I was just informed today of a “situation” that occurred with a client which went like this…. [client names omitted]

“I feel like such a groupie, but THOMAS!!! Squeeee! It’s so good to have you back. I can’t tell you how much XXXXXX and I have missed your diligence, design skills, patience . . . I could go on” – Existing client of over a year.

This might be the first time we have had a client actually squeal on the phone (from excitement) to start working on a new project with us. The book Raving Fans by Blanchard talks about creating situations such that you exceed the expectation you initially set for a client, such that they’re wow’d by the results. The old addage is, under-promise, over-deliver. Joe Polish of I Love Marketing has reframed this with his model of Happy Client Experience pushing the notion that even when expectations are met a client is really just ‘satisfied’, they’re not necessarily happy.

I think maybe another frame is needed in the near future- that we’ll call, Squealing Clients, which is based around having team members whose natural state is one committed to self-excellence. The by-product is you can’t not have raving fans, happy clients, squealing clients if the one serving is always aligned with wanting to improve everything they do.

The internal dialog around this of course led to Thomas sending out this email….

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“I’m kind of a big deal…”
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Ah- Wednesday at the laptop.

Mike