Turning Customer Service Inside Out
Focusing on your internal customers is just as important as focusing on your external ones..
While companies focus thousands of dollars on
external customer service in hopes of wooing and retaining customers, little
attention is being paid to the effect poor internal customer service has on
customer satisfaction. It all starts within your organization. Sooner or
later the ripple effect reaches your customers. To really walk your service
talk, make sure your commitment to internal customer service matches your
company's external focus on customer care.
When we think of customer service we think of staff serving customers over a
counter or over the phone. But customer service occurs within your
organization as well. How well is your staff serving its internal customers:
other departments, its management, vendors and consultants? Believe it or
not, it all counts. Internal customer service refers to service directed to
others within your organization. It refers to your level of responsiveness,
quality, communication, teamwork and morale.
I define Internal Customer Service as effectively serving other departments
within your organization. How well are you providing other departments with
service, products or information to help them do their jobs? How well are
you listening to and understanding their concerns? How well are you solving
problems for each other to help your organization succeed?
Teaming with Success
How well do you work with other departments? Does your Marketing department
communicate well with the Legal department? Does Fulfillment relate well
with Shipping and Receiving? Do Catering and Facilities work well together?
When it's time to communicate with others from different departments do you
take a deep breath, or smile and relish a chance to renew contact with
colleagues from elsewhere in the company?
As a manager I once joined a publishing company and found myself in the
midst of a war between departments. Production resented Editorial for the
way they missed deadlines and delivered shoddy copy. Conversely, Editorial
had little respect for the resulting manuscripts they received back from
Production, full of errors and oversights. Poor teamwork, poor communication
and myopic thinking had led to a hardening of positions over time. They each
cared about the finished product but were putting pressure on each other
without realizing it. It took time, but eventually both groups came to
appreciate each other and how to best work together to achieve win-wins for
the greater good of their customers.
Do you relish or dread committee work with other departments? Does it seem
their aims are contrary to your department's? When other departments contact
you for help do you regard it as a nuisance, a distraction and a drain of
your valuable time? Can you see the greater good that comes from helping
them solve their problems or fulfill their needs?
You can take pride in opportunities to help other departments look good.
Obviously, you don't want their success to come at your expense. Usually
helping others doesn't mean you lose a zero-sum game, where only one of you
can win and helping others hurts you. In most instances helping other
departments leads to a win-win situation. And what goes around usually comes
around. Helping other departments succeed can help yours too when the roles
are reversed.
Up with People
Good internal customer service starts with good morale within your group.
Are your people happy? Do they feel good about themselves and their
contributions to the goals of the department and to the company at large?
They should, and effort should be made to help them do so. Happy employees
are productive, and customers take note. Happy employees are also better
team players. Will you fly the airline whose employees are striking with
management, or the airline whose employees are management? Employees
invested in employee stock purchasing plans with matching contributions see
themselves as much more a part of the company. Thus, as the company goes, so
do they go.
When I fly out of Oakland Airport I use an outlying parking lot and shuttle
van. This shuttle is shared by employees from Southwest Airlines, coming to
work or returning to their cars after their shifts. I've found them as happy
and upbeat when they're starting their shifts as when they're finishing
their shifts. That's great morale, and tells me they like their jobs. It's
contagious! Sometimes I'm envious on that shuttle when I know I'll be
checking in at a competitor's ticket counter.
Who's On Top?
Many organizational charts employ an inverted pyramid with customers at top.
Some companies instead put their employees at the top. In many senses, the
employees are management's customers. Corporate values that emphasize
treating employees well translate to good customer care too. Does your
organization value its people? Invariably, companies that care about their
people can better ask their people to care about their customers.
Catering to Customer Service Needs
Here are five tips for your organization to help strengthen its internal
customer service orientation.
1. Employees should never complain within earshot of customers. It gives
them the impression your company isn't well run, shaking their confidence in
you.
2. Employees should never complain to customers about other department's
employees. Who wants to patronize a company whose people don't get along
with each other.
3. Employees at every level should strive to build bridges between
departments. This can be done through cross training, joint picnics, parties
or offsites, or creative gatherings, as well as day-to-day niceties.
4. Utilize post mortems after joint projects so everyone can learn from the
experience. Fences can be mended and new understandings gleaned when
everyone reviews what went right...or wrong. By doing do after the project
the immediate pressure is off, yet stronger bonds can be forged while the
experience is fresh in peoples' minds. Not doing so can result in lingering
animosities that will exacerbate future collaborations.
5. Consider letting your employees become "Customer for a Day" to experience
firsthand what your customers experience when doing business with you.
Congratulations on turning customer service inside out! By improving
internal customer service you have just enhanced the customer service your
external customers receive. You're walking your talk regarding customer
service.
