Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

“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.”

Harvey Mackay explains something that the Area Manager’s “fairy godmother” Charlie is adamant about—namely, The Importance of Excellent Customer Service above all things. By first establishing how broad the term “customer” is, Mackay opens readers’ minds to what customer service can entail and what purposes it can serve. Customer service is most effective when acknowledging that customers are complex human beings with a variety of needs, and customer retention can only be achieved by attending to these needs “obsessively.”

“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 welling larger than the quality wave, and when it fully hits, those not prepared will be washed into history.”

This passage describes the unique tipping point that Mackay viewed the US as experiencing at the time of the book’s publication. As production of commercial goods increasingly occurred abroad, retailers were less able to guarantee the quality of their products. Moreover, not all interactions were taking place in traditional storefronts as sales began to occur over the phone and, eventually, online. Savvy customer service leaders realized that they would have to improve their quality of service to alleviate this dip in product consistency. Otherwise, retaining customers in an increasingly changing and competitive market would be near impossible.