132: Alison Circle, Columbus Metropolitan Library

Today’s guest shares how Columbus Metropolitan Library creates an environment that’s attractive, comfortable, and relevant to today’s rapidly-changing needs and lifestyles. Columbus Metropolitan Library: Creating a community around knowledge To remain relevant and attractive in today’s world, organizations of all kinds need to rethink the ideal customer experience often. And in some cases, they must rethink the way they do business. Libraries are no exception. But sadly, most have not changed much with the times. Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) has maintained impressive membership and attendance rates in spite of a growing belief (currently about 66% of Americans) that libraries aren’t important to their lives. Why visit a physical library in today’s connected world? As Chief Customer Experience Officer, Alison Circle has brought a wealth of marketing and customer experience wisdom to CML. By tuning into the changing needs of members and the communities they serve, libraries like CML are providing comfortable and rich experiences that can’t be delivered through your laptop. For CML, customer-centric thinking creates an environment that inspires and strengthens communities by answering to their rapidly-evolving quest for knowledge. Alison shares some of the ways innovative architecture, engagement, and processes have brought a sustainable experience strategy to an age-old industry. Listen to Alison’s fascinating story and learn what CML has done to differentiate their experience from traditional libraries. About our guest Alison Circle, Chief Customer Experience Officer for Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML), has more than 25 years marketing experience. For 13 years she was National Marketing Director for Garrison Keillor and "A Prairie Home Companion.” Following that she was Creative Director and Account Director at Jack Morton Worldwide, a global branding agency. In 2004 she joined CML as Director of Marketing and Strategic Planning. In that capacity she rebranded the organization and won over 20 national and international awards for her work. In 2010 that work was recognized with the Library Journal’s Library of the Year and in 2011 she was named a Library Journal “Mover & Shaker.” She is an in-demand speaker on issues of libraries, customer experience and design. In 2012 she was promoted to Chief Customer Experience Officer where she serves on the Executive Leadership Team and oversees 23 library locations, Marketing and all programs and products.  She leads programming, experience and design for the library’s building program for 10 buildings, including the Main Library. Most recently she has launched a Customer First philosophy to lead CML to a new level of customer experience. Explore and connect with the Columbus Metropolitan Library Twitter Facebook Instagram Pinterest YouTube Columbus Metropolitan Library website Related Content Customers That Stick® Post, What the Gainesville Police Officer Teaches Us About Customer Service 360Connext® post, 3 Ways to Let Customers Guide Your Greatest Innovation Episode 125: How Environment Impacts Experience Poll: Two-Thirds of Americans Think Closing Libraries Wouldn’t Impact Them, Their Families Sponsor message: Give your team the customer service training they deserve Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.   Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices