Satisfied customers just aren’t good enough, we need Raving Fans. Developing raving fans is the premise of another parable written by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. Customer service can make or break a business and this book provides you with the three secrets to developing “raving fans.”
Ken Blanchard has coauthored a series of business-building parables that are short, easy to read and filled with ways to improve your business skills. Raving Fans; A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service takes a newly promoted Area Manager through a series of business-building aha’s that show him how to revolutionize his company’s customer service policy and develop raving fans.
At the beginning of the book, the Area Manager realizes that we, as consumers, have come to expect and accept poor customer service. Our Area Manager is given a golf loving Fairy Godmother named Charlie who shares three secrets for developing extraordinary customer service.
Fairy Godmother Charlie explains the premise of the book this way, “Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans.”
Here’s what the Area Manager learned:
1. Decide what you want. Great customer service begins with the vision your business holds of how customers should be treated. What is the “ideal experience” you’d like customers to have every time they deal with you and your company? If you closed your eyes and visualized an ideal customer experience, what would it look like?
2. Discover what your customer really wants. Now that you have your ideal customer service experience designed in your mind, it is time to figure out what your customer wants. You do this by asking, and listening to what is and isn’t being said by your customers.
3. Deliver the vision plus one percent. Give your customer more than they expect. Know what customers want and then exceed their expectations. Have them raving about their buying and service experiences.
Building a customer service policy around these three secrets will develop Raving Fans.
To truly appreciate this book, you have to enjoy reading parables. You also have to allow yourself to enjoy the entertainment factor of Raving Fans. This isn’t a textbook or serious how-to business book, this is an entertaining book with a business-building message.
The overall customer service message is a good one: Our customers deserve exceptional customer service because satisfied customers just aren’t good enough if we want to stay in business. It’s practical message and one that should be taken seriously. Our current and future customers have choices and the question becomes, why should they choose to do business with you?
I recommend Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard as an easy read about how to develop exceptional customer service. The only caveat would be that you have to appreciate a far-fetched story line written as a parable.
Come join the discussion on the Business Coach forum, we value your comments and opinion. Business Coach Forum Let's begin a discussion.
~~~~~~~~~~
Sharon Recommends
Here is a direct link to Amazon.com where you can read more about this book and purchase the hardcover edition online: Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service
Raving Fans is also available as an abridged audiobook: Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service
I've purchased this book for myself and my opinions are solely mine. I am also an affiliate of Amazon.com and if you purchase this book through this link, I will earn a commission.
