Customer Service
Our key customer service policies and guidelines, including the Library’s Code of conduct, are listed below.
Service standards
We have updated our service standards to put the focus on you and the way that you work. You want to be sure that resources, space and support will be available to you when you need them. For example, that books will be reshelved as quickly as possible, that a reading list will be ready when teaching starts, and that if you have an urgent question, you’ll get an immediate response from a member of Library staff.
And we want to go further. Please let us know if there’s anything else that you’d like to see as one of our customer service standards using the form at the bottom of this page. What is most important to you about what we are providing and the way that we’re doing it?
We will identify any dips in performance against our standards and explain why this is, together with the action we are taking to put things right and prevent further recurrence. We will review our service standards every summer.
| Service area | Standard | 19-20 | 20-21 | 21-22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening hours | The building will be open 100% of our advertised opening hours | 99% | n/a* | 100% |
| Timeliness | NEW (past data unavailable): We will respond to 100% of emails sent to library@sussex.ac.uk within three working days |
- | - | 100% |
| NEW: 100% of the time, our first response to a question through the chat service will take one minute or less | 95% | 95% | 93% | |
| Customer satisfaction | NEW: Our average chat rating will be 4 out of 5 or higher (what the platform identifies as a 'Great chat') | 4.77 | 4.82 | 4.85 |
| NEW: We will be above the national average for students answering yes to question 19 in the NSS: 'The library resources (e.g. books, online services and learning spaces) have supported my learning well' | -2% | +1% | +2% | |
| Access to resources | 100% of reading lists submitted by the deadline will be reviewed for the start of teaching | 92% | n/a* | 100% |
| We will ensure that 100% of physical books are reshelved within 24 hours of being returned | 100% | n/a* | 88% | |
| We will process 100% of interlibrary requests within three working days | 100% | 100% | 100% |
*This figure was not accurately recorded due to the Covid lockdowns.
Dips in service: explanation and action
The dip in our enquiries and feedback service standard is due to fewer staff working simultaneously on our chat service now that our physical service desks have re-opened following lockdown and staff are working on other service points. We will begin a review of our enquiry handling across different service points (i.e. in-person and online) in the Spring term 2023 with an aim to resolve this issue.
The dip in the reshelving time of our physical books is due to staff absences and fewer book returns. Fewer book returns results in trolleys taking longer to become full and therefore longer to leave the book sorter. To combat this, we have hired two new staff members who began in January 2023, and we have changed our procedures to ensure that books are shelved in a timely manner (for example taking trolleys out of the book sorter before they are full). We hope to see improvements in the Spring term 2023.
*If you have any comments or complaints about our services, please complete our online feedback form.