Raving Fans

By Ken Blanchard

Introduction

Yesterday – the public is a mindless group of buyers and that with proper advertising and promotion, products could be produced en masse and sold to naïve buyers.

Reality – When all is said and done, goods aren’t sold; products and services are bought.

Today – the customer service wave is swelling larger than the quality wave, and when it fully hits, those not prepared will be washed into history.

Quality is how well our product works in relation to the customer’s need. That’s just one aspect of customer service. Customer service covers all the customer’s needs and expectations.

"No Worse than the Competition" – customers are only satisfied because they’re expectations are so low and because no one else is doing any better. They will be glad to move along when they find something better.

"Decide What You Want"

Creating a vision of perfection centered on the customer. A mind’s eye painting of what your enterprise would look like if it were perfect. Once you know what perfection looks like, you know what your goal is. Impose the vision over your organization to see where the bumps and warts are.

"Discover what the Customer Wants"

Discovering the customer’s vision of what they really want and then altering your vision if need be. Unless you have your own vision, you can’t understand the customers. The customers vision will likely focus on just one or two things. Your vision has to fill in the gaps. You have to know when to ignore what the customer wants and, if necessary, tell the customer to take his vision elsewhere to be fulfilled. Some try to give good service by being everything to everyone. That doesn’t work.

Good customer service means looking after every whim of the customer but within the window you’ve defined in your vision as your particular customer service product.

The customer’s vision may change your window, but if you don’t have your own vision to start with, you’ll never put the necessary limits in place.

Having your own vision before you talk to customers also puts you in a position where you can understand the customer’s vision. It also allows you to fill in the gaps between your vision and their vision, so you have a complete picture. How do we find out the customer’s vision? ASK THEM.

"Deliver Plus One"

Deliver the vision plus one percent.

Consistency, consistency, consistency. Consistency is critical. Consistency builds credibility.

At the core of every great customer service organization is a package of systems and a training program to inculcate those systems into the soul of that company. That's what guarantees consistency.

Systems are predetermined ways to achieve a result. The emphasis has to be on the result, not the system for the system's sake. Systems allow you to deliver a minimum standard of performance consistently.

The rule of one percent reminds me that all I have to do is improve by one percent. You can make big changes in almost anything or achieve great things in your life by improving or changing one percent.

Flexability is the magic ingredient. More customer service hopes have been wrecked on the rigid shores of immobile bureaucratic minds than anywhere else.

Flexability has to do with what is delivered and consistency has to do with how it is delivered.

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