Submitted by admin-boss on
Managing the patron queue can be difficult, particularly as AskAway gets busier. We're all committed to providing the best patron experience possible and sometimes this means holding back a moment when a new question arrives to ensure it's picked up by the librarian best suited to answer that question. Here's some tips compiled by Myfanwy Postgate, one of our BC ELN AskAway librarians...
10 Tips for Picking Up Patrons
Submitted by admin-boss on
We're getting into the busy part of the term and we're seeing shifts with 20-30 questions per hour. Here's a few strategies to help ease the burden on AskAway service providers and stressed patrons during this time of year...
1. Log into Campfire! In Campfire you're able to quickly communicate with all your AskAway colleagues online.
2. Swamped Scripts. Pick up patrons as quickly as you can, preferably before 60 seconds have passed, and use the swamped scripts to manage patron expectations and queue flow.
Submitted by admin-boss on
As requested by many AskAway service providers, the AskAway Librarians' Portal has been upgraded and reorganised!
Please take a few minutes before your next shift to look over the new website.
If you had the main page of the old portal bookmarked, you'll find that your link now takes you to the Staff Tools section of the website. This page contains links to the webpages that you are most likely to use as an AskAway service provider.
Submitted by admin-boss on
This term, AskAway patrons will be presented with a different exit survey. The exit survey appears as a popunder window after the chat session is completed.
The questions in the new survey are more relevant to our specific service. Please see below for a list of all of the questions and the possible answers.
Please note: in the lists below, a circle denotes radio buttons (only one answer can be chosen), and a square denotes checkboxes (more than one answer can be chosen).
AskAway Patron Exit Survey
Submitted by admin-boss on
In preparation for the new term, a new service-wide script has been added to assist you in dealing with prank questions.
What is a prank question?
Any inappropriate question that is not actually obscene, abusive or threatening.
E.g. Are you fat? Are you hot?
Here is the text of the new script:
Problem - Prank
This service is for questions related to library use. You are welcome to use the AskAway service if you have such a question.
Submitted by admin-boss on
In response to feedback from service providers, three new service-wide scripts have been added relating to service limits and rude or threatening patron behaviour. Although we have an extremely low incidence of difficult patron behaviour, if it does happen you don't want to be fumbling around for what to say! These are the same scripts used by public library AskAway staff.
Ref - Service Limits
Submitted by admin-boss on
The following script has been added to the service-wide shared scripts in the chat monitor:
Ref - Great Northern Way
Submitted by admin-boss on
As suggested by AskAway patrons, a list of sample questions has just been linked from the viewport (i.e. the page that patrons see when they ask a question on AskAway).
There are two kinds, Sample Questions and Sample Questions for which we can provide limited assistance.
If you'd like to see them, here is the link:
http://www.eln.bc.ca/vr_portal/samplequestions.html
Submitted by admin-boss on
The following scripts have been added to the available consortium-wide scripts:
TechTrouble - Refresh browser
It looks like you are disconnecting from this chat session. If this is not your intention, please click the Refresh button on your browser.
TechTrouble - Returned from Refresh browser error
Thanks for coming back to Askaway! If the same technical problem occurs again, please try refreshing your browser.
Full Text Access
Submitted by admin-boss on
The following scripts have been added to the available consortium-wide scripts:
TechTrouble - Anticipated
I am going to [describe action here], which may break our chat session. If we are disconnected, please come back to Askaway.
TechTrouble - Pushing PDF
The following page contains a link to a PDF. Please cut and paste the following address to a new window, then click the link to open the PDF. PDFs often break the chat window.
TechTrouble - Cookie Error
