Summer Time = Vacation Time

During June, our DigiLab people have vacation time scheduled. (how dare they?!) To ensure things are running as smoothly as possible, Tim has sent out some guidelines on dealing with photo requests/photo orders. Please make sure you review these and handle each customer accordingly. For everyone doing email ref, please make sure you are forwarding to all three (Tim, Joel, and Barbara) so nothing slips through the proverbial cracks. Thanks for your help! 

--Try to do as much as you can, using HADA, the Photo Archives Database -- http://www2.houstonlibrary.org/cgi-bin/archives/mss0114.pl   , Master Photo Database, etc.  Give the customer the online tools to research on their own and show them the order form and price list online:   http://www2.houstonlibrary.org/hmrc/services.html

--If you feel the customer needs further help or if it is a major project, please recommend the email reference form (there is a link from the HMRC services link above) or fill it in yourself for the customer, rather than sending emails directly to Joel or Barbara or forwarding calls to them.  This will help to prioritize requests, limit disruptions in the photo lab and make the process fair to everyone.  Get as many details as possible about the request, including type of project and deadline needs.

--If a phone customer mentions Joel, Barbara or myself by name immediately, ask them if this is a new request or ongoing and get more information about the request itself.  If you determine that it is indeed a new request it will need to be answered at the desk or put through email reference.  Only transfer a call if it is a followup to an ongoing request.

--Someplace in the conversation, please tell the customer that the process may take up to 10 working days or longer because of the temporary changes in staff time  (Joel, Barabara and I are all taking about 1-2 weeks of time off during the month of June, overlapping our trips.)

--When forwarding email reference photo requests from TXRREF on your scheduled day, please send to all 3 of us, Barbara, Joel and myself and catagorize/place in the TR/JD folder.