Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

Raving Fans adamantly portrays customer service as part of a larger dynamic between a business and its customers rather than a one-way service to alleviate confusion or perform damage control. The need to surpass customer expectations arises from the fact that customers are the lifeblood of commerce; it can only harm a business to disregard their satisfaction. While businesses provide products or services and customer service is meant to ease this process, the text also argues that customer service is a tool to help businesses grow rather than merely operate at existing standards. The better customer service is, the happier the customer is, and the more a business thrives.

In teaching the Area Manager how to better run his customer service team, Charlie offers him three lessons: Decide What You Want, Discover What The Customer Wants, and Deliver Plus One. The first two are relevant to the concept of a business-customer relationship. Much as interpersonal dynamics require an understanding of the needs of all individuals involved, a commercial dynamic requires discerning the needs of both parties. The first rule involves establishing a vision for the company. This is often set forth by the business owner but reaffirmed and maintained by managers and other staff, and it involves not only knowing what one wants for one’s company but also developing a perfect and customer-focused image of how one wants it to look: A business owner should be able to visualize every step of the customer’s interaction with customer service from start to finish.