With the prevalence of social media, customer service is more important today than ever before. If you have a business and you’re not on top of what people are saying about you online and offline, then your business can suffer.
Turning Rants Into Raves: Turn Your Customers On Before They Turn On You! by Randi Busse and Carol Heady helps the reader understand the value of good customer service.
The authors say that if a customer has a bad experience with your company, he/she will tell between 10 to 15 people. Putting up a bad review on Yelp, Twitter, or Facebook will amplify that number by thousands.
In the beginning of Turning Rants Into Raves, the authors talk about starting with your employees. If your employees aren’t happy, then your customers won’t be happy. If your employees provide great customer service they will:
- Take responsibility for their job and the clients
- Make sure that every client is treated with utmost respect and that they feel special
- Be easy to deal with
- Do anything to make sure that the customer is happy
- Be advocates for your business
The theme that runs throughout the book is two fictitious characters – Rant (who is only working for a paycheck) and Rave (who takes ownership in the company). In addition, the authors focus on the five principles that a company should follow in order to provide great customer service and have a lucrative, sustainable business. They are:
- Think like an owner
- Build a relationship
- Remove the roadblocks
- Walk in your customer’s shoes
- Capture your customer’s heart
Each chapter has a cartoon strip and the authors ask, “What would Rant/Rave do?” They also provide a worksheet where the reader can write down thoughts and reflections. At the end of each chapter, they provide important tips learned.
A couple of things that I found useful included:
- Focus on the entire customer experience, not just one element of it.
- Everyone should know the client’s name(s) and use it so that the client feels welcomed.
- Make sure to survey your clients and always look to improve your customer experience.
- Don’t forget small acts of kindness.
The book is laced with concrete examples from some of the finest stores including the online shoe store, Zappos, to the offline department store, Nordstrom. They even provided an example of how Nordstrom took back tires, even though they don’t sell tires! Now that’s customer service!
Even if you think you provide amazing customer service, this book is worth the read. It’s a quick read that helps you re-evaluate and look again at your organization to make sure that you are providing the best customer service possible.
Book Review: Turning Rants Into Raves: Turn Your Customers on Before They Turn On You! by Randi Busse and Carol Heady on Blogcritics.
