Be awesome : expect greatness.

Let’s do what we do well. Let’s do it *very* well. Incredibly well. Commit to #awesome.

What would it take for our customers to say “awesome” every time they interacted with the library?

Let’s go out & collect the data. Who uses the library, and who doesn’t? What do they use and what don’t they use? How do they use the library?

Let’s ask what #awesome means for our community of customers – longer hours, less hours, more staff, fewer staff, new technology, no technology?

What if … we focus on increasing usage amongst existing customers first instead of chasing the elusive non-customer?

• what would encourage them to borrow more every visit? (hint – you’ll have to ask them)
• what would make their interactions smoother? (hint – less clicks is a good start on a website)
• what value could another staff member in the digital team add? (hint – cost vs. benefit analysis)
• what difference would a monthly 1% increase in borrowing make? (hint – if you don’t know what impact that increased usage would make, then find someone who does understand the impact of numbers, figures & statistics)

What if … we ask our top 5% of customers what would encourage them to borrow more?

• is the physical item borrowing limit too low?
• is the digital ebook interface too clunky?
• are the charges too high?
• does it take too long for articles to be interloaned?

Look at what our customers tell us about our collections – anecdotally, through the data and by asking our regular high-use customers.

Let’s fix the annoying things, tick the easy stuff off the “do it now” list. And, if something is critically impacting on our #awesome, then find out what it will take to fix it. If the cost to fix it is too high, then is it really worth keeping it?

Set high expectations. Raise the bar. Aim to be the best at what we do.

What if … we flipped all this and celebrated 1000 Awesome Things about our community & collections instead?

Agile. Angry. Audacious. Alive. Agreeable. Abundant. Absurd. Adversarial. Approachable. Alert. Accessible. Anti-establishment. Anarchic. Artistic.