom these serv- ices exist. CUSTOMERS AND LIBRARY SERVICES Charles Osburn describes the situ- ation quite succinctly when he says that library researchers (and libraries) have "not focused so much on the con- sumer's goals, methods, habits, and mo- tivations as we have on the efficiency of techniques to control and retrieve to our own professional satisfaction."1 Like- wise, Douglas Zweizig states explicitly that the majority of library research es- sentially has ignored the user. 2 This ar- ticle will attempt to assist library staff as they transform libraries into service organizations. To do this suc- cessfully, it is necessary to not only focus on library users as mere custom- ers but also to provide a program of serv- ices that will either meet or exceed user expectations. In almost all instances, libraries have possessed a long and commendable record as service organizations. Libraries con- tinuously implement new programs and services with the hope that these may suc- ceed in satisfying expressed or unex- pressed needs of some group or groups of users. Many libraries, particularly aca- demic libraries, have established liaison outreach programs in an attempt to get to know users better while also providing them with a greater amount of information about library programs and services on a more consistent basis. In all of these cases, the goal has been to provide relevant and high-quality services to library users. However, an element of quality service is still absent. That element is the incor- poration of users' personal needs and expectations into the development of the ·service. This requires librarians to establish an ongoing relationship with their customers in order to learn what their needs and expectations are. Staff become active listeners who then are able to process customer input on a con- tinuous basis. January 1995 CUSTOMER NEEDS AND BEHAVIORS Over the years, library staffs have identified user needs and their corre- sponding information-seeking behavior. Public librarians and information scien- tists or librarians working with scientists or other scholars, especially those li- brarians in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s, have played a leading role in this area. In addition, the Associa- tion of Research Libraries' Office of Man- agement Studies has fostered an interest in this area by exhorting academic li- brarians to make use of surveys and other methods that effectively can gauge user needs. While one goal of a user study is to identify user needs, an equally significant one is to eliminate or, at the very least, lessen any obsta- cles that may hinder users from satis- fying their information needs. Russell Shank has advocated using scholars' information needs and information- gathering behavior as the principal guide for determining the needs of the general populace of academic library us- ers. 3 However, since an academic li- brary's various constituencies possess differing needs and expectations, this could be quite inappropriate for gradu- ate students in a research university or for undergraduates in a four-year or community college . . The continued success of a service or- ganization such as an academic library depends upon the organization's ability to adjust its products and services to cor- respond to user needs. Academic librari- ans need to realize that student and faculty needs do change. The change may not be radical or monumental. However, even in the case of subtle or evolutionary change, it remains incum- bent for librarians to: (1) be aware that needs are changing; (2) understand the nature of the changes; and (3) realign or reconfigure services to ensure that they remain relevant to the recently devel- oped needs. One such change in needs has involved a shift in user orientation from physical formats containing infor- mation to the information itself com- bined with access to it. Academic libraries have responded favorably to this change by creating the collection de- velopment continuum of just in time and just in case as well as the broader concept of the virtual library in which users ob- tain information via electronic access and retrieval with little regard for the concept of ownership. Let the authors now examine the con- cept of needs. Andrew Green, who pro- vides an overview of user needs, maintains that a needs assessment should produce a less partial account of what a situation requires. 4 This is so because needs gen- erally should be more objective than wants or demands. Needs are elements that are instrumental. If their needs are not met, people may fail to attain a goal or an end state. Needs are likely to be at least partially based on reason or logic. Consequently, needs are usually con- testable and can be debated or dis- puted. Lastly, needs are not always expressed because a person can legiti- mately need something without being aware of the need or desiring the needed item. When allocating library resources, Green thinks that the deter- mining factor should be needs rather than wants or demands, if they can be ascertained. In contrast, wants tend more to be su- perficial and instinctive. Accordingly, they cannot be disputed; only the indi- vidual in question can state what she or he wants. Likewise, a want can exist in an individual's mind without being translated into a demand for a particular library service. In conclusion, both Green and others such as Donald King and Vernon Pal- mour believe that librarians should think less of the need for discrete bits of information and more of information- seeking behavior that is intended to ful- fill more fundamental needs. 5 These needs in turn could be considered as user specifications: needs such as accessibil- ity, turnaround time for information re- trieval timeliness, relevance, accuracy, and precision. As Green suggests, an- other reason why it is prudent for aca- demic libraries to focus on users is that doing so will enable libraries to direct Customer Expectations 35 attention to the prior needs that underlie the information needs themselves. 6 THE CUSTOMER AS AN INDIVIDUAL As funding agencies require a greater degree of accountability by academic libraries and as users become more so- phisticated and more demanding cus- tomers, academic libraries face the need to evaluate services in terms of their ef- fectiveness in supporting the institu- tional mission. In virtually all cases, this mission cannot be supported without meeting the needs of library customers. Consequently, a direct causal relation- ship exists between an effective program of services and meeting customers' in- formation and other needs. Green adds that "a correct identification of needs is an essential preliminary to the devising of appropriate means to judge the effec- tiveness of a library or information serv- ice."7 Others have supported this view as well. Philip Rzasa and Norman Baker believe that the primary goals of an aca- demic library are to maximize user need satisfaction while simultaneously mini- mizing the amount of time and other costs that users must expend to have their needs met.8 Likewise, Robert Burns, in advocating library use as a per- formance measure, believes that while the key to high-quality service is users and their response, the library must view the user as an individual rather than a mere statistic.9 Lastly, Jeffrey Dis- end takes the broader view that evalu- ation should be linked to customers' expectations in addition to their needs. 10 Clearly, academic libraries would do well to study in great detail the relation- ship that they have with their customers. In truly enhancing the efficiency of li- brary services, total quality manage- ment takes into consideration customer needs and expectations. Total quality management has advanced many or- ganizations, including libraries, light years forward in terms of enhancing the relationships they have with their cus- tomers as well as the services they pro- vide. Academic librarians need to ensure that operations-focused activities do not 36 College & Research Libraries divert the emphasis away from library users as customers or consumers. One unintended effect that sometimes occurs has been to limit efforts to understand user needs and expectations. 11 Thus, li- brarians must be careful to view and appreciate total quality management projects in a balanced perspective. The library will realize the full benefits of total quality management only if it em- ploys the concept in concert with ongo- ing efforts to understand library users. Total quality management has advanced many organizations, including libraries, light years forward in terms of enhancing the relationships they have with their customers as well as the services they provide. Academic libraries, along with other libraries that have a relatively high de- gree of captive customers (that is, indi- viduals who may possess few options for meeting their information-related needs), should make a special effort to understand their users. Whether using survey instruments, interviews, focus groups, or other assessment methods, academic librarians can gain insight into their customers' needs by under- standing: (1) their overall attitudes; (2) the context or environment in which cus- tomers use library services; and (3) their perception of how library services are linked to other services. Thus, when a library is willing to learn extensively about its customers' needs and expecta- tions, it can play an active role in shaping user behavior and expectations. As Adamson has pointed out, exceeding customer expectations can have a snow- ball effect leading to better impressions, higher expectations, and higher per- ceived valueY This constitutes an espe- cially significant payoff for academic libraries whose budgets have not fared well over the past few years or that have been forced to assess some type of stu- dent use fees to maintain a respectable level of services. Highly satisfied stu- January 1995 dents and faculty may rally to support the library when academic administra- tors are forced to make significant budget cuts. CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS To benefit from this payoff, academic libraries must be able to describe their operations with the following equation: service performance> expectations. The key term in this equation is expectations. Ac- cording to a trio of researchers, Valarie Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard Berry, who are prominent in the field of customer expectations, expectations are the standards against which a firm's per- formance should be judged.13 Is there any reason why the same should not be true for academic libraries as not-for- profit service organizations? Before embarking on a more extensive discussion of expectations, the authors would like to offer a definition so that there is a common understanding of what is involved. Expectations are as- sumptions about the likelihood of some- thing occurring; coupled with these assumptions is the acknowledgment that the outcome may not be as expected. More concisely, expectations reflect an- ticipated performance. Researchers in the field of customer expectations agree that, in most cases, customers hold expectations that can be considered quite basic. In general, cus- tomers expect a basic, solid performance and promises that are kept. Stated differ- ently, customers desire a quality or accu- rate product or service provided in a friendly and courteous way. A. Parasuraman et al. place customer service expectations into two catego- ries .14 The first deals with service as an end result, outcome, or product. This di- mension involves reliability, or the abil- ity to perform a promised service both dependably and accurately. The re- searchers believe that customer expecta- tions cannot be met if this all-important dimension is lacking. Four other dimen- sions comprise the second category, that of service process, and these dimensions are important in exceeding customer ex- pectations. First among these is assur- ance-the ability of employees to convey a high degree of trust and confidence based on the employees' knowledge and courtesy. Next is responsiveness. Expec- tations are likely to be exceeded if employ- ees consistently demonstrate a willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Related to responsiveness is empathy. Employees will exceed their customers' expectations when they dem- onstrate empathy by providing caring individualized attention to customers. Last is a group of tangibles consisting of elements such as the appearance of physical facilities, the amount of equip- ment and personnel, and the degree of communication that exists between the organization and its customers. For each dimension of expectations, a customer is likely to establish two serv- ice levels. The first is the desired service level, which is defined as what the cus- tomer hopes to receive, a blend of what the customer believes can and should be. The other level is the adequate service level, which consists of the service that a cus- tomerwillfindacceptable. A customer' szone of tolerance falls between these two levels. Quite logically, service expectations are likely to increase with a corresponding in- crease in a customer's experience. When a customer either lacks many options or does not possess a clear understanding of what options exist, expectations are likely to be appreciably lower. If academic libraries are to meet and exceed customer expectations more suc- cessfully, they need to know what ele- ments determine expectations. Zeithaml et al. offer four key factors: (1) what cus- tomers hear from other customers; (2) in- dividual characteristics and circumstances relating to personal needs; (3) experience with using a service; and (4) communica- tions from service providers to custom- ers.15 The third factor is multifaceted in that customers will not base their expec- tations solely on experience with one academic library, but will also consider experiences with other libraries as well as providers of other types of services. A commonly held belief is that the customer is always right. However, the opposite is more likely the case; custom- Customer Expectations 37 ers often hold unrealistic expectations. Cross-service comparison, that is, com- paring one service provider with provid- ers of other types of services, can often account for customers' unrealistic expec- tations. If we apply Kathleen Sanford's concepts to libraries, customers may not always understand the policies and pro- cedures under which a library oper- ates.16 Likewise, customers may not realize that such policies and procedures may be essential to the library's survival. Finally, certain policies and procedures may be required for reasons beyond the library's control. In any case, these situ- ations can lead library customers to have unrealistic expectations, which, if not adjusted, will result in customer dissat- isfaction. Therefore, it is incumbent upon academic libraries to do all within their power to minimize the occurrence of customer dissatisfaction based on un- realistic expectations. Clearly, the library environment in- volves three interrelated elements: cus- tomer expectations, library performance, and customer satisfaction. What is cen- tral to all three is the customer, whether an individual consumer or a corporate customer. When undertaking research concerning customer expectations or satisfaction, evaluating the quality of services rendered, or implementing ac- tions aimed at enhancing the level of customer satisfaction, academic librari- ans need to keep in mind that the key is focus. Academic librarians first must identify who their primary customers are. Then they can learn the needs and expectations of their customers as well as evaluate the level of customer satis- faction with library services. CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS, LIBRARY PERFORMANCE, AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Virtually all academic librarians strive to provide their customers with a supe- rior level of service. However, many fail to realize that it is impossible to do so without first comprehending what their customers' expectations truly are. This is because of the interrelatedness of the three elements mentioned above: 38 College & Research Libraries expectations, performance, and satisfac- tion. Customers' evaluations of library performance and their level of satisfac- tion with that performance will be based largely on a comparison of expectations with perceptions of the service pro- vided. Many academic libraries have both individual consumers (students, faculty, administrators, and staff) as well as corporate bodies as customers. Re- search has indicated that minimal differ- ences exist between expectations and perceptions held by individual and cor- porate customers. Parasuraman et al. conducted sixteen focus group inter- views in five cities. 17 They interviewed both individual and corporate custom- ers of service providers in such diverse areas as insurance, business equipment repair, truck/ tractor rental and leasing, auto repairs, and hotels. Their results indicated no significant differences based on the type of customer. While it is essential for academic li- braries to meet customer expectations, this usually involves no more than the mere provision of the right product or service, whether reference and informa- tion services, bibliographic instruction, interlibrary loan/ document delivery, or a relevant collection of materials. In- stead, academic libraries should attempt to exceed the expectations of their cus- tomers. This often involves surprising or delighting their customers, doing the unexpected, or providing in a unique way something that their customers con- sider significant. Let us now focus on customer satisfac- tion. Simply put, customer satisfaction represents the difference between what customers expect and what they get. While the level of satisfaction logically should be based on an objective evalu- ation of the service provided, that is not the case. Rather, satisfaction tends to be based on perceptions, which may not always be logical. It is these perceptions that also define exceptional service, and it should be remembered that the cus- tomer, not the library, is the arbiter of exceptional service. Before examining in detail the gaps associated with customer satisfaction, January 1995 academic librarians first need to under- stand the factors or antecedents respon- sible for customer expectations as manifested in desired and adequate service. Zeithaml et al. identify six ante- cedents of desired service and five for adequate service.18 When a customer either lacks many options or does not possess a clear understanding of what options exist, expectations are likely to be appreciably lower. The principal factor responsible for defining desired service is what are known as enduring service intensifiers. Consisting of elements such as a per- sonal service philosophy and service ex- pectations that are either derived from or driven by another party, these intensifi- ers lead the customer to a heightened sensitivity to service. Their ultimate ef- fect is to elevate the level of desired serv- ice. Joining these intensifiers are a customer's personal needs and explicit service promises or service-related state- ments that the library may have made to its customers. Not to be overlooked are implicit service promises that the library may have made-elements such as serv- ice price or tangibles associated with the service. The two remaining antecedents are: (1) word-of-mouth communication, or information about service perform- ance that individuals have personally re- lated to their friends, associates, or acquaintances; and (2) a customer's past experience with library performance. One of the antecedents of adequate service is predicted service, that is, that level of service which customers believe they are likely to get. Other antecedents of adequate service include transitory service intensifiers, those temporary, short-term factors relating to a cus- tomer's situation, needs, or problems that influence a customer's expectations for adequate service. The presence of perceived service alternatives will like- wise influence the level of adequate service. When a customer thinks that service alternatives to one provider ex- ist, the level of adequate service is likely to be higher than when the range of options is limited. Likewise, situational factors consisting of factors or circum- stances beyond the control of the service provider will tend to depress the level of adequate service. The final antecedent involves customers' perception of the degree to which they directly influence the level of service provided. When cus- tomers believe that they exert some in- fluence, the level of adequate service should rise. A customer's degree of satisfaction with a service will evolve as the customer develops a relationship with the service provider. When a customer first estab- lishes such a relationship or is dealing with a new product or service from a provider with whom a relationship already exists, actual performance, rather than expecta- tions, should act as the primary determi- nant of satisfaction. At this point, the situation is somewhat tenuous because these early expectations are usually not held with a great deal of confidence. When customers believe that they exert some influence, the level of adequate service should rise. As a customer's experience with a service provider continues to grow and results in a substantial accumulation of past performance information, there should be a corresponding increase in both the accuracy and confidence of expectations. 19 At some point, a rough equilibrium between expectations and performance perception should result as the two become virtually indistinguish- able. With a continued increase in service experience and with the ongoing matu- ration of a service, customer expecta- tions should become even stronger as does their effect on the level of customer satisfaction. Thus, as students and fac- ulty develop greater experience with li- brary services, it is more likely that not only will they become quite satisfied with those services but also that their Customer Expectations 39 level of satisfaction will increase pro- gressively. The relationship between customer expectations and perception of perform- ance or level of satisfaction is multifac- eted and complex. When performance falls within an acceptable range of expec- tation, expectations are likely to domi- nate the perceptions of satisfaction.20 Likewise, when the gap between expec- tations and performance is relatively small, a customer's perception of per- formance is likely to migrate toward the customer's expectations. On the other hand, when performance falls outside an acceptable range, a contrast occurs and perceived performance assumes primacy over expectations. GAPS INVOLVING EXPECTATIONS, PERFORMANCE, AND SATISFACTION Academic librarians should study the concept of disconfirmation, which rep- resents the gap between customer ex- pectations and service performance. Researchers have demonstrated that this gap is more responsible for the cus- tomer's level of satisfaction than the ac- tual service performance itsel£.21 Thus, while academic librarians should con- tinue to strive to provide the highest quality service possible, they should also be grounded in reality by acknowledging that the perception of the relationship between expectations and performance is most responsible for a customer's assess- ment of overall service quality. Zeithaml et al. have conducted exten- sive research in this area, and they have identified four gaps: • Between actual customer expectations and management's perception of cus- tomer expectations • Between service quality specifications and management's perception of cus- tomer expectations • Between service delivery and service quality specifications • Between service delivery and external communications relating to it.22 Let us now look at each gap in some detail, giving special attention to the fac- tors responsible for each gap. A later sec- 40 College & Research Libraries tion will present some remedies for clos- ing the gaps. GAP1 The first gap, between customer ex- pectations and management's percep- tion of those expectations, can be con- sidered the most basic. If librarians inac- curately gauge the expectations of stu- dents or faculty, it becomes virtually impossible for performance to exceed true customer expectations, and it will be quite likely that the overall customer satisfaction level will be lowered. This gap can be described as stemming from a lack of appropriate interaction be- tween librarians and students and fac- ulty. While librarians generally may believe they know of their customers' expectations and opinions, they often lack specific data to support this belief. This gap can be attributed to three principal factors: (1) lack of extensive marketing research addressing cus- tomer needs and expectations; (2) in- adequate (whether lacking in quantity or frequency) upward communication from the front-line service providers at the circulation, information, reference, and other service desks to library admin- istrators; and (3) too many levels of ad- ministrators separating the staff providing service from top administrators. For many academic libraries, especially col- lege libraries, the organizational hierarchy is not so extensive as to be unduly weighty. However, there may be wid~pread reluc- tance to undertake, with some degree of frequency, major efforts at obtaining input from and information about student and faculty customers. Academic librarians frequently make the argument that cus- tomers will simply not tolerate surveys, interviews, focus groups, or other like de- mands upon their time. They also main- tain that they already know what their customers need. Nevertheless, in an im- perfect world, other se.rvice providers or producers of goods have benefitted con- siderably from major marketing re- search efforts, and there is no reason why the same should not be true for academic libraries. Concerning the sec- ond factor of upward communication, January 1995 our experience has been that while serv- ice providers are often eager to forward customer input or customer-related in- formation to top management, they too frequently have been given the message that such information is neither valued nor welcome. GAP2 The second gap technically is de- scribed as existing between service quality standards and management's perception of customer expectations. In layperson's terms, however, it is simply defined as the gap that results when an organization establishes the wrong serv- ice standards, that is, service standards that do not accurately or consistently re- flect customer expectations. Zeithaml et al. cite four reasons for the second gap: (1) inadequate commitment to service quality; (2) a lack of perception of feasi- bility; (3) the infrequent or too limited use of technology to standardize various service tasks so that library staff can guarantee to students and faculty that they will provide consistent quality service; and ( 4) the absence of goals that are directly related to or based on cus- tomer standards and expectations. Academic librarians have long ex- pressed at least a verbal commitment to service quality. However, each librarian needs to reflect upon the degree to which this verbal commitment is actually trans- lated into actions or behaviors. Likewise, academic libraries, especially research li- braries, have played a leadership role in using technology to standardize service tasks. Nevertheless, librarians need to remember the customer and service ele- ments when implementing technology initiatives. Significant service enhance- ments that result from the total quality management initiatives currently so prevalent among academic libraries definitely should improve this situation. These projects should also improve aca- demic librarians' records of setting goals that are customer-ori~nted. GAP3 Total quality management also should be beneficial for narrowing the gap be- tween actual service delivery and serv- ice specifications or standards. This gap relates most directly to library staff as service providers-their training, moti- vation, abilities, and attitudes. A number of factors could be responsible for this gap. Key among them are: (1) employee role ambiguity which includes uncer- tainty about what library supervisors or managers expect from staff in direct service positions as well as a lack of in- formation needed to perform the job adequately; (2) a poor employee job fit because of a lack of training or skills needed to perform the job combined with the use of inappropriate tools or technology; (3) a major role conflict for staff who perceive that they are unable to satisfy all of the demands of their in- ternal and external customers; and (4) a supervisory or management system that focuses solely on output, that allows staff few options or too little flexibility in resolving service problems, and that does not convey the sense that manage- ment truly cares about staff. There is generally ample room for aca- demic library management to improve upon situations characterized by views of staff as tools or agents of production who cannot be entrusted with a reason- able degree of decision-making respon- sibility and authority. Likewise, library managers need to ensure that they pro- vide staff with the full range of resources, including the necessary training, that staff need to carry out their responsibilities and provide the level of service that stu- dents and faculty have a right to expect. GAP4 The last gap, officially described as the gap between service delivery and exter- nal communications relating to it, can be rephrased as the situation that exists when promises don't match delivery. Factors contributing to this gap include a propensity to overpromise in terms of service delivery and inadequate hori- zontal communication. A prime example of the former factor involves automated, integrated systems featuring online pub- lic access catalogs. Academic librarians quite understandably promote the nu- Customer Expectations 41 merous benefits of such systems to stu- dents, faculty, and other library customers. Yet, especially when these systems are first brought up, their operational failure be- cause of circumstances generally beyond the control of library staff prevents li- braries from delivering what has been promised, whether explicitly or implic- itly. Likewise, horizontal communica- tion between library staff and customers can also impede service delivery at a level equal to that which had been prom- ised. This situation is often manifested when staff provide customers with mis- information about the standards relating to the delivery of a particular service. One such instance exists when staff knowingly provide customers with a too idealistic or optimistic estimate of the time required for completion of a docu- ment delivery or interlibrary loan transaction. Such information tends to raise expectations on the part of stu- dents or faculty, which often are not met when the delay exceeds the time initially projected. STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Having learned the nature of these four gaps and the principal factors re- sponsible for them, academic library staff can then explore what strategies can be implemented to narrow these gaps. While the idealistic goal would be to eliminate them, a more realistic and fea- sible one would be to reduce the size of the gaps. While there are definitely specific ac- tions that academic librarians should take to narrow the gaps between expec- tations and service quality, it will be necessary to adopt a major ideological or attitudinal change. Academic librari- ans need not be hesitant to admit that it is essential to implement a proactive stance employing many of the market- ing and research techniques of for-profit firms. Before implementing such techniques, however, academic librarians need to en- sure that they have established a vision of service with which all staff can iden- tify and which serves as the driving force 42 College & Research Libraries behind all library programs and serv- ices. Employees in the public sector or not-for-profit settings need to believe that what they do and how they perform matter considerably. Instead of merely representing the organization, they are the organization. Not-for-profit employ- ees, such as academic librarians, must believe that they can make a difference. Although students and faculty are not required to pay directly for most of the library services that they use, library staff must realize that staff are respon- sible for the service quality and re- sponse time that the library provides. Thus, the element of accountability is introduced as it relates to the nonmone- tary prices that library customers must pay for services. Although students and faculty are not required to pay directly for most of the library services that they use, library staff must realize that staff are responsible for the service quality and response time that the library provides. Over ten years ago Russell Shank ad- vocated that academic librarians adopt a cardinal rule of marketing: don't simply ask customers to identify their needs or wants but also offer a full menu of prod- ucts and services that provide customers with alternatives from which they can choose.23 Put another way, academic li- brarians may need to tell customers what they ought to expect from the library. This relates to the practice, which is widespread in consumer industries, of actually man- aging expectations to enhance percep- tions of service. Zeithaml et al. state: A major premise of our research has been that consumers' perceptions of service quality can be influenced either by raising consumers' perceptions or by lowering expectations. Managing cus- tomers' expectations, especially those created by the company itself through external communications and price, is an essential part of a strategy to attain perceived quality service.24 January 1995 While the entire issue of meeting cus- tomer expectations clearly involves ag- gressively offering programs and services, there also exists a reactive element of identifying those expectations. To iden- tify expectations successfully, academic librarians must demonstrate the innova- tion needed to identify or create new products or services that address stu- dents' and faculty members' previously unmet or even sometimes unrecognized needs. This leads us to the two major areas in which academic librarians need to act: customer relations and management. No academic library will enhance its success in meeting student and faculty expecta- tions without first establishing an ongo- ing and major relationship with those customers. Joan Uhlenberg states that the only way to advance in either meeting or ex- ceeding customer expectations is to gain an in-depth understanding of customers and their behavioral needs. 25 Before get- ting closer to customers, however, li- brarians first need to identify their customers (which should not be too dif- ficult for most academic librarians) and learn how they use library services. In addition, librarians should encourage students and faculty to define clearly their service requirements. Certainly, the library's overall capabilities together with librarians' commitments to provide new and creative levels of products or services are key elements. Yet a superior understanding of customers is what Uhlenberg considers most critical. When an academic library has devel- oped a genuine customer relationship with students and faculty, a likely result is a greater level of tolerance on the part of library customers coupled with a nar- rowing of the gap between customer ex- pectations and the level of library services provided. A requisite for such a relationship is for academic librarians to learn considerably more about the stu- dents and faculty who constitute their primary customers. It is not sufficient simply to research what customers need or want or how they behave when seek- ing information. Rather, academic li- brarians also need to understand how to make the best use of research to improve the quality of their service. Thus, aca- demic librarians need to implement a management information initiative con- sisting of the identification of the data they need to make effective and efficient program/ services decisions as well as the methods to be used for gathering and analyzing the relevant data. Following that, they must make a commitment to actually use the data when making a decision rather than simply burying the data in files or reports. Without effective communications, customers are free to form their own ex- pectations, which may or may not be realistic. Unmet expectations not only cause dissatisfaction but also erode trust. A successful relationship between aca- demic librarians and their customers that is based upon open, regular, two- way communication includes trust as a key element. This enables librarians to effectively address customer expecta- tions, to the mutual benefit of both cus- tomers and the library. A principal approach to both earning trust and dealing with expectations is to manage promises. Librarians consis- tently must present honest and reliable messages about what they can and can- not do. It is essential that librarians not give students and faculty unrealistic ex- pectations and then fail to meet them. Academic librarians must first deter- mine what is possible in the area of serv- ice delivery, communicate that service message to students and faculty, and lastly deliver the service as promised. It is not sufficient to simply provide information about the library's products and services. Rather, it is necessary to define the library's products and serv- ices and to show students and faculty what benefits they get from using the library. Moreover, academic librarians should seriously consider offering a multitiered structure of products and services. At one end would be a quicker, more generic level of service provided at the information desk staffed by general- ist librarians and library assistants. The other end of the spectrum would be Customer Expectations 43 characterized by highly specialized in- depth reference or research support services provided by subject specialists on an appointment basis. If students and faculty hold unrealistic expectations of librarians and library services, it may be because of a compari- son they have made with providers of other types of services. Therefore, a com- prehensive information program relat- ing to products and services should alleviate this problem considerably. While such a program should greatly enhance the knowledge base of students and fac- ulty, librarians ought to consider a for- mal education program in addition to a program of bibliographic instruction. Thus, academic librarians should edu- cate students and faculty about when they are likely to need the library's prod- ucts and services as well as how they can be used most effectively. Not to be ex- cluded is a description of the service delivery process, providing an appro- priate and not overwhelming amount of information that explains the reasons for policies or procedures that could frus- trate students and faculty. Along with an explanation of the process, customers likewise need to know what is expected of them in service delivery transactions. STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCED COMMUNICATION Let us now turn to specific ways in which academic librarians can either in- itially establish or further enhance their communications with students and fac- ulty. Library staff who occupy prime public contact positions are key players . in establishing more effective communi- cations between the library and its cus- tomers. These staff members can serve as essential conduits of information in either direction, and they would do well to record customer compliments, com- plaints, concerns, needs, and expecta- tions, at least on a periodic basis. From their vantage point, these staff can act as both extensions of their customers and advocates for customers' needs. Academic librarians need to engage in a wide range of market research activi- ties that will help identify customer 44 College & Research Libraries needs and expectations. Focus groups have been shown effectively to provide insights and perceptions of service qual- ity. When working with focus groups, academic librarians should attempt to include not only experienced and inex- perienced users but also nonusers as well because the latter may have turned to alternate service providers. Other means include one-on-one interviews with customers, questionnaires, and complaints or compliments logs. One area in which most academic librarians could register improvement involves the strategic use of complaints. While it is easy to acknowledge and respond to cus- tomer complaints, how often are the situ- ations identified in complaints analyzed with the aim of instituting improve- ments? Complaints can serve as an inex- pensive and continuous source of adjustment to the service delivery proc- ess, and they give top managers a chance to hear complaints directly from customers. British Airways not only established customer complaint booths at its Heathrow Airport hub but customers also have the opportunity to record their complaints on video. However, com- plaints should be placed in the proper per- spective. Zeithaml et al. report that less than 5 percent of customers with service delivery problems formally register com- plaints with the service providers.26 Academic librarians have made fre- quent use of survey instruments to ob- tain customer input. However, the definition of customer should be ex- panded to include not only students and faculty but also the library staff, who, as internal customers, also receive service from their colleagues. Surveys obviously should attempt to measure customers' overall satisfaction. Loews Hotels cur- rently uses a customer satisfaction survey that is centered exclusively on customer expectations. More specifically, surveys should focus on staff courtesy and com- petence. In addition, libraries should give more attention to tracking customer satisfaction with individual service transactions by surveying customers im- mediately after the completion of the transaction. January 1995 Finally, most academic librarians have considerable experience with library committees as conduits of information. To address customer needs, wants, and expectations more adequately, librarians should consider the creation of customer panels representing segments of custom- ers. The key here is to view customers as forming segments based upon their dif- fering needs and situations. Perhaps most significant is the need not only to establish but also to maintain daily contact with a changing segment of a library's customer population. In smaller academic libraries, most staff are in direct contact with a significant per- centage of their customers on a daily basis. Thus, staff should take advantage of this highly favorable situation· by fo- cusing on and improving their listening and general communication skills. A one-day staff development workshop dealing with this area could be ex- tremely beneficial to customers, staff, and the library itself. STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCED MANAGEMENT In conjunction with the development of ongoing relationships with their stu- dents and faculty, academic librarians should also undertake several new in- itiatives in the area of management or administration. In this area, librarians have greater control over the key rele- vant factors; as a result, they are better able to produce significant results. Key areas on which librarians should focus include service quality, management systems, decision making and supervi- sion, and staff interpersonal relations. While technology will remain central to academic library operations, librari- ans must also direct considerable atten- tion toward the concept of service quality. Basically, academic librarians will need to undertake a comprehensive self-examination to ensure that their service delivery systems coincide with and are appropriate to students' and fac- ulty members' expectations and needs. The result likely will be a realignment of policies and management systems aimed to reinforce service quality. As a part of this, librarians will clarify customer service priorities (based upon the results of customer research), establish more convincingly the idea of the library's ac- countability to students and faculty among other constituencies, promote calculated risk taking, and eliminate su- perfluous checks and balances. Hearing complaints and other input directly from customers provides library managers with a more compelling reason to work with other staff for the modification of the service delivery process. Consequently, librarians will be en- gaged in the rather uncommon task of setting service priorities and attainable service quality targets. Accompanying this will be a redeployment of resources after customers have identified the vary- ing degrees of importance they attach to the services offered by the librarians. Thus, library staff not only will see their work responsibilities redesigned as tasks that add no value for the customer are eliminated but they also will partici- pate in a performance evaluation proc- ess that is directly linked to service quality. Finally, the academic library that wishes to remain a viable provider of services to students and faculty will need to completely integrate its serv- ices. This can be accomplished by physi- cally locating them together to enhance communication with and understanding for customers who then will experience reduced travel times and distances when using services that are related. Librarians could consider the creation of a single serv- ice point for reference and information services (without regard for material for- mat) and interlibrary loan/ document delivery. While staff who have special- ized expertise in some of these areas would continue to work, the customer would perceive a seamless provision of service based on fewer divisions. As librarians in large academic librar- ies conduct their self-study of manage- ment systems, many will find that Customer Expectations 45 organizational structures may be suffi- ciently complex and bureaucratic to im- pede the provision of quality services. One manifestation of this problem is an excessively high number of staff with no direct contact with students, faculty, and other customers. In addition, too many levels of management may inhibit both upward and downward communication between managers and service person- nel. Particular attention should be given to either the reconfiguration or elimina- tion of these nonservice positions. Like- wise, top managers need to ensure that staff in public contact positions forward customer input to managers. In addi- tion, those managers should adopt a practice common to executives in other service industries such as retailing and lodging-periodically spending time in positions that provide direct contact with the public. Hearing complaints and other input directly from customers pro- vides library managers with a more com- pelling reason to work with other staff for the modification of the service deliv- ery process. Academic libraries are not apprecia- bly different from the majority of service or manufacturing organizations often characterized by a rather rigid hierarchi- cal structure for decision making. Typi- cal environments involve one or more managers who make policy or proce- dure decisions, with or without input from staff in key public contact posi- tions, and who then direct the staff hav- ing responsibility for implementing those policies or procedures. Upper-level academic library manag- ers need to confront the issue of control, and simultaneously realize that for to- day's leaders the element of control no longer occupies such a central position. Although it may be considered some- what trite, the concept of staff empower- ment definitely has merit and is worthy of consideration by most academic li- brarians. Perhaps the most extreme (in a positive sense) situation is one in which staff at the library's various service points possess the flexibility needed for resolving service problems that they encounter. Decision-making authority 46 College & Research Libraries should be pushed down to the lowest level possible so that staff involved in direct contact with customers possess the ability to make those decisions that directly affect their operations, their cus- tomers, and themselves. In many librar- ies, however, evolution rather than revolution may be more appropriate. In those instances, managers need to in- volve as many staff as possible, empha- size teamwork, and, in general, create a cooperative, nonconfrontational, par- ticipative work environment. Managers also need to provide proper training if this empowerment is to succeed. Staff interpersonal relations is by no means the least significant area upon which academic librarians should focus in order to enhance customer satisfaction and meet customer expectations. In fact, this may be the most critical element if it is valid to assume that the overall work en- vironment is largely responsible for the degree to which library staff attempt to promote customer satisfaction. As mentioned earlier, no effort to en- hance customer satisfaction will succeed unless students and faculty are con- vinced that library staff, as service providers, care about the quality of serv- ice they provide and the manner in which they do it. However, library staff will not demonstrate a high degree of commitment and caring unless they be- lieve that library management cares about the staff as well. Simply put, cus- January 1995 tomer satisfaction equals employee sat- isfaction. Library managers need to en- sure that they provide · staff with sufficient incentives to do things right and to promote customer satisfaction. In addition, managers must treat their col- leagues with respect and trust, as human beings rather than mere agents em- ployed in carrying out tasks. Lastly, each academic library that is successful in meeting customer expectations will rec- ognize and reward people not only for their performance but also for identify- ing problems and developing solutions. One other strategy that library manag- ers should use involves human re- sources. Hiring officials should make a concerted effort to employ frontline staff who possess excellent interpersonal skills together with a strong service ori- entation. For continuing staff, managers have the obligation to provide the proper training that will result in en- hanced service. The shift from a perspective centered on either collections or systems to a focus on students and faculty as customers rep- resents a formidable challenge for aca- demic librarians and their colleagues. However, just as library staff have learned to cope with declining budgets and ma- nipulate a dizzying amount of information resources and technology, so too can they successfully make the transition to estab- lishing customer satisfaction as their over- riding goal. REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. Charles B. Osburn, "Issues of Structure and Control in the Scholarly Communication System," Library Quarterly 54 Gan. 1984): 90. 2. Douglas Zweizig, "With Our Eye on the User: Needed Research for Information and Referral in the Public Library," Drexel Library Quarterly 12 Gan. 1976}: 48-58. 3. Russell Shank, "New Expectations from Users of Academic Libraries," in Priorities for Academic Libraries, ed. Thomas J. Galvin and Beverly P. Lynch (San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 1982), 25-34. 4. Andrew Green, "What Do We Mean by User Needs?" British Journal of Academic Librarian- ship 5, no.2 (1990): 65-78. 5. Donald W. King and Vernon E. Palmour, "User Behavior," in Changing Patterns in Informa- tion Retrieval, ed. Carol Fenichel (Washington, D.C.: American Society for Information Science, 1974), 7-33. 6. Green, "What Do We Mean by User Needs?" 76. 7. Ibid. 8. Philip Rzasa and Norman Baker, "Measures of Effectiveness for a University Library," Journal of the American Society for Information Science 23 Guly I Aug. 1972): 248-53. Customer Expectations 47 9. Robert W. Burns, Jr. "Library Use as a Performance Measure: Its Background and Rationale," Journal of Academic Librarianship 4 (Mar. 1978): 4-11. 10. Jeffrey E. Disend, How to Provide Excellent Service in Any Organization (Radnor, Pa.: Chilton, 1991). 11. Valarie Zeithaml, Leonard Berry, and A. Parasuraman, "Communication and Control Proc- esses in the Delivery of Service Quality," Journal of Marketing 52 (Apr. 1988): 38. 12. J. Douglas Adamson, "Creating the Unexpected ... and Moving beyond Perceptions," Bank Marketing 20 (Dec. 1988): 4-5. 13. Valarie Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard Berry, Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations (New York: Free Pr., 1990), 19. 14. A. Parasuraman, Leonard Berry, and Valarie Zeithaml, "Understanding Customer Expecta- tions of Service," Sloan Management Review 32 (Spring 1991): 39-48. 15. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, Delivering Quality Service, 20. 16. Kathleen Sanford, "The Customer Isn't Always Right," Supervisory Management 34 (Oct. 1989): 30. 17. Parasuraman, Berry, and Zeithaml, "Understanding Customer Expectations," 39. 18. Valarie Zeithaml, Leonard Berry, and A. Parasuraman, The Nature and Determinants of Customer Expectations of Service (Cambridge, Mass.: Marketing Science Institute, 1991). 19. Michael D. Johnson and Claes Fornell, "A Framework for Comparing Customer Satisfaction across Individuals and Product Categories," Journal of Economic Psychology 12(June 1991): 276. 20. Ibid., 275. 21. Ruth N. Bolton and James H. Drew, "A Multistage Model of Customers' Assessments of Service Quality and Value," Journal of Consumer Research 17 (Mar. 1991): 383. 22. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, Delivering Quality Service, 40. 23. Shank, "New Expectations from Users," 25. 24. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, Delivering Quality Service, 125. 25. Joan Uhlenberg, "Redefining Customer Expectations," Quality 31 (Sept. 1992): 34. 26. Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, Delivering Quality Service, 60. Fornm: IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES OF COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES Potential Collection Development Bias: Some Evidence on a Controversial Topic in California David A. Harmeyer, with responses from three academic librarians Job Satisfaction among Support Staff in Michigan Academic Libraries Julie Voelck Archimedes: Analysis of a HyperCard Reference Tool Jim Ottaviani TIME OUTSIDE CONSIDER .0 . N G HELP? UNCATALOGED. MATERIALS. Tedtnical reports. Difficult foriDats. Foreign language items. Special collections. 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