Customer Reviews

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book is written in "parable" or story telling format and is different to read for most people. If you have read the best seller One Minute Manager or Leadership and the One Minute Manager it is written in comparable form. I have read both of the prior books.

First off, the book basically talks about customer service (vs. goal setting & reward/punishment in the one minute manager) and how companies need to offer exemplary service to create Raving Fans, as the authors title it. I was simply hoping to get one good idea/thought out of the book and I did. It was EXCEPTIONALLY easy to read, as I read the 132 pages in about 2.5 - 3 hours total. The book has a lot of dead space and big font so you aren't getting tons of "filler." The authors try to focus on one business issue and address it succinctly.

This book is good and bad depending on what you expect to get out of it.

It is good because (1) anyone can read this book (2) customer service is horrible in today's environment so it is timely (3) The book provides great illustrations and (4) The authors get the point across.

Having said that, they never talk about the business implications of what the characters do. They say that customers love their service or product but they negate to talk about the cost implications. Business is about making money, not being loved by everyone. I love great service and all the frills but, at the end of the day, I have to make it worth the investment to the business owner.

Yes, our economy is very much about selling an experience to someone, but there are cost implications to having carpeted floors in grocery stores and full service gas stations that don't price their gas more expensively. There are implications to buying a product at another store and selling it at the exact same price to your customer (what about the price of labor?) In that case you are actually LOSING money, except that the customer is happy.....

At the end of the day profits pay for the labor, rent, etc. Businesses have to make money and this part is really neglected in this book.

I love that they focus on the customer and finding out what their needs are but they negate to mention where people are in the food chain. What does the customer value the most? Is your business positioned to offer it? Do you offer headaches or tons of value to the customer are a few questions I think of daily?

If anyone is looking for a great business book check out The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker as it is the best book I have read on management and the role of managers, businesses and individuals within a business. Your money and time would be better spent on that book.

Kenneth Blanchard continues his trend of writing easy-to-read books with BIG ideas for making your business better. Raving Fans is a book of stories relating how fictional companies have created an environment of delivering awesome customer service. A guy that has just been put in a managment position requiring a turnaround goes on a fictional trip with his "angel" to visit businesses that have figured out their vision and their system to deliver customer service extraordinary. Based on three simple principles (Decide, Discover, Deliver), each company has created a group of Raving Fans (not just customers, but fans) who wouldn't consider shopping anywhere else for what one of these companies offers. Within each story is other nuggets of common sense and good ideas that can be implemented in any company that has customers and wants to create fans. We required our store managers to read the book and each created a list ranging from 20-40 points that they can put into effect at their stores to improve customer service. This is a simple, must-read for every business owner and manager.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is an easy read and contains some great fundamentals on providing excellent customer service. Readers who enjoy this book may also enjoy reading Time Management is an Oxymoron.

This book is a great read and a resonable explantion of the importance of customer service in any business. It is especially great if you are new to the world of work and/or customer service. Young students can gain a great deal from this book, from how to treat customers, find customers, knowing what drives customers, to how employees should be treated by a supervisor and the company that employs them. In response to Mike from Utah...exactly who do you think works in the customer service industry? The vast majority of American service providers are minimum wage earners, and, yes, some like their jobs. Employers have to keep them motivated somehow. This book not only provides a peek at how to do that, but, in typical Blanchard style, is a lighthearted, easy to understand read. The book says nothing about "automation employees". Quite the opposite...giving your employees the authority to make the decisions necessary to help a customer frees them from that automation. If you learn anything from reading this book...it is just that.

In RAVING FANS, authors Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Knowles
concentrated on the importance of delighting customers . . . in GUNG
HO!, they focused on how companies could become the "employer of
choice" and attract the best employees . . . I liked both those
books and thus looked forward to listening to the taped version of
BIG BUCKS! . . . this third book promised me in its subtitle "How
to Make Serious Money for Both You and Your Company," something
that could be done by focusing my time and energy.

Like other works by Blanchard and Knowles, the points are
presented in a parable . . . here, we're introduced to a man struggling
to make ends meet . . . he goes on a journey to discover the secret
to becoming rich and meets three wise (and successful) people
who present simple truths that can be applied to virtually any
situation.

I liked the above fact; i.e., that when listening, I found myself
thinking that this stuff makes sense--and I should and could

apply it to my situation . . . there's nothing overly earth-shattering,
yet I should add that it got me thinking . . . and it made sense.

Also making sense was the conclusion, in which the authors
reviewed the simple tests that should have been learned from
either reading or listening:

The test of joy . . . you can't make money unless you're having fun.

The test of purpose . . .you can't make money unless making money
is more important than having fun.

The test of creativity . . . incomes, less expenses = profit.

And, lastly, there's perpetual prosperity . . . which comes to those
who help others.

Mike from Utah, there is a thing called credibility. I haven't even read this book, yet I noticed your words "You will LOOSE an IQ point..." I have a hard time taking anything to heart from someone who cannot avoid a simple grammatical error. Then again, maybe you did "lose" an IQ point reading the book.

This short read is great have on hand when wanting to improve customer service in your business. I purchased this book for every person on my staff. It's easy to understand concepts and story-style format make it easy to discuss with your staff. This book goes well with "Selling the Invisible" by Harry Beckwith.

This is not just another Blanchard book delivering another important business message via a parable, this time on the secrets to customer service. The secrets are concisely delivered with three memorable points. Decide what you want. Discover what your customer wants. Deliver more than they need. A simple approach that is harder to execute than it is to read about. Well worth the short time it takes to read about it. Remember that the hard work is in the execution. There is no quick fix to develop and sustain raving fans. But neither is the task impossible. Go for it. Good luck!

This is a Blanchard classic. It talks about how to create a customer service attitude, not just the techniques of good service. You should also read Full Steam Ahead! by Ken Blanchard which shows you how to create a vision that really works. These two books together will help you create a "culture of great service."

A major problem with most books on management processes is that that do too little to focus on how to make large amounts of progress beyond what is now done. Raving Fans is a big success in providing you with simple instructions for making large strides toward achievable perfection.

Imagining perfection is a critical first step to improvement, yet most people have never thought about what that could mean. Then testing that perfection with customers (and potential customers) must be done to be sure that there is a valid opportunity, and to be able to understand customers' ideas about achievable perfection. Then attaching the idea of continuous improvement toward that vision is also valuable, and useful. There are plenty of practical tips about how to do each part, which is key to making this book so valuable.

One of the reasons that I enjoy writing reviews about books on-line is that I can find a Raving Fans that agrees so much with my own perspective and research. This book will quickly get you past your Psychology of Disbelief, Bureaucracy, Procrastination, Communiation, and Ugly Duckling stalls.

Good for Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles . . . and good for you, too!