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Book Bites July 2025: Raving Fans – A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

Nicole R. Smith Jul 30, 2025 9:00:00 AM

Book Bites Volunteer Retention Volunteer Management Best Practices

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This Month's Selection:
Raving Fans – A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service
By Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles

The twenty-sixth in a series of Better Impact Book Bites
A taste of great books worth consuming.

Why This Book:

Raving Fans is designed to really get into the mind of your “customer” whether it be your volunteers, your colleagues or other departments. It shares tips and innovative techniques in a quirky, easy-to-read, short parable (115 pages) that can vastly improve internal customer service. Lessons learned in this fun read can alleviate your recruitment efforts because you will have Raving Fans of your program who will not only keep them coming back but tell others! There aren’t chapters in this parable, just four secrets that the authors share with the reader to help create Raving Fans of whoever their customer is.

You Should Read This Book If:

You are looking to recruit volunteers
You want to improve your retention rate
You want to improve interdepartmental relationships

Secret 1: Decide What You Want

This is the first secret because it guides everything else. The book ignites the process of thinking about what you really want for your volunteer program; no, what you really want. It encourages you to step back and think about the bigger picture, and once that vision is created, apply steps that can be implemented to achieve it.

Secret 2: Create a Vision of Perfection Centered on the Customer

Don’t get lost on the word “perfection” in this second secret. It is simply encouraging you to dream; if there was an absolutely perfect way to accomplish the first secret, what would that look like? Let loose and get caught up in the fantasy. What would it be like? After you snap out of your daydream stupor, compare what is actually happening in real life versus the dream. Is it similar? Vastly different? In all this dreaming, did you clearly define who your customer is to begin with? If not, you may want to adjust and dream again. If you have several customers, create a vision for each customer separately.

Secret 3: Discover What the Customer Wants

The book describes why this secret is vital. If what you want and what your customer wants are vastly different, you have something to think about. If what you want and what your customer wants are pretty much aligned, then the great thing is, your vision for great customer service simply must fill in the gaps. The trick is, you have to find out what they want and build a system of accountability that helps to deliver it.

The authors draw attention to the fact that you can’t be everything to everybody. You only have to provide great customer service to your target market, and they provide their viewpoint on why it’s ok to lose the “right” customer. I’ll leave that one right there for you to think about.

Secret 4: Discover What the Customer Wants: Deliver Plus One

Once you have discovered what the customer wants, don’t just deliver—go above and beyond. Here’s the catch: the secret to exceeding expectations starts with consistently meeting them first. Meeting expectations consistently will hold more than exceeding them. This secret to this is rooted in consistency. Consistency is critical (kind of reminds me of the message in the March Book Bites Blog Post on Atomic Habits). When you consistently deliver, you build credibility and overcome resistance. Developing efficient systems helps to do just that. When trying to create raving fans, choose one or two areas to improve first because it is easier to be more consistent and over deliver in two areas than several all at once. Once those two areas are mastered, move on to two others. Here is the gem: systems aren’t worth a dime if everyone is trained on how to do them and is committed to following them. Mic drop.

The Last Bite

I believe in my soul if you take care of your people, your people will take care of you. This is a huge part of recruitment (and buy-in) that people miss. So many people look outside of their organization for more people to help first instead of looking at their own internal processes to make sure their volunteers are having a meaningful experience. If people consistently feel appreciated and have meaningful experiences with your organization, not only will they keep coming back, but they will also bring people with them.