Staff Focus-Customer Service Co-ordinator

This month we focus on......

This month's Bennett Blurb newsletter focuses on customer service. Whether you are a public, academic, specialist or government library, James Bennett is renowned for our superb customer service in the library supply chain. We have the service - and the experience - you need to provide your own patrons, colleagues and staff with a successful and popular library service.

This month we're introducing you to Claire McManaway. She answered some general questions in the Bennett Blurb but she also allowed us to do our own profile of her, here in The Bennett Blog. How did she get to where she is now? What makes her tick? Read on and discover for yourself.

Name: Claire McManaway
Position: Customer Co-ordinator (Academic)

When did you start at James Bennett? A few years ago...about 11-12 years!
What were your previous roles (here or elsewhere)? Inbooks Customer Service, Data entry (Order Services), Operations, Binner in the Warehouse. I was about 15kg lighter - all that walking helped!
Describe your job: Answering to the needs of all our wonderful customers. We are here to help!
What do you enjoy most about your job?Completing that email. Finishing things off and getting a result. It’s great when you get a reply back thanking you for your efforts. We are stars and angels with a couple of awesomes in between .
Describe James Bennett in five words? OMG, we are the best!
What would you like customers to know about the work you do? That we are reliable as individuals and as a team. Finding those hard titles that you know are out there somewhere - it’s just putting your finger on it and hopefully being able to purchase it on behalf of the customer. We do source far and wide and are always looking for the best possible price. Getting results is always great. And things do take time…
What are the challenges you are facing? Keeping up with Claims!
What gets you excited about your day? Coming to work at James Bennett is great, we have a great location, friendly staff. We do have lovely customers from all walks of life, most of them I have never meet, but when we speak to them on the phone or via email it like I have known them for years. Most of my customers are listed on my phone so I know when you ring…
What books do you like to read? Suspense and action.
Do you have a favourite author? Robert Ludlum.
Last book you read? The Help.
Currently reading? The Most Wanted Man.
On the wishlist? (Keeping in mind this was a book question.....) That the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup 2011

(Well, Claire, they did - by a point!)

We hope you enjoyed reading about Claire and what it's like to work behind the scenes in Customer Service. What staff member would you like to see a Focus On here on the Bennett Blog or in our newsletter service? Contact Marketing and we'll see what we can do!

JAMES BENNETT

Your Library Vendor of Choice in the Australasian marketplace 

Library & Information Week

Congratulations to all librarians - this is your week!  

We so love the tagline this year: "We Find Stuff".  It says it all really.  We read somewhere it was considered controversial, which was a little surprising.  Isn't that what you do?!!  You find stuff, you catalogue stuff, you look up stuff, you research stuff, you know stuff!  What an amazing thing you do.

We were reminded of the important role librarians play when we came across a wonderful website recently that had gift ideas for librarians.  No doubt many of our customers will have already discovered it (afterall, you "find stuff"!) but the reason we mention it here is the fun t-shirt and other promotional items they had listed that said "Librarian: the original search engine".  The word itself was often made to look like the Google logo.  Clever.  But true wouldn't you say?!

We also liked "be nice to your librarian, it could mean the difference between a right and wrong answer" and we couldn't help chuckling at "Librarian by Day, Deadly Ninja by Night".  Needless to say, a wide range of materials were on offer and there's many more sayings we could share with you, but we digress.

It's Library & Information Week.  And as Australia's largest and leading library supplier to public, academic, specialist, government and reference libraries, we're celebrating with you.  Afterall, as your support network, don't we help you "find stuff" or at least source the raw materials on your behalf?  We work with thousands of suppliers locally and internationally and sometimes we know what it's like to be finding a needle in a haystack.  But we do it.  You expect it of us.  And together we can put the workflows and systems in place that help you "find stuff" for your patrons every day.

Library and information services are important to us.  And we are here to support your efforts.  Tell us about what you're doing.  If you're on Facebook, Twitter or here on Blogger, link your site to us.  And that goes for our publishing partners too.  We're all in this industry together, let's have some fun, share the joy of reading, spread the word about our products and services, and ensure future generations love books, their libraries and the world in which they live. 

WIN LIBRARY SCIENCE BOOKS THIS WEEK!

For those of you reading this blog during Library and Information Week 23 - 29 May 2011 click on our Facebook page, follow us, and comment on our Library & Information Week post by telling us What Library & Information Week means to you.  The winning entry will receive $200 worth of nominated library science books from Facet Publishing, Libraries Unlimited, ALA, Neal Schuman - thanks to our Inbooks business unit, also proudly supporting Library and Information Week.  The winner will be announced the following week and naturally some conditions apply.  Make sure you let us know what library you are from when you comment and keep an eye on those Facebook feeds for news on this and many more promotions from James Bennett.