By Jane Jorgensen
When I started college I got a part-time job to help pay for expenses. I was 18-years-old and the job was working as a salesperson in a shoe-store. Had I sold shoes before? Nope. Sold anything? No. But my sparkling personality landed me the gig. And there I was. Afraid of what I’d find (or smell) when people took off their shoes and though eager to do well, pretty clueless about what that entailed. My coping mechanism was to be the best darned
salesperson I could be. I’d bring each customer all the styles they asked for and then some. Let’s call it the ‘do you want fries with that’ method of sales. So what’s wrong with that? Works for McDonalds right? And what does any of this have to do with RA?
What I found with my method was that I wasn’t making as many sales. If I brought out more then about four or five pairs of shoes for a customer, that customer would invariably leave with nothing. I noticed the same thing when I began working in a mystery book store. My boss, the owner, was great at engaging customers. What she wasn’t so great at was knowing when to let up. And that probably cost the store some sales. By offering fries when they might only be looking for a hamburger, she ended up overwhelming them and thus making them unable to make a decision. And what does any of this have to do with RA?
I realized when I began RA work in libraries that the same pattern held true. Being a willing advisor, I’d suggest this book and this book and this book and this book and this book…well you get the picture. Pretty soon I’d find the patron trying to unobtrusively set books down and looking more than a little panicked. Sure there are some big readers who’ll approach us for a suggestion or ten, but most are looking for just a couple titles. Two (maybe three) is just
about right. They don’t feel like they’re walking out with a semester’s worth of assigned books, but they will still have a selection to choose from when they get home.
YMMV and I’d love to hear about what your experiences have been.
Jane
