Successful organizations have one common central focus: customers. It doesn't matter if it's a business, a professional practice, a hospital, or a government agency, success comes to those, and only those, who are obsessed with looking after customers.
This wisdom isn't a secret. Mission statements, annual reports, posters on the wall, seminars, and even television programs all proclaim the supremacy of customers. But in the words of Shakespeare, this wisdom is "more honoured in the breach than the observance." In fact, generally speaking, customer service, in a word, stinks.
And no wonder. Look at how we've been training our managers. When I was in college, we took courses in marketing and consumer behavior. The assumption was that the public was a mindless group of buyers and that with proper advertising and promotion, products could be produced en masse and sold to naive buyers. Unfortunately, as I tour the country speaking, I find too many young managers still think this way. Advertising, product positioning, and marketshare pricing strategies are all important. But when all is said and done, goods aren't sold; products and services are bought.
Since most service is awful, America is ripe for a revolution. Although we may not be following the mission statements and wall posters, the recognition of the need for customer service is there. More and more, managers in individual organizations are zeroing in on customers, and their success stands as a beacon for others. Five to eight years ago, the quality wave was about to break over us. We discovered quality isn't enough. Today the customer-service wave is swelling larger than the quality wave, and whenit fully hits, those not prepared will be washed into history.
What success I've enjoyed in business, with my books, my public speaking, and the many volunteer community organizations I've worked for, has been due to looking after customers-seeing them as individuals and trying to understand all their needs. I wish I'd been able to read Raving Fans years ago. This book is Ken Blanchard at his best. And that is very, very good indeed. He and co-author Sheldon Bowles have taken an important, complex subject, peeled back all but the critical core, and set out fundamental truths in a simple, understandable, and enjoyable form. Decide, Discover, and Deliver will become your guideposts, as they have become mine, to creating Raving Fans.
I can't think of two better people to write about this subject than Ken and Sheldon. I have known both of them for well over a decade through ourinvolvement with the Young Presidents' Organization-an educational association of presidents under the age of forty who run companies with more than fifty employees and $5 million in sales. Sheldon and I were members of YPO, and Ken has been a topresource teacher for this group since 1977. Ken has been my writing mentor and the initial "prodder" for me to write How to Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. He has an incredible way of making complicated subjects simple and leaving people with gems they can apply immediately. Sheldon, along witha team he would insist be given credit here, built Domo, a full-service retail gasoline business, into a customer-service legend.
Raving Fans may be an easy, fun read, but the message is dead serious. I'll be buying a copy for every single one of my employees at Mackay Envelope Corporation. Those wanting to create Raving Fans and enjoy future success will do likewise.