CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY

School of Graduate Studies

MASTER OF ARTS IN NURSING

I. Introduction
Title: raving fans! A revolutionary approach to customer service

Author: Ken Blanchard

Sheldon Bowles

Publishing Information:
HarperCollins Publishers
77-85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

Copyright The Blanchard family Partnership and Ode

Joy Limited 1993

Theme: “Customer Service”

This book is dedicated to the seven customer service “Charlies”:

Senator Douglas D. Everet,

Gary Heil,
Harvey Mackay,
Tom Peters,
Richard Tate,
David Watson

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service is a

book on providing excellent service in your business. It follows the
career of an “Area Manager” and his fairy godmother Charlie.
Charlie has a knack for mentoring business owners and managers
to providing service so well that their fans become “raving fans.”
 CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY
School of Graduate Studies
MASTER OF ARTS IN NURSING

II. Summary

Raving fans is a book that tackles the topic about customer service in
which written in a parable style and the story teaches you and all of its readers
that will try to take time and flip all of its pages on how to deliver what a
customer really wants by instituting effective systems and making raving fan
service a constant feature.
The started and revolves in the life of a new area manager of a certain
business who was anxious or shall we say nervous about being appointed to his
new job by the president of the company. One day, as he was in the midst of
his thinking his fairy godmother named Charlie which is actually a guy showed
the area manager the three secrets on how to create raving fans which is the
ultimate in customer service. The fairy godmother took the area manager to a
small department store named Varley department store where he showed him
how excellent the customer service at the store was. The area manager met
Leo the owner of the company who gave him his first secret to creating raving
fans.
Leo gave the area manager a shield bracelet and told him to look on the
shield to find the first secret to creating raving fans. It simply read “decide what
you want”. The area manager was somewhat confused about this statement as
he could see no relevance of it to customer service. After some time Charlie
took the area manager to a grocery store that was known for its best customer
service, people drove more than forty miles just to shop at Sally’s grocery store.
Sally gave the area manager more insight on what “decide what you want”
meant. She said that you should paint the perfect picture of your business and
how you want it to be in your mind’s eye. You should picture exactly how your
customers will be served and how the business will run on a daily basis, she says
 CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY
School of Graduate Studies
MASTER OF ARTS IN NURSING

that sometimes it may seem impossible but as you slowly put your dream
together everything will fall into place. She told him about how she pictured her
business and how she kept her vision of perfection built around what the
customer wants in her head and worked towards it so that the store could be
where it was at the current state.
The area manager was then taken to a manufacturing plant where the
second secret was revealed to him. The plant manager told the area manager
to have a look on the other side of the shield bracelet and it read “discover
what the customer wants”, again he was disappointed by this quite obvious
statement. Bill (plant manager) explained to the area manager that all you
need to do is discover the vision of what the customer really wants and then
alter your vision if needs be. The area manager was confused and said, “Hold
on, if what the customer wants is to be the same as what I want why I had a
vision in the first place?” “Good question. Three things to learn said,” said Bill.
“First, unless you have your own vision, how can you understand the
customers’?” A customer’s vision has meaning only in the context of your own
vision.
Second, when you find out what customers really want, what their vision
is, it will likely focus on one or two things. Your own vision has to fill the gaps.
Finally, you have to know when to ignore what the customer wants and, if
necessary, tell the customer to take his vision elsewhere to be fulfilled. This
statement struck the area manager as pure heresy. “I mean, you just don’t tell a
customer to take a hike,” he protested. “You don’t, unless their vision is so
different from yours that no fit is possible,” replied Bill. Having your own vision
before you talk to customers also puts you in a position where you can
understand the customer’s vision. It also allows you to fill in the gaps between
your vision and their vision, so you have a complete picture.
 CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY
School of Graduate Studies
MASTER OF ARTS IN NURSING

The third and final secret was “deliver plus one”. The secret says two
things. First, it tells you to deliver. Not sometimes, not most times. But all the time.
No exceptions contemplated or allowed. Second, it talks about plus one
percent. I’ll get back to that, but first of all we have to talk about delivery.
The rule of one percent reminds us that all we have to do is improve by
one percent. If we improve by one percent this week, and again by one
percent next week, by the end of the year we are ahead by more than fifty
percent. Flexibility is also a magic ingredient. We need to be open to change in
order to create raving fans. Flexibility allows us to keep up with the changes in
the market.
Soon, his area topped the company’s charts and the head office began
receiving letters from customers who were pleased with the service. Later on,
the president recommended the area manager to be his successor able to
follow him when he retires in three years.
 CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY
School of Graduate Studies
MASTER OF ARTS IN NURSING

III. Reaction

This book really amazed me as a reader with so many ideas and

learning’s as well as insight after finishing it cover to cover. As a member of the
health care team and working in a hospital, it allows me to think and explore my
capabilities as a person as well as a health provider to all of my patients. It
doesn’t only applicable in running a business but it also deals about how to
provide a quality customer satisfaction and service in which can be also
applied in an institution like of a hospital. It is very interesting to read and it
doesn’t fail’s me in giving so much information and lessons in which I can apply
in myself and in my career or profession which is a Nurse in delivering world-class
customer service in terms of healthcare.

As a reader, I do really agree in all of the ideas which is projected by the

authors in this book because in order for you to provide a world class customer
service to your clients or patients, you need first to create your own vision in
which will serve as your guide in planning all of your actions in accordance to
your ultimate goal. Next, finding or knowing what does your customer or patients
really needs or want to receive is such a crucial or an integral part which you
really need to know for you to be able to match with your own vision. And lastly,
after having those two you need to deliver your vision plus one percent to
create a raving fan and you need to exceed on delivery of your customer
service promise each and every time the customer or patients deals with you,
the customer or you patients needs to believe that they can count on you
again and again for example in terms of their healthcare status. Consistency
creates credibility.
 CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY
School of Graduate Studies
MASTER OF ARTS IN NURSING

As a reader and as a Nurse, this book really creates a big impact to me

after finishing it cover to cover. After reading it, many ideas were coming in my
mind with regards to the topic of customer service which is the main point or
lesson of this book. As a nurse, it made me think and realizes if how do I really
execute or shall we say provides or delivers my care to all of my patients? Much
questions are popping out on my thoughts like, is my patient really satisfied with
all the care that I am giving to him? Was he happy? Something like this types of
questions are unconsciously coming in. But on the other side of my mind, I’ve
come to realize also that despite of all these realizations I’m confident enough
that I was able to exceed or somehow reach my patients needs because I know
to myself that I’m doing good and what is right all the time in terms of rendering
care to them. And I can also validate that as well to all of their responses
towards me like simply by them saying the word “thank you” in front of me gives
me so much strength to continue what I’m doing and motivates me to perform
better and better. The magic that the word “thank you” brings upon hearing it
being said to you by your patient is like a heavy duty battery that makes a dying
object becomes fully charged at the time it was put on.
My learning’s and skills developed when I was a student from my school
had contributed a lot on how I function and perform now in my own profession
plus the skills that was sharpened through the months of experience inside the
hospital has also a great factor for me in the way I handle and respond to
certain situations.
 CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY
School of Graduate Studies
MASTER OF ARTS IN NURSING

IV. Conclusion

"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."
This quote from the book really captivates my attention as a reader.
This was the advice given to a new Area Manager on his first day of his work. An
extraordinary business book that will help everyone, in every kind of organization
or business as well as in the field of health care , deliver stunning customer
service and achieve miraculous bottom-line results and having “raving fans”.
For me, this book can be described as a brilliantly simple and charming
story to teach how to define a vision, learn what a customer really wants,
institute effective systems, and make Raving Fans. It introduces three concepts
that serve as guide in decision making and in delivering world class customer
service; 1. Decide what you want, 2. Discover what the customer wants, 3.
Deliver the vision plus one percent.
Success requires that we have raving fans and the concepts defined
will help you create a company that creates raving fans. The key to delivering
service is to do it consistently, every time. Consistency creates credibility in the
eyes of the customer. As we implement changes, do them in small
increments. Meet the customers’ expectations first and then exceed their
expectations. “Meet first, Exceed second”. The only way to be consistent is to
have systems and training in place. Systems are the core to a successful,
consistent delivery. The rule of one percent reminds us that all we have to do is
improve in one percent increments. This guides us to make small manageable
changes that we can deliver consistently.
 CENTRAL PHILIPPINE UNIVERSITY
School of Graduate Studies
MASTER OF ARTS IN NURSING

That is why I really recommend this book to all of my colleagues

working in the hospital as well as to all members of the health care team
because I know that this book has a lot of good points and ideas bound inside it
that we can really incorporate and serve as guide in our practice as nurses in
delivering a world class health care services to all patients.