0
Raving Fans
Posted by Brian
on
6:28 AM
Ken Blanchard (author of One Minute Manager and numerous other business books) tells a great story about Ritz Carlton and their commitment to customer satisfaction.
Solving a customer's problem is paramount to the Ritz's operation. Any employee can immediately spend up to $2,000 to solve a problem without getting any ones approval. A businessman checked out of the Ritz Carlton and traveled to Hawaii to make a important scheduled presentation. Upon arriving in Hawaii he discovered he had left his laptop, complete with the presentation, back at the Ritz. He called the hotel. A housekeeper had found the computer. The businessman needed the computer absolutely the next day. She took the computer to the airport, and her and the computer took off to Hawaii. She didn't turn it into a vacation, she returned on the next flight back. When her boss ask her why she flew the laptop to Hawaii rather than shipping it, she simply stated that there was less margin for error if she took it there herself.
Blanchard, in his book called Raving Fans, talks about a method of management that sets as an objective turning your customers into "raving fans" about your business. The successful company of the future will be relying on their customer base as their marketing department. The goal, says Blanchard, is to give your customers an experience that far exceeds, rather blows away, any expectations they might have had when interacting with your business. When the customers start bragging on your company, you've created "Raving Fan" customers.
Blanchard boils it down to three steps:
1. Decide what you want. Think so far out of the box that you can't even see the box anymore. How extreme can you take your vision when it comes to customer service?
2. "Discover what your customer wants." Simply, ask them. Stay in touch with your core customer. See what their needs and wants are. Blanchard explains that there may be wants from the customer than don't fit your vision. These customers need to go elsewhere. You can't be all things to all people.
3. "Deliver what you promise, plus one." Exceed your customer's expectations when you perform.
Over the past two days, I have been asked by four people to describe my Apple Computer experience. They are in the market and are looking for advice. I'm not a technical guy, but I know how to use my iMac, my PowerBook and my iPod to do what I need to get done. Do any of you have a three year old PC laptop that's been around the world twice, subjected to sand and salt air from exposure to a coastal environment, and has never crashed, caught a virus, or needed repair? I am constantly under pressure to finish projects on time, and unlike the PC I used in the beginning, neither of my Apple products have ever let me down.
I'm not exactly a Mac "evangelist" - I rarely talk about it unless asked - but I am definitely a raving fan.
And as an aside: I know the church is not a business, but how many have "raving fans"?
|
Solving a customer's problem is paramount to the Ritz's operation. Any employee can immediately spend up to $2,000 to solve a problem without getting any ones approval. A businessman checked out of the Ritz Carlton and traveled to Hawaii to make a important scheduled presentation. Upon arriving in Hawaii he discovered he had left his laptop, complete with the presentation, back at the Ritz. He called the hotel. A housekeeper had found the computer. The businessman needed the computer absolutely the next day. She took the computer to the airport, and her and the computer took off to Hawaii. She didn't turn it into a vacation, she returned on the next flight back. When her boss ask her why she flew the laptop to Hawaii rather than shipping it, she simply stated that there was less margin for error if she took it there herself.
Blanchard, in his book called Raving Fans, talks about a method of management that sets as an objective turning your customers into "raving fans" about your business. The successful company of the future will be relying on their customer base as their marketing department. The goal, says Blanchard, is to give your customers an experience that far exceeds, rather blows away, any expectations they might have had when interacting with your business. When the customers start bragging on your company, you've created "Raving Fan" customers.
Blanchard boils it down to three steps:
1. Decide what you want. Think so far out of the box that you can't even see the box anymore. How extreme can you take your vision when it comes to customer service?
2. "Discover what your customer wants." Simply, ask them. Stay in touch with your core customer. See what their needs and wants are. Blanchard explains that there may be wants from the customer than don't fit your vision. These customers need to go elsewhere. You can't be all things to all people.
3. "Deliver what you promise, plus one." Exceed your customer's expectations when you perform.
Over the past two days, I have been asked by four people to describe my Apple Computer experience. They are in the market and are looking for advice. I'm not a technical guy, but I know how to use my iMac, my PowerBook and my iPod to do what I need to get done. Do any of you have a three year old PC laptop that's been around the world twice, subjected to sand and salt air from exposure to a coastal environment, and has never crashed, caught a virus, or needed repair? I am constantly under pressure to finish projects on time, and unlike the PC I used in the beginning, neither of my Apple products have ever let me down.
I'm not exactly a Mac "evangelist" - I rarely talk about it unless asked - but I am definitely a raving fan.
And as an aside: I know the church is not a business, but how many have "raving fans"?
|
Posts
