Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service – A Practical Parable on Workplace Excellence

Great book. It helped me understand customer service better.

Definitely worth a read. At first I thought it was a bit odd but once you get past that it was really good.

I read some of the reviews here of the book and the ones from those who give it 3 stars or less and have something negative to say don't understand one thing - Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles are writing in the perspective of ideas, not necessarily business and how to make money from it. Having a business where we are in service to others, it's essential that we learn and understand how to please our customers so they keep coming back. It's marketing - it's the way we showcase and present ourselves to the public. I read the book, and I am taking in each of the points both authors discuss to come up with my own ideas of how to make my own clients in my hypnotherapy and coaching practice, raving fans. Yes, some of the points seem to be far fetched - I have never seen valets who park your car for you in grocery stores, at least, not one here in LA yet. I think it would actually be a neat idea for grocery stores to have their employees assist customers to their cars if they have heavy groceries without the customer having to ask if they could get help to load the groceries in the car. Anyhow, the ideas are that if we want people to come to our business, to receive our products and services, we need to be able to give something to them that makes us unique. And from the viewpoint of this book that I've seen as I read it, I see that this book actually has a lot of value by giving us ample ideas on how to create more customers, and make them so happy that they want to keep coming back and keep on telling others about us as businesses. I know if I get excellent service from somewhere, I will always keep coming back there no matter how far it is located or if it's the same old boring stuff they serve. While this book may not appeal to everyone, I can see how great of a tool this book can be for anyone who owns their own business and wants customers left and right. This book is an asset for someone who wants to improve on their own services and think about extras that can help solve a customer's problem....after all, that's what this book is teaching us. How to solve the customer's/client's problems quick, and efficiently so that they continue to come back again and again.

The concept this book teaches is excellent. The book is short and easy to read. However, it could have been even shorter. The book is a story. The concept of raving fans is taught to the reader through conversations between the story's characters. The concept of raving fans is useful, and I believe good for anyone owning a business to understand. However, the story in this book gets boring to read. There are a lot of conversations between the characters that I felt the author included simply to make the book over 100 pages. In other words, the book seems to "beat around the bush" a lot, just to teach a concept that could probably be taught in 20 pages or less. Overall I give the book 4/5 stars because I believe the need to learn the concept of raving fans outweighs the boredom I experienced at times as I read the book. The book would have received 5 stars, however, I have to deduct one star for the many pages of character conversations that should have been omitted from the book.

I'm not one to typically read, let alone leadership books. I find myself easily distracted or getting bored shortly after attempting to read no matter the environment. This book was the perfect size to where I was able to read it in one sitting without getting distracted, and it kept my attention the whole time. The overall message is one of my favorite, and I still think about it weekly even though I last read the book over 4 years ago. I apply it to my life, both personally and professionally. I now manage a team of my own, and this is one of two books I always recommend to my leaders and peers!

I read this book many years ago, and have just reordered for my office to read. This is by far the BEST book on Customer Service ever written. It is concise, easy to read and really gives a great description of customer service and what is expected and what is received as just barely satisfactory. I highly recommend and would love to purchase enough to give to every business that I patronize hoping to give them some leverage in service.

This is a quick and easy read. All in the customer service industry should have their employees read this book. It made a difference in my career many years ago. I have given away all of my other copies and wanted to have one in hand. It's not rocket science, just common sense.

Principles are there, but lacking substance overall and felt like a story meant for a 6th grader. The points made in the book are 100% valid and useful. But I found it had a lot of filler and wish it had been more concise. Reading Unreasonable Hospitality now (who has been inspired by Ken at times) and that book is more up my alley for a value-packed reading experience.