Secret Shopper Summary

I was pleasantly surprised by my secret shopper experience, especially after seeing some of the poor experiences my peers have had. It did start off a bit rocky, but eventually turned into a good experience. I first told the librarian that I was looking for a new book to read and was wondering if she had suggestions. I kept my initial question vague, because I wanted to see if she would ask more questions to clarify and what types of questions would be asked. Initially, she froze up and seemed very surprised/confused when I asked her the question. However, she recovered from the shock and started asking me questions such as what genre and authors I usually read. I indicated that I read a mixture of genres, but I was looking to get into more historical fiction.

The librarian then had a few titles in her head and lead me over to the general fiction section where she started with two different titles set in the Victorian time period. I indicated that I didn’t care much for this era, so we moved on to other suggestions. After showing me a few titles, she left me to decide on my own what I wanted, but was ready at the desk with more suggestions and resources, such as the Book Page catalog, when I was ready to check out. This showed me that she took a lot of initiative and care in helping me.

Overall, I felt like the interaction went well aside from the initial reaction. Once the librarian understood what it was I was wanting, she was able to find titles that I ended up checking out and am excited to read. I do feel that had she asked more clarifying questions, we could have avoided the first two titles that were a bust since I don’t enjoy that time period. She also showed me that she really understood her collection because she was able to come up with multiple titles from different authors and could show me right where it was on the shelf. I appreciated that she was able to show me older titles, as well as newer ones, because it shows patrons that she knows the entire collection, not just those that have crossed the desk recently.

The librarian did indicate that historical fiction is her personally preferred genre, so I question if patrons would have as good of an interaction had they been searching for titles in a different genre. Unfortunately, since I had already indicated that I was well versed in other genres, I didn’t feel like I could do the secret shopper technique again to determine if this experience was fluke due to what I was wanting or if this librarian really does know her entire collection. However, it did show me that good librarians need to be well-versed in most genres, if not all, so that they can better assist patrons.