Leigh Anne Wilson

February 3rd, 2015

LIS 704
Service Report #1
Service Report #1 Edgewood Clinical Services
Last Wednesday, January 21st, was my birthday. The following day, my son, Alex, had a
doctors appointment at a place called Edgewood Clinical Services. Two things you should know
about us: Alex has moderate autism and severe ADHD, and I burned my house down to the
ground on my birthday by throwing a charred pillow into the garage, not knowing it was
smoldering on the inside. It was, and my house went up in flames and was completely destroyed
within ten minutes. In retrospect, we were very lucky. My family was safe, and firefighters
managed to rescue our dog and three cats. However, the day after the fire, all of us were in a
Bad Place. We spent the night at a hotel, paid for by the Red Cross, and on Thursday we spent
all day on the phone with friends, family members, and roughly a dozen members of our
insurance company trying to sort out what to do next. The insurance company had found us a
better hotel, and on Thursday afternoon we had been given a rental car, as my car was also
destroyed in the fire, and a better hotel room that was closer to our respective jobs and the kids
schools.
Because the animals had been trapped inside the house during the fire, they had suffered
a considerable amount of smoke inhalation and had to be treated overnight at the emergency
vets office. By the time of the appointment, we had everything we owned, plus the animals we
had just picked up, in my husbands car and a small rental car and were on our way to the second
hotel room. This is when my husband remembered the doctors appointment. There was just no
way we were going to make this appointment with my sons psychiatrist, no matter how badly it
may or may not have been needed. As it turns out, Edgewood Clinical Services is on Route 59 in
Naperville, which meant we had to drive right past it to the new hotel in Aurora, which was also
right off 59. I swung into the parking lot two minutes after the appointment was supposed to
have started to tell the receptionist that we couldnt stay for the meeting and to please give my
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apologies to the doctor. I left Alex in the car with the dog and his favorite cat, and sprinted
inside the building.
After giving our names to the receptionist, I said breathlessly, Im so sorry we cant make it
tonight, but our house caught fire yesterday and we lost everything. We only now just
remembered the appointment, and we have animals in the car and cant stay.
The receptionist didnt even look at me. Your name? she said, and I gave her my name again.
Patients name? she said, and I gave her Alexs name again. And who is the doctor?
Again I gave her the information. Not once did she make eye contact with me or acknowledge
that something horrible had just happened to one of their clients.
Do you want to reschedule? she asked.
Ill have to call you, I replied. We cant really think about this right now.
The doctor can see you tomorrow at 5:15, she said. Can you come in then?
Yes, I think so, I answered.
Of course, there will be a $75 no-show fee for today, she said, still not making eye contact
with me.
At this point I had had enough. No. You are not going to charge me $75 because my house
burned down. She didnt argue with me, but she didnt agree to not charge me, either. We
rescheduled the appointment for the following day, and I left, extremely angry.
Did I get what I needed out of the appointment? Yes, I did. But was I satisfied with the
experience? Absolutely not.
In my opinion, the receptionist represented her organization very poorly. In Samuel
Greens essay, Personal Relations Between Librarians and Patrons, he advises the
librarian help the reader in every way. (Green, p. S4) Did I need to reschedule the
appointment? I did.
But what I needed most was to hear the words, Im sorry. I needed eye contact. I needed to
be told, Dont worry, Ill take care of this for you. When you are in customer service and
one of your clients tells you that this is the worst day of their life, you need to listen.
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I volunteer at the Oak Park Public Library helping the Teen Services librarian re-catalog
their graphic novel collection. When I came in to work one day and asked her how the day was
going, she immediately told me that a regular patron came in crying because his wife had just
died. She spent the better part of an hour listening to him talk, and did not find him a book. Was
that part of her job? I would argue that it is a part of her job, a very important part.
In Stephanie Willen Browns The Reference Interview, she lists RUSAs five guidelines for a
successful interaction: Approachability, interest, listening, searching, and follow up. (Brown, p.
3) This is useful for a straight-up reference question, but it is also applicable for customer
service in general. The reference interview is to help the librarian find out what the
customer is really looking for.
In the case of the Teen Services librarian, she knew that her job was not to find her
patron a book or even to work with teens, but to be a grief counselor. In my case, while I

needed a grief counselor, I also needed a service provided. I received half of what I needed that
day.
Her impersonal disinterest made her unapproachable, she showed no interest in my
plight, which was probably the best excuse for missing an appointment shed ever heard, she
did not listen or ask good follow up questions, she did not say, I will take care of this for you,
and of course there has been no follow up.
All in all, if I was the patient, instead of my son, who is indifferent to his psychiatrist, but
adores his psychologist who is in the same clinic, I would be looking elsewhere for a doctor.

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Works Cited

Green, Samuel. Personal Relations Between Librarians and Readers. Library Journal 118.11
(June 1993): S4. Print.
Willem Brown, Stephanie. The Reference Interview: Theories and Practice. Library
Philosophy & Practice (January 2008): 1-8. Print.