Anyone who’s ever shopped online has seen the chat button – just a click away from answers or help in real time.
HPL is borrowing an idea from our friends in retail and will offer a new chat service to provide an extra layer of service to our customers.
The service, called LibChat, is available throughout HPL’s website. Customers can type their questions into a text box and, during certain hours, receive an answer from a librarian in real time. Customers will be directed to a FAQ page when librarians are not available to answer questions (rest assured that a librarian will answer questions once they are back online.)
The global pandemic prompted HPL to seek out new and innovative ways to keep in touch with their customers when the library was closed. A chat service is a good tool to help accomplish that goal.
Online chat will not be the only way to communicate with HPL. This service also allows people to text their questions to a librarian.
LibChat was live on the website for the past couple of weeks as a kind of soft launch, said Julie Styles, manager of public services at HPL’s Downtown Library. Thus far, people wanted to check on the library’s status or learn how to use the collections from home, she said. Nothing different from usual, but Styles and her team are ready for anything.
“I am excited to see what happened when we start to roll this out a little bit. We answer questions all day long. That’s what we do,” Julie Styles, manager of public services at HPL’s Downtown Library.
By Steven Scarpa, Manager of Communications and Public Relations
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