This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Raving Fans" by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here .
What does it mean to have ideal customer service? What steps can you take to ensure your customers leave your business happy?
In their book Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles argue that successful organizations have one common central focus: providing an excellent customer service experience. In their business fable, they outline what the ideal customer service experience looks like and five questions you should ask yourself as a business owner.
Continue reading to learn how to improve customer service at your company.
What Is Ideal Customer Service?
In the Raving Fans fable, the Fairy Godmother takes the Area Manager to a successful department store, owned by a previous student of “The Raving Fans School.” Throughout his visit, the Area Manager receives lavish attention and experiences excellent customer service. For example, the book he wants to buy is out of stock so the customer service attendant purchases the book from another store and gift wraps it for him at no extra cost.
When asked how the store can go to such great lengths to satisfy customers, the store owner explains he created a complete vision of excellent customer service centered on looking after customer needs wherever possible. This vision informs how he interacts with his customers.
(Shortform note: The customer service attendant at the bookstore uses creative problem solving to exceed the Area Manager’s expectations. This is just one way to deliver outstanding customer service. Others include actively listening to the customer’s needs, having a positive attitude, and knowing your product well.)
One Negative Customer Experience Can Damage Your Reputation
Blanchard and Bowles argue that customer experience is the impression your customers have of your business as a whole. Your customers judge their experiences with you based on the emotions they feel during the sum total of their interactions with you. This means that if they have a bad experience during one stage of their interactions with you, their judgment of you will go down regardless of how excellent the rest of your service was. This judgment impacts their sense of loyalty to you. Therefore, a great customer experience comes from providing excellence at every stage of contact.
| According to one customer loyalty report, 63% of consumers confirmed they’d consider moving to a competitor after a single bad experience. However, the impact of a single negative customer experience doesn’t simply end with the loss of current revenue. Consumers are quick to vent their frustrations in public ways and these complaints rarely go unnoticed. Consider these statistics: 93% of consumers base their decisions on online reviews. 80% of consumers won’t buy from businesses with negative reviews. Therefore, a single negative customer experience doesn’t just result in the loss of existing customers, but also damages your reputation and has detrimental effects on your ability to acquire new customers. |
How to Define the Ideal Customer Experience
To define your ideal customer service experience service, the authors suggest that you consider every interaction customers may have with your business from your customers’ point of view. Next, you need to create a vision of how you want to serve your customers at each of these interaction points.
Shortform Exclusive: The Customer Journey Map
Blanchard and Bowles don’t offer practical steps to define your customer service experience vision. To help focus your vision, consider creating a customer journey map that details the actions your customers take during their entire engagement with your business.
———End of Preview———
Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles's "Raving Fans" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full Raving Fans summary :
- A business fable exploring why it's critical to turn your customers into "raving fans"
- How to apply the principles of outstanding customer service
- A range of exercises to help you transform your customers into your biggest fans
