I recently finished reading “Raving Fans” by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles .
I was familiar with the concept of a “raving fan” both as a business ideal and as a consumer prior to reading this book.
One thing that really hit home was the concept that you’ve got to listen hardest when the customer says “Fine” or is silent and that silence in itself is a message.
Their point is that people have been so disappointed with businesses that they really don’t expect you to change and/or fix the problem so, when you ask them, they simply say “fine” or they say nothing at all.
I thought back to all of the cars I’ve sold and the manufacturer surveys that have been sent out. We all thrill at the great ones and are disappointed with the bad ones, especially the bad ones that we feel are undeserved. All dealerships want great surveys returned by customers and want the bad ones to get lost in the mail. We completely focus on the returned surveys.
What about all the surveys that aren’t returned?
What message does that send to us?
In my perspective, there are only a couple of scenarios.
The first is apathy. The customer simply doesn’t care or feel like taking the time to complete the survey, whether good or bad.
The second is that perhaps the customer had a bad experience and is just polite and/or doesn’t see the point in returning the survey as they don’t feel anything will get fixed.
We all know the idea that satisfied customers tell 3 people while unsatisfied ones tell 3,000. It’s easy to identify these two camps through returned surveys but….
In which camp are the people who didn’t return the surveys? Do you know?
An unsatisfied customer who does not return the survey is still an unsatisfied customer and, if you subscribe to the above idea, will tell just as many people about their bad experience as the one who did give you feedback via a survey.
We act on the bad surveys because we are motivated to act. We are motivated to act because we don’t want the manufacturer to get involved. We don’t want bad reviews on the internet. We don’t want our managers to get angry with us. We want to protect our CSI. Maybe we truly want satisfied customers. There are a lot of reasons for this motivation.
What we do not have is motivation to act on unreturned surveys.
To create raving fans, we have to pay attention not only to the customers that said something but also to the customers that didn’t.
I’m a big Tommy Bahama fan. I’ve always loved their clothes for their comfort and quality. Yes, they are pricey but, in my opinion, worth it. Recently, I went to a conference. After the conference, I visited an amusement park and proceeded to go on every water ride in the park effectively drenching myself. Seeing as the day was young and I had planned on going out that night for some networking and fun, I went to a shop nearby and bought an outfit consisting solely of Tommy Bahama items including a pair of Tommy Bahama flip-flops (since my shoes and socks were also soaked). The next day, I visited Disney World wearing the flip-flops and, after three hours, literally could not walk because the flips flops were tearing up my feet. I was walking around the park barefoot. Inevitably, I just left as my feet hurt so bad.
Upon my return home, I emailed their customer service and told them of my horrible experience. They emailed me back asking some questions (what model of the flip-flops, etc.). I didn’t have the tags since I wore them out of the shop (and the shop was across the country) so I emailed them a photo along with photos of the sores on my feet created with their flip-flops. To make a long story short, they told me I could drive 100 miles to return them and that, in the future, I should probably break the flip-flops in before walking in them for too long.
What?!?! Break in flip-flops?!?!?
Needless to say, I was a raving fan but I am no longer.
In this case, I chose to say something because I had just read this book and wanted to test the theory out. I was disappointed.
In another, similar experience, I bought a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses in 1999. A couple of years ago, I dropped them and managed to break the lenses (they were glass). Keeping in mind that these sunglasses were almost 10 years old, I went to their website, got their warranty/department address and sent my sunglasses to them with a blank check to have them repaired. (I really love those sunglasses.) Not only did they fix them for me and send them back, but they included a note thanking me for my business and returned my check. I will never buy another brand of sunglasses again. In fact, I still have those same glasses and have since bought another pair of Maui Jims. Needless to say, I am a raving fan of Maui Jim.
In the automotive industry, it is said that a customer is worth $290,000 over their lifetime to your dealership.
How many customers have you lost simply because you didn’t pay attention to your customers when they didn’t say anything?
By asking questions of customers that you have no feedback from and then acting to fix any problems that may be the reason for that lack of feedback, it’s possible to create a raving fan the fastest and with the least amount of effort. That customer who may have seen no point in telling you anything because they didn’t want to be disappointed could be made into a raving fan instantly with a sincere inquiry followed up by proactive solutions to any issues that may exist.
While the value of a customer to Tommy Bahama is most assuredly smaller than that of a car dealership, considering that the outfit I bought that day which consisted of a pair of shorts, a shirt, and flip-flops cost $300, it certainly cannot be insignificant.
Tommy Bahama lost a raving fan and gained a bad review posted to the internet for anyone in the world to see…. over a $65 pair of flip-flops.
