Product Description

A straightforward and snappy guide to successful customer service from the author of the bestselling The One Minute Manager. Raving Fans, in a nutshell, is the advice given to a new Area Manager on his first day -- in an extraordinary business book that will help everyone, in every kind of organization or business, deliver stunning customer service and achieve miraculous bottom-line results. Raving Fans is written in the parable style of The One Minute Manager and uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach how to define a vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature -- not just a passing fad. Business is in the midst of a service crisis that has left millions of disillusioned customers in its wake. Raving Fans includes startling new tips and innovative techniques that can help anyone create a revolution in any workplace -- and turn their customers into raving, spending fans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17719 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

HarperCollins
Inside Flap Copy

Told in the parable style of The One Minute Manager, Raving Fans uses a brilliantly simple and charming story to teach listeners how to define vision, learn what a customer really wants, institute effective systems, and make Raving Fan Service a constant feature--not just another program of the month.

America is in the midst of a service crisis that has left a wake of disillusioned customers from coast to coast. Raving Fans includes startling tips and innovative techniques that can help anyone create a revolution in any workplace--and turn their customers into raving, spending fans.

The story of a golfer and his male fairy godmother who guides him through encounters with outstanding service in a variety of business settings is an eloquent parable about customer service. The three-part formula: First, decide on a vision-a level of service that perfectly reflects what you want to give customers. Second, discover the specific needs and expectations of your customers and weave them into your vision of how to serve them. Third, deliver your vision a step at a time, being absolutely consistent before stepping up the service to the next level. Everyone serious about customer relationships should hear this.

Successful organisations have one common central focus: Customers. It doesn’t matter if it’s a business, a professional practice, a hospital or a government agency, success comes to those, and only those, who are obsessed with looking after customers.

This wisdom isn’t a secret. Mission statements, annual reports, posters on the wall, seminars and even television programmes all proclaim the supremacy of customers. But in the words of Shakespeare, this wisdom is "more honoured in the breach than the observance." In fact, generally speaking, customer service, in a word, stinks.

And no wonder. Look at how we’ve been training our managers. When I was in college, we took courses in marketing consumer behaviour. The assumption was that the public was a mindless group of buyers and that with proper advertising and promotion products could be produced en masse and sold to naïve buyers. Unfortunately, as I tour the country speaking, I find too many young managers still think this way. Advertising, product positioning and market share pricing strategies are all important. But when all is said and done, goods aren’t sold; products and services are bought.

Ken Blanchard is the founder and Chairman of The Ken Blanchard Companies. His One Minute Manager series has sold over thirteen million copies and been translated into more than 25 languages. He has also written or co-authored numerous other books, including Gung Ho! , Big Bucks! and Raving Fans.

About the Author
Ken Blanchard is the founder and Chairman of The Ken Blanchard Companies. His One Minute Manager series has sold over thirteen million copies and been translated into more than 25 languages. He has also written or co-authored numerous other books, including Gung Ho!, Big Bucks! and Raving Fans

Customer Reviews

GREAT MODEL TO APPROACH PERFECTION THROUGH INNOVATION
In a world of almost no service, RAVING FANS takes the opposite perspective -- that virtually perfect service is worth pursuing. Those who are used to providing and suffering from having no service will find this book impossible to comprehend. I found it inspiring.

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 in providing service.

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 in RAVING FANS, 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 book like 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! Even better for your customers!

If you like this book, be sure to go on to read GUNG HO, the second book in the series, which deals with getting employees fired up to produce great service for Raving Fans. The third book in the series, BIG BUCKS!, just came out, and is a worthwhile successor to the first two. I suggest you read all three if you have a business or aspire to have one that provides well for employees, customers, and owners.

A good related book is THE CUSTOMER CENTERED COMPANY by Richard Whiteley.

Brilliant! Again...
This is the fifth book I have for Ken Blanchard and I must say that the guy knows how to convince others. In his usual simple and interesting dialogue way of writing he, along with Sheldon Bowles, explain what every single person working in a service environment should know and how to practically achieve excellence in the area of customer service.
A book that I have been using for a while in my consultancy business to advise people on how to improve.

Customer Service Excellence
With his book Raving fans, ken Blanchard astounds and shocks a British reader with the standards of customer service which can be provided and the effect which it can have on your customers. A must-read book for anyone who relies on income from customers, and is working in a competitive environment. I have moved my desk into reception, and look forward to greater customer contact and accountability (on my part) and the chance to cater to my customer's needs more effectively, hopefully avoiding the customer who "votes with his feet"! Thanks Ken and Sheldon!