I just finished reading a great book by Ken Blanchard titled Raving Fans. I would highly suggest it to anyone who works with customers. It’s a quick read and one that will inevitably leave you thinking about things that you, or your organization, could do to improve your organization’s approach to customer service.

One of the best takeaways I got was the way a customer feels when they walk away from an experience. Often times, we assume that if the customer isn't visibly mad or upset, that they were satisfied with their experience. However, this is not necessarily true. The only time we can truly know if someone is satisfied with an experience is if they walk away as a raving fan. If their reaction is neutral when they walk away, there is a good chance that the delivered experience was in fact below expectations.

Look at it this way, ever been to a restaurant where the food was marginal but when the waitress asked, “how is everything?” you replied with, “everything is fine.” Now the waitress might take that as everything is great but in reality, you may have felt that the food and service wasn’t terrible but was mediocre. Well unfortunately, mediocrity doesn’t cut it in today’s competitive business world. Extraordinary is the only truly sustainable business model.

At Balihoo, building a killer local advertising plan or implementing a game-changing co-op advertising program is simply not enough. While we like to think we are damn good at doing those things, it is even more critical for us to be creating raving fans through a comprehensive approach of not only building great products, but delivering exceptional customer service. We aren't perfect but we are continually pushing the envelope and raising our game to the next level every single day that we all walk into the office. Its engrained in what we do, who we are and how we succeed and its what keeps all of us working harder and harder every single day.

So let me ask you, are your fan’s raving?