Overall users had a positive experience with the chat service and valued how convenient the service was for them to use to get help. Users appreciated that the staff answering questions was helpful and friendly and that the staff answered all questions in a timely manner.
All users said that they would use this service again and that the chat hours were adequate to their needs. Since majority of respondents were satisfied with the chat service, the library should continue offering the program with some small changes based on the recommendations of respondents.
Based on the responses, the library should advertise the chat service in order to increase usage. The patrons that are utilizing the service are satisfied, but the library should try to reach other students, faculty, staff, and community members that have not yet used the service.
Librarians should also make sure that they do not seem like they are too busy to help at the Research Center desk. This may increase traffic to the desk and to the chat service, because patrons will see the librarians as ready to help instead of thinking that they are being interrupted.
The library should also look into redesigning the chat box and making sure the website clearly states how to use chat. A potential usability study could be utilized to discover where patrons are becoming confused or lost in the process of using the chat service. In doing this, it is also important to highlight the chat pop-out features so that patrons can follow links without being disconnected to the chat service.
All of the respondents stated that they thought the chat hours were adequate, so the library should keep them the same and continue to evaluate high traffic times for chat. Librarians should also look at the E-Ref (Chat Off) Assessment Report to see how users responded to that service as well.