7.11 Enquiries services
Enquiries services are a way of responding to requests for
information from users who cannot come to the resource centre.
Enquiries may be received by telephone, post, fax or e-mail.
It is useful to develop a standard enquiries form to ensure
that the resource centre has all the necessary details of what
is required.
If the user is clear about what they want, it should be easy
to send the information they require, if the necessary materials
are in the resource centre, and there is a system for lending
materials or sending photocopies.
However, it may be necessary to find out more clearly what
is required. If the enquiry is made by phone, questions can
be asked over the phone. Otherwise staff can write back, seeking
clarification. For more details of the questions to ask, see
Section 7.4.2: How to carry out a literature search.
It is usually worth preparing standard responses to enquiries
on subjects that the resource centre receives a lot of enquiries
about. A standard letter could be sent, perhaps accompanied
by photocopies of useful articles. If facilities are available,
it might be possible to produce one or more leaflets, booklets
or information packs (see Section 7.12),
to answer frequently asked questions. The user could be asked
to contact the resource centre again if they need more information.
Enquiries services need to be monitored, to feed into the overall
evaluation of the resource centre (see
Section 9: Monitoring and evaluation). Keeping records of
enquiries provides useful information for developing information
services, and information about the needs of the users. The
task of monitoring enquiries is made easier if enquiries forms
are completed as each enquiry is made, and the information on
the forms is collated every month.
TIP: Handling telephone enquiries
You may receive enquiries by telephone. When you answer a telephone:
- Have an enquiries form and pen ready.
- Give the name of the resource centre, and greet the caller.
- Write down the caller’s name, and the date and time
of the call.
- Listen to what the caller says and make notes.
- Ask for further details if necessary, and read back to the
caller the message you have written down.
- If the caller has to be kept waiting, give reassurances
from time to time, so that they do not think they have been
cut off or are being ignored.
- If the query cannot be dealt with immediately, write down
the caller's telephone number, offer to ring them back and,
if necessary, explain what will happen in the meantime.
- Ensure that the enquiries form is completed with details
of the enquiry and the information you have provided.
next: 7.12 Information packs
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