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Source: www.what-are-good-leadership-skills.com, ©Emily A. Sterrett, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission.

Internal Customer Service

Who Are Your Internal Customers?

Lots of organizations emphasize customer service—at least many of them say they emphasize customer service. With all this talk, however, we often find ourselves on the receiving end of poor customer service when we are on the other end of that transaction as the customer. There is good reason why companies should emphasize customer service: the degree of service to customers who buy our products and services determines, to a large degree, whether we succeed or fail in business. Even for non-profits and public organizations, serving “customers” is essential—it’s their reason for being.

Customer service is in everyone’s best interest. As the person creating that product or service, it makes our jobs more secure when we create can customer loyalty. What would happen if a high level of customer service was applied internally? What if we really treated our co-workers like we know we should treat someone from the outside that is doing business with us? The way people inside the organization work together is directly related to how well they are serving the external customer.

What would happen if you made a specific effort to better serve an internal customer? Would it result in less friction between people or departments? Would your processes take less time? Would you produce work of a little better overall quality? Would the external customer potentially be benefited by such changes? If you can answer a grudging “yes” to any of those questions, keep reading for an idea that will help you improve your internal customer service.

You Can Make a Difference

Name three of your internal customers—people you regularly provide information, products, or services for. Think of peers and think of direct reports. Your boss is your customer, too, but you may want to practice this exercise first on your own level. As you get more confident, try it with your boss then, too.

Select one of the internal customers you identified who you may not always have had a smooth relationship with. Make an appointment with that person and go talk to them. After a minute of chatting, tell them you are trying to work on certain skills and ask them one simple question: “What could I do to make your job easier?” (or “How could I better serve you?”) The question may take them by surprise, and they may not even be able to answer you right away. If so, help them by verbally reviewing the specific interfaces between your two jobs: “When I do X, I know you have to do Y in order to…” Talk through the specific tasks you have a common stake in. As you dialog about the ways in which you are dependent on each other, your customer is very likely to come up with one or more ideas of how you can better serve him or her.

Make it your business to seek out input from several customers who can offer you advice on how to improve the internal flow or transition of work from one department or one person to the next. Make it your business to implement their suggestions, if at all possible. Maybe you can think of a way to implement their idea while you are right there in the conversation with them; if not, think about it and get back to them later with what you can and can’t do and why.

Develop a service mentality. As you do so, you will find that internal processes operate more smoothly, and there is greater trust between people. If you truly commit to better serving internal customers (rather than ignoring them or assuming they are there to serve you), you will build loyalty and commitment that can’t be bought. You will improve the quality of the product or service available to your external customer. You will also gain a reputation internally as a team player; and this is always good for your career.

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