There's this book called Raving Fans. This book is probably familiar to some of you … we talked about the concept, and a long time ago the Growth Pillar read this book. The story is about how to make customers raving fans of a business. The author gives examples of businesses that didn’t just think “outside the box” but way outside the box, and created not just satisfied customers but incredibly devoted customers who would never think about going somewhere else, hence – a raving fan. You all know that every three months we take the leaders off-site to become “better”. The goal for next week’s LDI is kind of like what this book was about – how do we make all of our audiences (whether it’s a patient, family member, provider, volunteer, staff … whoever) raving fans??
If I am a customer I want to frequent the places that take care of me. My desire is to have places in my life that I am devoted to because I was blown away. I want that awesome experience. “Steve, you are a pretty hard guy to please – what recently has exceeded your expectations?” March Meltdown. The party thrown by the providers had me talking about it for weeks – it was awesome. This new beer on tap at Fuel – Fresh Squeezed (I think) – really good … summer peaches … the gastric sleeve surgery … Deb Short cooking at my house for dinner parties … the appreciation shown by our patients for the excellent care they received … volunteers … Actually, I could go on and on.
On the other side – if I am providing the service, how do I make a raving fan? I think the most recent example that I have in my life is when I cooked on Saturday mornings at grounded. I created (hopefully) raving fans by being completely focused on making each and every experience the best I possibly could, regardless of how busy we were. Was I always successful? Probably not, but I never had the attitude “it’s good enough …” I guess I took the perspective that if I was going to do something (cook), then I was going to do it with 100% effort or not at all. Liz Jazwiec told us that it’s not just ownership – because we are all not owners – it’s pride. “Good enough” doesn’t exude pride; it’s getting by. Raving fans want staff who want to be there, and do a great job, and are fulfilled by doing an awesome job …
Wow … what a concept. A dedicated group of proud people serving a devoted audience. This really sounds just plain cool. A worthy goal indeed.
- Steve Simonin, President & CEO
