July 2002 Track Selling Times Book Review
 Book Review -
Raving Fans:
A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service
by Ken Blanchard
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(From February 2001 Track Selling Times)
Ken Blanchard is one of the most widely known, and widely effective, business authors in the past 25 years. In Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service, the author of The One-Minute Manager addresses the depths to which customer service expectations and execution have sunk.
Blanchard's premise is that customer service has become so bad - and often times, non-existent - that customers now know poor service to be the norm while businesses haven't a clue as to what good, let alone excellent, customer service is. He contends that customers only tolerate this poor service because they know nothing else, yet they have no true loyalty to a particular company. The positive irony is that because service has become so poor, however, it's easy to turn customers into 'raving fans' by implementing a planned, conscientious approach to customer service that caters to customers.
Blanchard, unlike many authors, knows when to quit diagnosing the problem and begin offering solutions. That he does in a simple yet highly effective manner by detailing three steps aimed at achieving service excellence. The steps include imagining perfection, testing this perfection with customers and then planning for ongoing improvement.
First published in 1993, Raving Fans is even more valuable now considering the slippery slope customer service levels have traveled the past decade. It's a short, easy and enjoyable read that can have a major impact on the success of any business.
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