Last night I read a leadership/business book that has been in print for almost 20 years entitled "Raving Fans" by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. It's a short read and contains simple yet profound principles related to customer service. The 3 basic points of the book:
1. Decide what you want...What is your vision for the organization?
2. Discover what the customer wants...Where does your vision and the customers' needs overlap?
3. Deliver the vision plus one percent...Exceed your promise and the customers' expectations.
Another valuable principle from the book included The Rule of One Percent: When dealing with a monumental task, strive to improve your organization/group by one percent each week. No more. No less. This will allow you to overcome the temptations of trying to do too much at once or being immobilized because of the size of the job ahead. Consistency creates credibility.
The bottom line is that Raving Fans puts forth the argument that great companies are built on the foundation of service...not just average, crappy service. Rather the kind of service described is real, care about your needs, I'm here to serve you kind of service. As a Christ follower this type of lifestyle should not be foreign to us. We are called by God to be servants. When people encounter the Church they should be blown away by how much we care about, serve, love, protect, and cherish other people. In fact, I believe that healthy local churches should create raving fans better than the greatest business or organization. My hope and prayer is that when people walk into Northwest Community Church on Sundays, attend one of our community groups, or live next door to a Northwester that they encounter people who are the friendliest, most servant oriented people they have ever met and it causes them to become raving fans of NCC. The stakes are much higher than turning a profit. We are called to create raving fans in order to point people to Jesus Christ...the one who modeled servanthood better than anyone in all of history!
