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Enquiry Management Systems

Libraries use bespoke or commercial systems to manage library enquiries and acquire in-depth statistics about the enquiry service. A few library management systems (LMS or ILS) include a basic enquiry management module which usually require the enquiry staff to enter the enquiry details. Dedicated enquiry management systems are more sophisticated and include functionality to integrate with web forms and social media and intercept emails sent to a group or dedicated email address for enquiries. Dedicated systems increase the chance of capturing all enquiries no matter how they are submitted.

The benefits of using an enquiry system include:

  • Improved user experience
  • Automated replies
  • Achieving consistency using reply templates
  • Improved performance - never missing deadlines using alerts
  • Monitoring and managing workloads
  • Increasing team productivity
  • Qualitative statistics for management insights
  • Costs recorded ready for export to finance systems
  • Accurate time recording

Available solutions

Enquire from Bailey Solutions

Enquire is a sophisticated and dedicated enquiry management system that is highly configurable and used by universities and colleges. It is scalable and can be used to manage a single enquiry service or a multi- team / multi-department service. It uses roles and permissions models to present enquiry queues to different teams or individuals. Likewise the system has multi-lingual and multi-time zone capabilities to manage enquiries across a global organisation.

Enquire captures enquiries from web forms, multiple email address and social media, while there are also dedicated forms to assist with phone and in-person enquiries. The system requires no change of user behaviour by service users, while enquiry staff use one software tool to view, process and answer enquiries by email. The enquiry management system gathers statistics about enquiries as they are processed in the system, providing managers valuable insights about the enquiry service:

  • When enquiries are submitted
  • How enquiries are submitted
  • Average processing times
  • How the team meets deadlines
  • Time spent on enquiries
  • Types of enquiries
  • Breakdown by location or department of the enquirer

This enables librarians to

  • Justify staffing levels
  • Demonstrate value
  • Learn where training or improvements are needed
  • Enrich the user experience
enquiry_management_systems.1542708390.txt.gz · Last modified: 2018/11/20 05:06 by 82.27.219.91