Customer Service Training for Frontline Staff

After you attend this course, you’ll be able to:

• Initiate connections and conversations with patrons.
  
  
• Understand the key role of customer service in libraries and how to improve your customer service excellence.
  
  
• Respond to common issues with kindness, empathy, and confidence.
  
  
• Grow your emotional intelligence skills to increase work relationships.
  
  
• Use nonviolent communication to diffuse difficult patron interactions.
  
  
• Conduct yourself professionally over phone and email.
  
  
• Maintain your personal boundaries without sacrificing excellent customer service.
  
  

Thursday, September 18

Session 1 | 12:00-1:00 pm ET
The Why and How of Customer Service: Responding to Common Issues
How do you initiate a connection or conversation with someone? Why is customer service pivotal for library workers, and how can you improve your service excellence? And how can you respond to common issues that arise with patrons? This introductory session will highlight small, tangible ways you can enhance your customer service skills and build relationships with library users.

Session 2 | 1:00-1:45 pm ET
Customer Service and Relationships: Building Emotional Intelligence
What is emotional intelligence and how can it help you improve your customer service? How do you work toward growing emotional intelligence when it's such an amorphous concept? This session will explore practical ways to grow your self-awareness, interpersonal skills, and emotional intelligence to create and build trust with colleagues and library users.

Break | 1:45-2:00 pm ET

Session 3 | 2:00-2:45 pm ET
De-escalation Techniques: Communication and Customer Service in Difficult Situations
What is the role of communication in customer service, and what kind of communication is best to facilitate connection? What is nonviolent communication, and how can it help diffuse difficult patron interactions? This session will discuss tangible ways to de-escalate situations and navigate customer service during conflict and tension.

Session 4 | 2:45-3:30 pm ET
Phone and Email Etiquette
How do you conduct yourself professionally on the phone and over email? The answer might seem obvious to some, but these are learned skills that shouldn't be taken for granted. This session will cover practical tips for maintaining excellent phone and email communication and customer service.

Session 5 | 3:45-4:30 pm ET
The Customer Isn't Always Right: Self-Care and Boundaries
How do you determine when the customer isn't right, and then what do you do to move forward? How do you maintain your personal boundaries and self-care all while in a customer service role? This session will give you practical tips for identifying if and when a library user is worth keeping and how to focus on employee needs alongside customer service. We will also discuss ways to articulate your boundaries and identify ways to care for yourself while at work.

Closing Remarks | 4:30-4:35 pm ET

Who should take this course

This course is geared toward frontline and other public-facing staff.

This will be a half-day online course and will include:

• Live Sessions: Guest speaker presentations by leaders in their field. (All sessions are recorded for on demand access for six months after the course ends.)
  
  
• Facilitated discussions: Audience participation in Q&A and discussion with guest speakers.
  
  
• Early access on-demand resources: Access to a series of past live session archives from Library Journal and School Library Journal courses to explore at your own pace.
  
  
• Online Classroom: The virtual learning platform that holds all course content and is accessible for six months after the course ends.

Expected time commitment

If you attend or watch the recordings of all live sessions, you'll spend approximately 4 hours on this course. You'll earn 4 hours of PD credit and a Library Journal certificate of completion.

On-demand access

All live guest speaker sessions are recorded and available on-demand for six months following the initial broadcast as a part of your purchase.

Certificate of completion

Complete the course and earn 4 professional development credit hours. We provide a certificate that is emailed to you.

Accessibility

All guest speaker sessions feature auto captioning and are made available on demand after the initial broadcast. Please email course-support@libraryjournal.com upon registration if you require any special accommodations and we will make our best efforts to facilitate them.

Support

For support with online courses, please contact course-support@libraryjournal.com.

From Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 Participants:

"Really great! I'm glad to have had speakers with different backgrounds to gain different perspectives on the subject."

"I thought that everything was wonderful. The information gathered was amazing!"

"I got many great ideas and reminders that are applicable takeaways that I can share with my colleagues."

"This course filled in the blanks for me. Prior to this course the mantra of our library was always "the patron comes first". I think this course empowered us to make things healthier and safer for ourselves and the patrons."

"It was nice seeing a balanced course to help me improve my skills communicating and offering great customer service but also that there should be boundaries and sometimes it is okay to say no."

"Truly appreciated the variety of information presented, thank you!"

"I really liked that I came away with directly applicable strategies to improve customer service."

"Customer service is so valuable to all of us, each and every day. Any opportunity to get more insight is fantastic."

Discounted rates are available for a limited time only. Secure your tickets now to lock in the best price.

Group Rates

We offer discounts for groups of 3 or more.

For larger groups of 15 or more, we offer the option to apply group rates across multiple courses to receive significant discounts. For more information, select “Bulk Course Credits Packages” in the form below.

Request Discounted Group Pricing

For support with group purchases, please contact groupsales@libraryjournal.com.