Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Good read for singular point but lacks business sense
This book is written in "parable" or story telling format and is different to read for most people. If you have read the best seller One Minute Manager or Leadership and the One Minute Manager it is written in comparable form. I have read both of the prior books.First off, the book basically talks about customer service (vs. goal setting & reward/punishment in the one minute manager) and how companies need to offer exemplary service to create Raving Fans, as the authors title it. I was simply hoping to get one good idea/thought out of the book and I did. It was EXCEPTIONALLY easy to read, as I read the 132 pages in about 2.5 - 3 hours total. The book has a lot of dead space and big font so you aren't getting tons of "filler." The authors try to focus on one business issue and address it succinctly. This book is good and bad depending on what you expect to get out of it. It is good because (1) anyone can read this book (2) customer service is horrible in today's environment so it is timely (3) The book provides great illustrations and (4) The authors get the point across. Having said that, they never talk about the business implications of what the characters do. They say that customers love their service or product but they negate to talk about the cost implications. Business is about making money, not being loved by everyone. I love great service and all the frills but, at the end of the day, I have to make it worth the investment to the business owner. Yes, our economy is very much about selling an experience to someone, but there are cost implications to having carpeted floors in grocery stores and full service gas stations that don't price their gas more expensively. There are implications to buying a product at another store and selling it at the exact same price to your customer (what about the price of labor?) In that case you are actually LOSING money, except that the customer is happy..... At the end of the day profits pay for the labor, rent, etc. Businesses have to make money and this part is really neglected in this book. I love that they focus on the customer and finding out what their needs are but they negate to mention where people are in the food chain. What does the customer value the most? Is your business positioned to offer it? Do you offer headaches or tons of value to the customer are a few questions I think of daily? If anyone is looking for a great business book check out The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker as it is the best book I have read on management and the role of managers, businesses and individuals within a business. Your money and time would be better spent on that book.
Rating: - A fan but not a raving one
Raving Fans is a decent business text and a nice break from some of the more academic titles out there. Like most Ken Blanchard titles, the book is a very easy and quick read. Its value for the time invested is therefore good (but not great).The most important teaching from this book was that you can't settle for simply "satisfied" customers. Service expectations are often so low that people claim to be satisfied when indeed they are not. This leaves you vulnerable to any competitor that merely raises the bar on service. This is not rocket science. Like the rest of the book, the advice given is practical albeit simplistic. Raving Fans suffers from a lack of real-world examples. The fictional stories are handy for getting one to think about creative service ideas. Unfortunately, there is a lack of supporting details to show how these ideas translate to profitability. You can't grab onto these ideas and say to a doubting associate; "Of course this can work. This is just how (insert name of real business here) did it!" If you don't have much time to read about customer service ideas, I would pass on this book and go directly to Carl Sewell's book "Customers for Life". Sewell owns a real business and discusses the real-world issues of increasing customer service levels including compensation incentives, costs, service abuses and bottom line results. I felt that Sewell's book was a much better value for the time invested.
Rating:  - This book saved my company!
I've been a struggling small business owner (some 32 to 38 employees, depending upon the season) thinking my problem was either that I was undercapitalized or that I had hired the wrong people. Raving Fans was a wake up call. The problem was I wasn't creating raving fans. I was satisfied if my customers were satisfied, but I learned in this book that service is so bad that customers expectations are low. It's easy to satisfy low expectations and it doesn't mean very much. You have to create raving fans. Customers who tell others how wonderful you are. Today everyone in my company is focused on customers. Focused on creating stories our customers can tell others. Creating those magic moments the book calls giving symbolic hugs. Best of all Raving Fans gave me the road map to do it, all wrapped up in three easy lessons. This book may be simple, but it is also profound and by far the best customer service book I've ever read, and I guess the best business book too. I'd be out of business today if I hadn't adopted the strategy of creating raving fans and then getting everyone in the company to do the same. The result is we've stopped buring our customer list every six months. We're retaining old customers, adding new ones and sales are way up. Today Raving Fans is required reading for every new hire. Thanks Amazon for this opportunity to write this review. You're the best. I'm your RAVING FAN!Richard Anders
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