bluesyemre

Anyone who has seen High Fidelity remembers how rude and snobby the clerks of John Cusack’s record store were. So what do they have to teach libraries about customer service? Fostering a culture of discovery through passionate and knowledgeable customer service and creative reader’s advisory are things libraries could learn from record stores. During one memorable scene in the film, the store is crowded with people browsing for items. One clerk, Jack Black, animatedly piles records on a customer, inspired to choose “better” albums than the one for which the customer asked. Another clerk describes all the albums that influenced a particular band, even playing one of the albums for the impressed customer. A third puts on a song and comments to his coworker, “I will now sell five copies of…[this] EP,” and moments later someone shouts across the store to ask what band is playing. People visit record stores for the knowledgeable staff and air of discovery that comes from browsing and the unique merchandising. Libraries can cultivate these same qualities.

http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2015/10/what-libraries-can-learn-from-record-stores/