I subscribe to the This Is Broken blog, which focuses on customer experience. It usually reports examples of bad customer experiences, and makes a comment or two about the experience. Sorta interesting.
Anyway, Denver Public Library appeared! According to the post: “I received an email from the Denver Public Library notifying me that a book was 10 days overdue. At .25 cents a day, I now owe $2.50 in fines.”
Then a question is asked: “Why is the notice sent so long after the fact? Clearly the focus of the system is to extract fines and not the return of their material.”
Ok, ok – here’s my take: is it possible that the patron didn’t see the first couple of emails, didn’t take the automated phone message, and ignored the snail mail overdue notice? Possibly. Is it possible that the above scenario happened exactly as reported? Possibly!
With the whole experience thing – figure this out! How does your overdue notice appear to customers/patrons? Does it show up after the fact? Does it look like you want the money, rather than the return of the book? How can you improve that experience for the customer?