Verify patron email address and phone number
Incorrect email addresses and phone numbers in patron records cause hold and overdue notices to fail. This results in a negative patron experience and requires wasted staff time for troubleshooting and manual data correction. Polaris should behave like other systems and verify contact information before using it.
When an email address is entered into a record, the system will send a message with a verification link. After the patron clicks the link, the email's status in the ILS will change from "Unverified" to "Verified". A visual indicator will show the verified status to both staff and patrons.
This function will extend to phone numbers used for SMS notifications. Upon entry, the system will send a text message with a numeric code to the phone number. When the patron provides the code, the number becomes a verified contact method in the system.
The same logic should also be triggered when contact information is updated.
Implementing this feature will improve the data integrity of the patron database. It will increase communication reliability for all automated notifications, reduce the staff workload associated with failed notices, and provide a more dependable service to patrons.
keywords: contact, validation, confirmation, confirming
Wes Osborn
shared this idea
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Wes Osborn
commented
Although I know this would be more steps than happen today, I think that it is not an unusual flow for most accounts that people establish these days and would ultimately benefit both the patron with being assured they can get their notices and the library for having a better reputation for sending notices and lower costs (SMS/texts) for making sure those notices get through.
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T
commented
This would be a lot of steps and would theoretically work if all patrons followed this. This puts the onus on patrons to take the steps to verify their contact info and for some older patrons who still provide us with landline numbers this doesn't work. If there was a way for staff to get an immediate bounceback email to the standard circ email saying who the patron is and what the issue was with their contact info (if texts aren't able to go through or the email is invalid), that would be great since staff could then follow-up with the patron to find the error.
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Steven Owley
commented
I would like to support this feature, which is important to our customers.