Review of Raving Fans - A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

By Avil Beckford

Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles present Raving Fans as a parable. The book starts off with the president of a company telling the new area manager that the company was built on customer service, and that the three preceding area managers didn't understand that, and that's why they were no longer with the organization. To succeed in business, you have to create Raving Fans - satisfied customers are no longer enough. To deliver Raving Fan Service, you have to look after the customers' needs whenever possible, be consistent in delivering the service, promise more and deliver more than you promise, and be ready to change direction when the vision changes because customers' need and want change all the time. There are three secrets to creating Raving Fans - Decide what you want, discover what the customer wants and deliver the vision plus one percent.

Decide what you want: When you decide what you want, you must create a vision of perfection centered on the customer. You do this by visualizing the entire customer service experience. Understanding your vision allows you to better understand your customers' vision. And if your customers' vision is very different from yours - that is, the gap is too wide, you may have to stop servicing that customer. Deliver the vision plus one percent: Be consistent - consistently meet expectations. Every organization that delivers excellent customer service has systems in place, and a training program to entrench those systems into the heart and soul of the company. Six Great Ideas

All good customer service is a result of nifty systems

Most customers have a focus - you have to find that focus and then mine it for information

Six Great Ideas

1.     All good customer service is a result of nifty systems

2.     Constantly strive to improve what you have decided to achieve

3.     Most customers have a focus - you have to find that focus and then mine it for information

4.     Customers count on you to do what you say you will do

5.     You can make big changes in almost anything, or achieve great things in your life by improving or changing by one percent. Things can't help but improve if you keep at it one percent at a time

6.     Customers have needs beyond the need of the company's product, whether it comes in a box or is a service. People need to feel like they belong to a group - they need to feel that they are important, and that what they do, think, and say truly matters

Customer Service :: THIS IS A SERVICE ECONOMY?

Economists call ours a service economy, But, you'd never know it from the difficulty consumer experience in finding genuinely friendly, helpful personal service.

What consumers are getting, instead, is service people who treat them like road kill, or who seem to be " out to lunch." or who quickly disappear when they see a customer approaching.

Business Week magazine wrote: "At many departement store these days the customer isn't always right. In fact, the customer is barely tolerated.

Eric Sevareid, former CBS News commentator, believes that service in our "service economy" has worsened. that bothers him. He says: " The decline of service goes along with the decline of civility. Civility, kindness, patience with others is what makes a democratic, civilized society operate. if you forego those things, what have you got?"

Tom Peters and Nancy Austin, in their popular book A Passion for Excellence, poin out that retailing often gives "no distinguishing service" and, as a result, has "reaped the reward
-fed-up customers...."

They write: "Common decency, common courtesy...is the exception."

When Peters and Austin refer to "retailing," they really ought to say "some retailers over and over again. that leaves a sizable number of retailers whose names never show up negatively in consumer surveys.

People under 25 may never have seen a service station attendant wipe windshields expect in the 1983 movie Back to the future, where employees buzzed around a car with liquid glass cleaner, chamois and water can as if they were competing for a Service Attendant of the Year award.

When the media hear about a service station with service, they make a feature story out of it. newspaper raved about Eastham's service station on Wisconsin Avenue in Bathesda, Maryland. Twoo EAStham attendants run toward every car that pulls up to the pumps. "Good morning!" they yell out to the driver. they scurry about swiftly pumping gas, cleaning every inch of glass, and shouting for the driver to unlatch the car's hood. hand fly among the hoses and belts, cheking oil and water levels.

Customer Service is King

Definition of Customer Service

Customer Service is meeting the expectations of a customer in supplying or providing a product or service. Excellent customer service (is) the ability of an organization to constantly and consistently exceed the customer's expectations

Customer service is considered a necessity by most service and retail businesses.
When looking at the definition of customer service, it is needed to look at the customer's definition rather than trying to define customer service as it relates to your company. 
An organization can define customer service, but if it is not inline with what their customer expects, then it really isn't customer service.

Introduction to Customer Service

The customer. Many businesses will tell you how important a customer is within their business, explaining that this is why they are in business or it is their number one goal or priority to service these customers yet many of these same businesses will de-employ staff, fail to initiate customer service improvement plans and also state that customers demands or complaints are unjustified. ( By David Alssema)

Customer Service Micro Bursts - Targeted Training to Improve Your Customer's Experience

Customer Service Micro Bursts by Margaret Connery is a workbook that provides, as the subtitle suggests, Targeted Training to Improve Your Customer's Experience. The fresh and appealing cover will ensure that your teams embrace the training sessions.

The Guidelines offer a simple framework that will empower your session leader to have all attendees actively participating. Developing a customer service attitude

Developing customer service skills

Communicating with customers

Working with challenging customers

Developing interpersonal skills, and

Activities for Customer Service Representatives' recognition and support.

As author Margaret Connery explains: "These exercises are short, targeted activities designed to help you teach specific skills that will improve your company's service, build employee effectiveness and increase customer satisfaction. Continually providing good customer service is a challenge for any organization. Quality training can keep teams fresh and fit and keep individuals motivated to provide service with a smile.

Studies show that in-house training programs can deliver big results just like expensive, name brand offerings - provided the leader embraces the process and dynamically engages the group. The passion and culture of your organization's customer service levels are a direct reflection of the spirit and skills within the group. Customer Service Micro Bursts empowers you to create raving fans while retaining employees through fun, easy to execute training exercises.

The book's author is touted as a trainer, instructional designer and organizational development expert with vast experience in designing and improving customer service systems; you'll likely agree as you see the effectiveness of her programs at work in your organization.

Kevin Graham serves as the Managing Director at Empower Me Photo. Our Weight Loss Success Stories are impressive.

Let The Vision Empower You!

1 - 101 Ways to Really Satisfy Your Customers

It is therefore imperative to examine this text entitled "101 Ways to Really Satisfy Your Customers" written by Andrew Griffiths. Griffiths is a professional marketing consultant, as well as director of an Australian company called "The Marketing Professionals". Griffiths submits that small businesses have the greatest potential to offer extremely high levels of customer service, due to their direct contact with customers. He says unfortunately, very few people fully realise the power of customer service and what it can do for their business.

Section one is generically christened "Understanding your customers" and contains eight tips. According to this consultant here, all businesses constantly need customers. Griffiths says this may sound blatantly obvious and it is, but one of the most common customer service complaints is that businesses do not listen to their customers.

Griffiths says you should always put yourself in your customers' shoes; attend to what your customers expect from you; hire a mystery shopper to evaluate your business; observe your business objectively; take time to talk to your customers; encourage your customers to give you their opinions and start a customer satisfaction survey immediately.

This author adds that there are many ways that you can make your business more appealing to your customers. While many of these may be obvious, there are also many subtle, service-related things that can make your business far more inviting and customer-friendly, educates Griffiths.

This section identifies some of the best ways to improve your level of customer service by looking closely at your workplace. Section three is summarily entitled "Your staff" and contains 17 tips, that is, tips 17 to 33. According to Griffiths here, staff are the front line when it comes to customer service. Griffiths advises you to always smile, take your staff to your competitors' businesses, have regular brainstorming sessions, debrief staff after good and bad experiences, encourage your customers to tell you if your staff give outstanding service, and reward your staff for outstanding customer service. Sections four to nine are based on the generic subject matters of making it easy for your customers to buy; the personal touch; face-to-face customer service; telephone customer service; promotional material; and customer service and the Internet. These sections contain 44 tips covering tips 34 to 77.

Section ten is summarily entitled "Following up on a sale is good customer service" and contains four tips, that is, tips 78 to 81. In sections 11 to 13 covering tips 82 to 101, that is, 20 tips, this author analytically X-rays the generic concepts of internal customer service; maintaining a personal commitment to customer service; and what to do when things go wrong.

Apart from 101 tips, there is a bonus section containing additional 20 tips on customer service.

To ensure active reader participation, Griffiths includes notes and customer service action list segment.

However, some tips seem (conceptually) repetitive in the book. In short, this text is a must-read for everybody especially that no business can succeed without customers.

Service Industry Provides Professional World-Class Customer Satisfaction

By William Phenn

Steve Cosica, is, "Mr. Nice Guy". This man has spent twenty years in customer service management, as both a Speaker and Published Writer. He has been a speaker at ACCA (Air Conditioning Contractors Association) functions, published in Counterline, a newsletter in the industry, and has held regional customer service workshops for HVAC professionals.

Coscia's book, "HVAC Customer Service Handbook," was very impressive. Very mindful of technical peoples work habits, the book is made using a spiral backing, allowing it to stay open wherever the reader may be. I especially enjoyed this as book marks tend to slip out easily. In addition, "HVAC Customer Service Handbook", is written in larger print, contains humorous graphics and block diagrams. "HVAC Customer Service Handbook" was a pleasant book to read. It covers every service situation I could possibly imagine. From, "Practical HVAC Service Ideas" to "Leading an HVAC Service Operation". Making the customer happy, keeping the customers business and, "How to stay Cool when customers get Hot", is the whole point of this well written 
volume.

I thoroughly enjoyed all 96 pages of this highly informative book. Featured as "book of the week" by Reader Views January 23, 2006

Want Your Business to Succeed? Try Doing Things "The Nordstrom Way" - Book Review

By Tamara Hackett

I found "The Nordstrom Way" several years ago when I worked at a car dealership with horrid customer service issues. The Nordstrom retail stores are world famous for providing outstanding customer service in every aspect of their business and maintaining a business model that is client focused and it shows. If you have ever shopped at a Nordstrom, you know of this legendary customer service. "The Nordstrom Way" was written by Robert Spector, an international speaker on Nordstrom's principles of customer service and Patrick McCarthy, a thirty year Nordstrom employee that became one of the company's top performing salespeople.

This book combines inspirational biographical material with common sense management tools that can benefit every company, big and small. The authors know that establishing a culture of excellence in customer service is no small feat and to ease business owners and managers into this mindset, there are very simple, easy to complete exercises at the end of every chapter. As you read through the book and complete the exercises, you begin to realize that the shift starts with internal customer service. At Nordstrom, each employee is given empowerment and the ability to use their best judgment in all customer interactions. This management style facilitates a culture of entrepreneurship, teamwork and overall consensus. In time you will notice that your employees treat your business like they own the place. Imagine that much passion in one establishment!

I would like to encourage you to pick up a copy of "The Nordstrom Way" and see if the help you hired can be taught customer service excellence. Also, I know that book reviews are supposed to contain critiques, but due to the relevance of material, I can't find a single negative in this one. Check out her website: [http://www.desertdivassistant.com] for more details.