[Michlib-l] Automatic Renewals

[Barb Gudenburr]

Thanks for so many responses to my original question: We are discussing the use of Automatic Renewals at our library and I wanted to know about the good, bad and the ugly of going in this direction.


We started automatic renewals just over three years ago. Overall it has been very well received by our customers. Below are my quick thoughts on pros and cons:

PROS:


1.       Great PR for the public. They love it when they get extra time without even asking for it. It greatly reduces fines so far fewer negative experiences with the library. We even send a message letting them know that our Customer Care team have renewed their items to give them more time and often get thank you messages back.

2.       It gives a huge boost to circulation statistics. While these are officially counted I still take a harder look at first-time checkouts.

CONS:


1.       The converse of reduced fines from the revenue perspective. Offhand I'd easily say it has cut ours in half from $150K to $75K. But we've also greatly relaxed our policy on lost items and encourage waiving fines whenever reasonable with a broad interpretation of reasonable. My mantra to the board is that fines represent a total count of negative interactions with the public.

2.       People get confused when their items are due and if something is on hold and is NOT automatically renewed. This applies in particular to the user set who get a printed receipt and tack it on their refrigerator. Our online/app users don't have this issue. Again, we are generous in waiving fines if someone gets confused.

Bottom line, if you can deal with losing the revenue then I think it's a very positive service feature to implement.


Clinton-Macomb Public Library



The Suburban Library Cooperative shared system libraries all use Automatic Renewals and have had so much positive feedback! We only had a few people complain that they wanted to control their own account and if they wanted to renew items or not. The vast majority liked the convenience of getting an email or text stating that their items were renewed without them having to do anything.

Sterling Heights Public Library





We are using VERSO at our library and enabled the Automatic Renewal function for our patrons. As long as it worked, it was the best service. Patrons were very pleasantly surprised when they came in ready to pay a fine and we informed them that the system took care of that.

The big downfall though is: If a patron has multiple items checked out and receives the email from VERSO that their items were renewed, they of course never went through the whole list to see, if really in effect ALL items were renewed or if some were not renewed due to being on hold or having been renewed already once before. They happily leaned back thinking that they were free of fines, while in reality one or more items were collecting fines, because they did not fall under the Automatic Renewal rules. So, if I came across a case like that I called the patrons to alert them of the fact that not ALL items were renewed. Of course, if I did not catch it by chance and did not call, then patrons were aggrieved and did not want to pay their fine.

The decrease in fines was quite dramatic, though.

Right now there is a glitch with VERSO and the Automatic Renewal function and we turned it off. So far our patrons don't seem to miss it too much.

Tecumseh District Library


Pros: great PR, our users LOVE it, it really will boost your circ numbers, environmentally positive as you are cutting down on trips to the library to return a book that is due today.
Cons: expect a significant drop in your overdue fines

 Rochester Hills Public Library




I'll give you my reaction to Auto Renewal.   On the front lines of the Circulation desk, I love being able to tell people about Auto Renewal.  It's a great selling point for customer service.  People love auto-renewal especially when it saves them some money when they have forgotten to bring their items back.  The relief, when we tell them they don't have any fines for an item because it auto renewed for them, is awesome to behold.  Lol   We came up with a script for Circulation, so everyone was on the same page telling people about it.  The same information is given out at check out.  "Your items will renew 2 times as long as no one has a hold on them"

We started advertising before we went "Live" to get people in the loop.  We had posters up and our name tags had more advertisements for Auto Renewal. We also had fun with it and created a video advertisement.

Patrons love it.  The notifications work the best when received by email.  The email gives the most information.  It lists the items that have renewed plus the dates of everything checked out.  A text only says something like: "Items have renewed for you at CIDL" In that instance, the patron doesn't know what renewed nor if something didn't renew.  We get a few phone calls or emails where people are angry because they get that text and then something turns up overdue because it doesn't renew and they didn't know it.  I always tell them that they can switch to email which is better, or log into their account when they receive the text to get the full amount of information.   I've had only one patron yelling at me because it's a "flawed system".  It's not flawed, she just couldn't figure it out.  Older patrons, who don't have emails, still have phone notifications set up.  Even though their items renew, they won't get a phone call letting them know.  They still call us and ask us to renew items for them and we still check their account over the phone to give them their new due date.

There is some confusion about items not renewing if someone has a hold on it.  They call or email because they still had renewals left but they didn't get the renewal.  Everyone calms down when we remind them about the "Hold clause".  Also, some people think their item will just keep renewing forever or they forget to return stuff because it does auto renew.

I feel like the benefits of auto renewal outweighs the small irritations.  As long as you keep your patrons informed and keep your staff on the same page, you'll do great.

Clarkston Independence


Thanks!
Barbara Gudenburr
Circulation Supervisor
Canton Public Library
[vsmCPLlogo]

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20180828/e98e8332/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2214 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20180828/e98e8332/attachment.jpg>