Rating: 
Summary: Good read for singular point but lacks business sense
Review: This book is written in "parable" or story telling format and is different to read for most people. If you have read the best seller One Minute Manager or Leadership and the One Minute Manager it is written in comparable form. I have read both of the prior books.First off, the book basically talks about customer service (vs. goal setting & reward/punishment in the one minute manager) and how companies need to offer exemplary service to create Raving Fans, as the authors title it. I was simply hoping to get one good idea/thought out of the book and I did. It was EXCEPTIONALLY easy to read, as I read the 132 pages in about 2.5 - 3 hours total. The book has a lot of dead space and big font so you aren't getting tons of "filler." The authors try to focus on one business issue and address it succinctly. This book is good and bad depending on what you expect to get out of it. It is good because (1) anyone can read this book (2) customer service is horrible in today's environment so it is timely (3) The book provides great illustrations and (4) The authors get the point across. Having said that, they never talk about the business implications of what the characters do. They say that customers love their service or product but they negate to talk about the cost implications. Business is about making money, not being loved by everyone. I love great service and all the frills but, at the end of the day, I have to make it worth the investment to the business owner. Yes, our economy is very much about selling an experience to someone, but there are cost implications to having carpeted floors in grocery stores and full service gas stations that don't price their gas more expensively. There are implications to buying a product at another store and selling it at the exact same price to your customer (what about the price of labor?) In that case you are actually LOSING money, except that the customer is happy..... At the end of the day profits pay for the labor, rent, etc. Businesses have to make money and this part is really neglected in this book. I love that they focus on the customer and finding out what their needs are but they negate to mention where people are in the food chain. What does the customer value the most? Is your business positioned to offer it? Do you offer headaches or tons of value to the customer are a few questions I think of daily? If anyone is looking for a great business book check out The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker as it is the best book I have read on management and the role of managers, businesses and individuals within a business. Your money and time would be better spent on that book.
Rating: 
Summary: We made history using Raving Fans as our foundation.
Review: I am the GM of Toyota Mall of Georgia and in July of 2000 we chose this book and Gung Ho as our guide in building our business model. We made history in 2001 by winning all 10 customer and sales awards in our first year. We sold over 6700 cars too. Who says you can't have volume and customer satifaction never read this book. We make each employee read this book and test them on it before they can talk to a customer.
Great job Ken !!!
Rating: 
Summary: More of the same!
Review: While short and to the point can be good, I found this book to be more of the same. One can only read so many short stories and try to apply them to real life situations. Having recently completed my MBA, I decided to take a break from the standard MBA text; however, I do find those books more meaningful. I'll stick with Who Moved My Cheese as my recommended business story book.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm not raving one bit
Review: I felt compelled to review this book in order to shake off that feeling of intellectual abuse I got when I finished reading it. As with so many 'it's so easy to change' manuals many of us do not approach these literary equivalents of junk food by ourselves. Managers,supervisors and gurus find in such books the justification for their positions and like the faithful at the temple mount they really believe things are so simplistic and people so gullible.
Raving fans is what all customers should be is the general thesis of this book. if you go out of your way to provide exceptional service customers will want to come back to your store. Somehow golf gets thrown into this groundbreaking revelation - I thought that the author Kenneth Blanchard was going to announce that he received this message from GOd in 5 tablets. Of course as with all thse guides nothing is mentioned to the employer about the possibility that service does not improve all by itself and that a good salary and working conditions may induce a more positive work attitude. Certainly, many managers may even get more out of their staff if they avoid giving them books like these to read, or worse sending them to the seminar. A One star rating is one too many.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking information in a fun setting
Review: I thought this book was wonderful! I purchased it as suggested reading from the FISH! Philosophy and couldn't put it down. The book is a quick read and the examples he uses are simple and easy to understand. I think anyone who is interesting in improving their customer service would learn quite a lot from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Raving Fans is OK
Review: Blanchard and Bowles have done another bang-up job with Raving Fans. Like their other book, Gung Ho!, Raving Fans is easy to read and is a good resource for anyone concerned with their organization's customer service. However, in my opinion, it's not a "must buy".
Rating:
Summary: How Can You Resist?
Review: Written like Zapp, Raving Fans presents an important lesson in a very simple format. This business novelette points out an important lesson for anyone interested in keeping their customers. Unless your customers rave about your service, they are likely to be poached by an aggressive competitor. If you are willing to ask yourself the hard questions posed by Blanchard, you will likely find your services falling short of the mark. Books like this that raise just a few important points are perfect reads for those with more issues than time and who need to focus on action. Just like the One Minute Manager, quick actions suggestion by this alegory can be put to use immediately for valuable impact.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST place to start
Review: If you work in, run or are starting a customer call center, this is the BEST book to read! It has brought our team an amazing up lift and everyone comes to work and works like the company is theirs! You must read the book!
Rating:
Summary: Business Owner
Review: The book read like a kids book. It had good information but it was displayed in a way that turned me off. I would ask someone who has read it to summarize it in 1 minute instead of buying the book.
Rating:
Summary: I'm a Raving Fan!
Review: Kenneth Blanchard continues his trend of writing easy-to-read books with BIG ideas for making your business better. Raving Fans is a book of stories relating how fictional companies have created an environment of delivering awesome customer service. A guy that has just been put in a managment position requiring a turnaround goes on a fictional trip with his "angel" to visit businesses that have figured out their vision and their system to deliver customer service extraordinary. Based on three simple principles (Decide, Discover, Deliver), each company has created a group of Raving Fans (not just customers, but fans) who wouldn't consider shopping anywhere else for what one of these companies offers. Within each story is other nuggets of common sense and good ideas that can be implemented in any company that has customers and wants to create fans. We required our store managers to read the book and each created a list ranging from 20-40 points that they can put into effect at their stores to improve customer service. This is a simple, must-read for every business owner and manager.
| 
