Perhaps too simplistic, but helpful

Raving Fans is helpful in making you step back and think about your customer's wants and how to best address them. Told in the form of a novel, an "area manager" is visited by his fairy god-mother "Charlie" who proceeds to provide him with examples of "Raving Fan" service. This is then applied to his own job and the unique challenges the area manager faces daily with providing customer service.

Though not all the ideas in "Raving Fans" seem plausible or reasonable, it atleast draws the reader into asking the questions that all good managers should ask. What would Raving Fan service be in my business or organization? How would I know when we are providing "raving fan" service?

Not a heaveyweight book on management, it is never the less a good means of stepping back and asking the big questions about customer service. Not a bad book to give to managers to read and evaluate their own organization.

A quick read towards better service

I was given this book several years ago and read it a few times. I gave it to a client and have missed my copy so I will be buying another copy. Sure, the examples such as the service station and grocery store scenarios are simplistic and may be unrealistic, but they make you think about how you could improve your business. I have conducted my business on the principles in the book and I see the positive growth. Every business should have this book and make it available to every employee.

Not a "Raving Fan" of the book

Like other Blanchard books, this one presents its ideas in the form of a "novel." I guess because I read so much fiction (by authors who can WRITE), I have a hard time getting through these books. There are lots of lazy habits in the story-telling and even though RAVING FANS is incredibly short, it still feels like a slog getting through it. One example: one just one short page, two different characters have lines of dialogue, followed by "he laughed." As in, "'I never thought of that,' he laughed." Not many people laugh their words. They may say something and THEN laugh. Once or twice in a book it's okay, but twice on ONE PAGE!! The main character who is learning about the "raving fan" concept is "the area manager." It gets really annoying having him refered to in this manner from front to back. Would it really have hurt to give him a name? The darn "fairy godmother" has a name, after all.

But, the book is supposed to present business ideas, right? Well, it does this a little better than it tells a compelling story. The over-arching point is that "satisfied customers" aren't good enough anymore, because they are largely putting up with lousy service, but have simply come to expect and accept it. That's actually a simple but powerful idea. How many times do we all just take mediocrity as status quo? The idea that actually taking the trouble to please our customers...to SHOCK them into recognized they are being treated remarkably well and will in turn "rave" about this to others is compelling in its simplicity.

Because of the storytelling device of the book, some of the examples given of how to apply this are oversimplistic and not completely believable. Valet parking at a grocery store? I'm sure people WOULD rave about it...but with the margins at grocery stores, could they really afford a team of parkers?

So, from a business standpoint, the book gets a thumbs-up. From a readability standpoint, I have to give a thumbs down.