(This article reprinted from New England Libraries, Vol. 3, No. 2: February, 2007.)
FISHing for Customer Service
by Cheryl Bryan
At the recent ALA midwinter meetings in Seattle, Leslie Berger's President's program featured the FISH! customer service model. It seems a training group was in Seattle working on a film when, like many tourists, they visited Pike Place Market. They were struck by the enthusiasm in both the workers and the customers at the fish market, and an inspirational film and customer service model were born.
The film FISH! features the fish market guys talking about how they made the decision that they could show up at 5am and work with dead fish every day or they could make their market world famous. They choose world famous and decided the best way to do that was by having fun at work and creating the best experience they could for shoppers at the market. So what can Librarians learn from fishmongers?
First, the fishmongers point out that every day we all choose our attitude about work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself. Everyone can make their own decisions about this but I don't think anything we do at the library is more unpleasant than handling cold, dead fish. At the world famous Pike Place Fish Market they played a practical joke on a co-worker one day and started repeating orders and throwing the fish to the guy to ring up purchases. Now they are famous for it, and they regularly invite the customers to join in the fun. A friend of mine actually showed up at the market at 5am so she could have the experience of working for free with those world famous fish throwers. There is always a choice about the way you do the work, even when there is no choice about the work itself. We can choose the attitude we bring to our work.
How do the fishmongers choose their attitude? They play at work! And they involve the customers in their fun. Do I think the librarians went home to throw books around in their libraries – of course not! But we are in the best place in the community for people to continue their learning; can we use our creativity to make our interactions with information and our users more playful?
The third principle we can learn at the Pike Place Fish Market is "make their day". Visiting the Market that evening after the program one thing struck me – everyone was smiling as they stood around the fish stall listening, laughing at the workers' jokes, tasting and buying fish. Working in libraries we are in an excellent place to make our users' day. As the program speaker, Deena Ebbert, kept repeating, "You have what you need, what are you going to do with it?"
The fourth and final principle is "be present for your coworkers and customers". I had my own experience of this when I was wandering around trying to find a particular vendor at the Market. The fish market guy assigned to be in front of the booth (and I did recognize him from the film) said, "How you doing?" When I replied, "Confused", he gave me perfect directions to the booth on another floor of the building. Was that selling fish? No. Would I return there for any purchases of fish I did make? You bet. He was simply noticing and responding to what was going on around him – sounds simple, but how often do we miss such opportunities for positive interactions with our co-workers and our users?
So that is why over a thousand librarians sat entranced while a group of fishmongers explained their very basic tenants of customer service to us. Your goal may or may not be a world famous library, but if we all followed their excellent advice we'd enjoy our hours at work more and improve our reputation with our users.