This YouTube talk explains the "Raving Fans" idea: turn every customer into an enthusiastic promoter by (1) deciding the exact service vision you will deliver, (2) discovering continuously what customers want, and (3) implementing systems that deliver consistent, improving service (the +1% rule). The speaker uses personal anecdotes and a restaurant analogy, emphasizes real-estate-specific reputation challenges, and frames customer service as a core long-term business strategy rather than a secondary concern.
So what does raving fans mean? So with the increasing importance of word of mouth marketing, could you imagine providing a level of customer service not to some customer some of the time, which is kind of what happens in our businesses, right? Most of you could say no, no, we've got this covered. Like we do the reviews and we get tens. I would venture to guess because it's true for my team that some customers some of the time get world class service from us. But this is to all of the customers all the time. That is so unique that your customers become raving fans of your business, talking about their fantastic experience with your business at every opportunity. In Raving Fans, three secrets are described that if embraced will go through them rather than being wrapped up in theory of the book. This is a fable and you gotta love fables if you're me. So three secrets of raving fan customer service. Decide what your organization wants is the first thing. By determining the type of people focused service your organization will do and will not do, the individuals in your organization will develop their own personal touch that is aligned with what your organization wants. Discover on a continuing basis what your customers want and think about what and how you provide their solutions. Then implement and improve systems, procedures and policies in order to deliver a little more or plus 1% as the book calls it, service that your customers expect. So step one, Decide what you want. The first step in creating raving fans is deciding what you want to provide your customers and create a vision of perfection centered on the customer. Imagine you are the customer and identify every detail of what would make a raving fan experience for you. Right? So using my restaurant analogy, I know at least 10 things that I could have. I guess I've become a little bit of a restaurant like a service snob. Not that I treat people badly, but I just notice great service and to average to bad service. And so it just annoyed me and it annoys Julie to sit with me at meals now because I'm just so focused on if it's a bad experience, I'm like, oh, they should have cleared the table. What's taking this so long? All the things that should have been done better. So for each type of customer or type of product service. So for buyers and sellers, put yourself in the shoes of the customer from the moment you make contact with the company to delivery of the service and beyond. What type of experience can you envision changing and a customer into a raving fan? So I'd argue that most of us are probably have customers, you know, when we're Done. And we don't have raving fans, so what type of experience would have to happen? The next part is just understanding the customer's vision in the context of the company's vision. And this one, you know, we are already consumers do not think very highly of real estate agents. So even if you provide a better than average service, you're still fighting that uphill batt. But you've really got to understand what a customer thinks of real estate agents, but also what they want out of a real estate service. And your vision and their vision may be different. And then just deliver plus run. This is just doing everything like going the extra mile for your clients to every customer, what was promised consistently, every time, every day. Promise and deliver level consistency requires systems, processes, training, right? I don't think any of us spend a lot of time training our buyer agents how they want, what level of care and standard of service they want delivered to clients all the time. Once consistency is established, a company should continue to focus on improvement. That's the plus 1% of the guideline. And this basically forces you to think about your customer and about customer service as the most important tool in building and realizing a successful business strategy. And I think most of us as wanting to build this big team, we, and this is true for me, we think of this as a secondary issue, right? I just need more leads, I need better lead conversion, I need better lead management. But we don't think of the service that we throw these clients into as being the best service that it could possibly be. Your ability to deliver raving fan service on a consistent basis will determine your long term success. So you've got to read the book. Get the book and read it. So Ken Blanchard says you, customers are only satisfied because this is so true for real estate. They're 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 must create raving fans. The challenge is for all of you to think about the services you provide to buyers and sellers and what you could do to make those services that much better. I'm talking the best real estate services in all the land in the entire country. How could you provide the best listing services to your clients?
