Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service
By: Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles
I’ve recently became a fan of Ken Blanchard after I heard an interview he did with Tony Robbins. I’ve since purchased five of his books which is only a small portion of his work.
Of course I’ve heard of him before because of his most popular book, “The One Minute Manager” I just never got around to reading it (I have the book now).
I have to be honest though, I actually didn’t read it, I listened to the audio version. Which is my format of choice mainly because it allows me to take advantage of my commute.
I think the audio version actually served this book well because it is written as a parable as is most of his books (I think). Which I actually like…I can’t tell you how many books I couldn’t finish because they bored me to tears.
The Rundown:
You might think that a book released in 1993 wouldn’t be relevant anymore. Actually it’s more relevant now due to the current conditions. We can no longer get away with taking our customers (and relationships) for granted.
The books sums it down to three secrets to killer customer service. I would actually call them principles because we should all live by them…Secrets just sounds more intriguing.
The triple D (not that kind) approach to creating “Raving Fans”
1. Decide
The most important one, you have to determine what your standards are. You can’t be every thing to everyone…you don’t want to anyways (it’l get old real quick). Create a vision of perfection for your organization, centered on your customer.
Ask yourself…What are we about? Low prices, high quality, speed, unique experiences, Etc.
What does the customer experience when they interact with our company?
Again, we can’t be everything to everybody, Walmart doesn’t sell Rolexes…maybe Bolexes. Rolex doesn’t sell affordable watches either, at least not to Walmarts standard of affordability.
Decide what who you are and what you standards are.
2. Discover
Find out what your customer wants, not what you think they want and not even what they say they want.
“Don’t just hear the music, listen to the lyrics” – Ken Blanchard
The whole purpose of this is to find a balance of your vision and your customers.
But isn’t it all about the customer? Why does my vision even matter?
No it’s not all about your customer and your vision does matter. If your customer is all about the lowest price and your vision is all about high quality then you will never be able to make them happy. The only thing that this will do is create headaches for you. Your energy is better spent with people that actually want what you have to offer.
In that case you will have to fire your customer…yes I said fire.
Again, you can’t be every thing to everybody (see a pattern forming here).
3. Deliver
This is where a lot of people fall down…failing to deliver every time. Not only deliver every time but plus 1%.
Why plus 1% ?
There is two main reasons. One, you have to continually improve because if you’re not, your competitors are (especially if they know the triple D secrets).
Two, our expectations continue to rise. Remember the dial up days…now, if we have to wait more then a couple seconds for a page to load, we get a bit frustrated. Why? Our standards are higher then they were back then (the dial up dark ages).
The bottom line is this, our customers expectations (just like ours) rise every day. If we fail to deliver plus 1% and we deliver 99% our customer probably won’t let us know. If they do tell us, they will do it by not returning.
The Takeaway:
This book is written from a business perspective, but the word customer, could easily be replaced with, friend, coworker, spouse, Etc. These same principles will help you form “Raving Fan” relationships.
The principle that I seem to overlook is the first one, decide. Which is the most important one, how can you deliver if you don’t have a foundation to build from. That’s actually the main component of the law of attraction, know exactly what you want.
To sum it up, this is a great book that should be required reading for anyone involved in business in any way. Regardless if you have any direct impact on customers. As I stated before, you can replace the word customer with any type of relationship and the principles are still highly relevant.
Not only is it a great book but it is an easy and short read (or listen). Which I like because I have a short attention span…
Now start creating “Raving Fans”
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