“Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create Raving Fans.” – Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service by Ken Blanchard.
A couple of years ago, in weekly staff meetings, Darryl would read us sections of this book and introduced the concept to us that we are all in the business of customer service whether we have customer-facing roles or not. It is an important lesson, and one that I try to bear in mind in all my work. What that means for me as a web programmer is that I constantly strive to produce the best software that I can in terms of performance, functionality, reliability and maintainability. I think that if I can make the software I write even a little bit better than the customer is expecting then I have done a good job.
Since being introduced to the book I have also become more aware of customer service as a consumer, and I find myself noticing more and more the businesses that go the extra mile, and those who are happy just to drift along in a sea of mediocrity. They don’t do anything wrong by me as a consumer but they don’t do anything to stand out and make me want to go back either. Then there are businesses who have the processes in place to create raving fans but have obviously not educated their staff as to the importance of these processes.
One obvious example of this for me is the local outlet of a well known coffee chain. Often, when ordering a coffee in a coffee shop, they ask your name, the reason that they give for this is so that they can let you know when your coffee is ready. The real reason that they ask for your name is that addressing a person by name makes that person feel warm and fuzzy inside. Trust me, it’s true. You can test this out for yourself the next time you are buying the groceries; when you get to the register, you will notice that the person serving you has a name tag, use their name when you speak to them and watch their attitude towards you change. I’m sure you’ll find that they become much more attentive.
Anyway, back to my coffee shop. I visit this particular coffee shop often there is usually one of two girls working there. The blonde girl asks for my name and, when my coffee is ready, calls me by name to let me know. I put some sugar in, put a lid on the coffee and then, as I’m walking out of the store, the girl says “see you later Dean”. It’s such a small thing for her to do but it really puts a spring in my step.
The other girl who works at the same coffee shop doesn’t ask my name. I am usually the only customer in there at the time and, to be honest, there is no need to get my name to let me know when the coffee is ready so she doesn’t. I still go there and buy my coffee but as I walk out she doesn’t say anything and I don’t have the same spring in my step.
Now you might be thinking that since I buy the coffee anyway it doesn’t really matter. But if I noticed after a while that the blonde girl didn’t work there anymore would I continue going there? There are other coffee shops nearby and all coffee tastes pretty much the same to me so what is the incentive to choose one over the other?
At lunchtimes lately I have found myself bypassing the coffee shop right next door (who do a very nice toasted ham, cheese and tomato on turkish bread) in favour of walking an extra 500m to a burger joint up the road. The coffee shop is very good and the staff are very friendly, but I have been working for ireckon for 2.5 years now and they do not know my name. Because I visit the coffee shop regularly – I know the names of most of the staff, but they have never asked what mine is. Admittedly, I am not the most outgoing person so I am not likely to strike up a conversation with any of them but you would think that in all that time they would have taken the opportunity to learn my name and to use it and make me feel special.
On the other hand I have the burger place down the road that I’ve only been to a few times and they ask for my name when I place my order. They then use my name at least once or twice by the time I have paid for my meal. When they bring my meal to me they use my name again. By the time I have ordered my food, paid for it, waited for it to be cooked, eaten it and then left they have used my name at least three or four times. This makes me feel like they are taking an interest in me and it makes me want to go back even though their burgers are quite expensive (they are also very good).
I’m pretty sure that the staff and owners of this burger joint have read Raving Fans. But they have not just read it, they live and breathe it. And if their actions are not proof of this then the fact that they have the words “Raving Fans” written across the back of their t-shirts surely must be. I think I might have a burger for lunch today.
About Dean
