1. Retailing Methods and Techniques in Libraries

2. The Product One main problem that libraries face is recognizing that they provide a product. Successful retailers realize what product they will provide and they maximize sales as a result. Products that retailers sell is developed for satisfying demand real or created.

3. Two Important Steps Retailers Take to Determine Their Product Determine a market for that product.  Age  Sex  Educational Level  Physical Location Verify if your product will sell.  If an organization can satisfy latent demand for a product.  Creating a potential demand.

4. What are some products that a library provides Circulating Material  Books, Magazines  CD, DVD, Audio Books Programming  Summer Reading, Brown Bag Programs, BPL @ Night  Alabama Bound, Gallery Exhibits, The Langum Project Computer Access  PC’s, Digital Collections, Wi – Fi Hot Spots, Downloadable Audio books, Social Networking (Blogs, Flickr, RSS, IM, MS, You Tube)

5. What are some products that a library provides Information Services  Reference Services, Ask A Librarian, Homework Alabama  Alabama Virtual Library, Library of Congress  Reader’s Advisory, Internet Public Library Customer Service  Library as a community center  Maintaining customer confidentiality regarding personal information requests or borrows  Assisting customers w/o questioning reasons for needing specific information.

6. PAR: Process that allows one to allocate resources for full benefit. PLAN ACT REVIEW

7. Retailing In The Library Plan  Creating a plan to achieve a desired product. Act  Now is the time to act. Review  Once you have acted, the most important step is to review whether your plan and action will be a success.

8. Management Short - Long Term Planning  Setting goals within an organization. Control Revenue  Fines, Prints/Copies, FAX, Lost Items, Cash Register Functions Control & Cuts Costs  Proper budgeting; hope for increase in your budget. Finances & Employees  Cash handling; use of ledgers. Workflow  Hard work and efficiency when given job tasks to perform.

9. Delivering The Product Three aspects for delivering the product.  Greet the customer.  Identify the customer needs.  Close the deal and satisfy the customer’s needs. As a driven salesperson, librarians should desire adequately to meet the customer’s needs to keep them coming back.

10. Librarians as a Salesperson Create Value  Creating a lasting value to the customers by providing a product and a delivery method that fully satisfies the customer’s demand. Creating The Atmosphere  Accessibility, Awareness, and Sense of Urgency Increasing Return Customers  Speak well of your organization  Constituting sales base from which one can grow sales.  Validating your organizations effectiveness in creating value for your customers which is a result of satisfying the customers needs.

11. Librarians as a Salesperson Developing Customer Awareness  Advertising (“Preserving The Past, Exploring The Future”)  Creating a buzz in the community about the library Visibility  Library staff recognizable in the communities Measuring Output/Productivity  Output Measures  Library Reports (M, Q, A)  Collection Management

12. Measuring Output/Productivity This is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the product and service we provide. Companies always want to know how a product did in previous years, and they’re curious about 5 yr. trends in particular markets.  Evaluating Staff productivity  Output Measures Measuring output and productivity is a good way to evaluate past and future products that a company creates.

13. Measuring Output/Productivity

14. Accountability Indicators In a private sector, two types of indicators are used:  Key Indicators (Leading Indicators) Indicators that predicts future activity.  Lag Indicators Indicators that reflects measures of current or past activity. The two indicators are examples of how an organization goal can be turned into measurable objectives and how these objectives can be made into accountability indicators.

15. Marketing Attitude Retailers and Libraries functions are similar, but the attitudes of both are very different.  Empowerment  Sense of urgency and expectation of effort  We “fight” hard to provide superior service  Reduce costs  Excel when opportunities present themselves  Work diligently and “fight” to create value for external/internal customers  Be proactive and head off problems before they become problems.  Make the organization customer-driven.  Concentrate on what we do

16. Management Goals and Objectives Goal 1:  To increase the percentage of our users that use our library services online by introducing products that can drive online use by our customers. Objective: To measure the increased percentage of users that access library services online.  Lag Indicator: For the last 2 years, we’ve seen a small increase about 5% per year in the percentage of users that use our online services. 10% of users currently access online services.  Key Indicator: We’ve added more services this year including audio books that can be downloaded to an MP3 players. Soon we’ll be adding access to download DVD’s from home.  We anticipate a 100% increase in online use, and 20% of our customers will be utilizing products we make available online.

17. BPL’s Goals and Objectives Goal 1:  Circulation and Membership statistics from 2002 to 2004. Objective: To evaluate the impact of circulation services and to increase circulation and membership statistics.  Lag Indicator: From 2002 to 2004, circulation was down (22.8% and 10.6%). From 2005 to 2006, circulation rose a small percentage.  Key Indicator: We’ve added new functions to increase circ. activity across the JCLC library system.  Online registration for new members, promoting library services to residents (Hispanic community), conduct aggressive membership campaign, continuing the improvement of appearance, collections, and services of the libraries to attract more users.  By 2006, all patrons will have access to all circulating materials throughout the library system.

18. In Conclusion, How does a library develop a product mix?  By allocating resources based on a plan How does us a library satisfy a customer’s needs?  By creating an experience or atmosphere What do sales principles have to do with libraries?  They ascertain a need or demand How can I be more effective?  Visibility