Internal Customer Service - Our Customers are Inside the Company Too

Remnants of an old "cubicle" mentality still persist in many organizations today. By this I mean that departments within a company sometimes see their role as isolated and focused on a single, or set of departmental functions. This focus is often reinforced by the fact that department performance is measured, and performance reviews are based, on these limiting criteria. If your organization is suffering from a lack of interdepartmental consciousness, consider adopting the approaches presented in this article.

Let me set the stage by sharing an experience of my own. While working as a materials manager for growing manufacturing company, I was responsible for scheduling production to meet forecasted customer demand. The marketing department was responsible for providing the forecast. Over the course of time, it became clear to me that marketing would often under estimate customer demand in order to insure they always hit the benchmark they set for themselves.

I had a decision to make, plan materials and production according to the marketing forecast or modify my plan to compensate for marketing's built-in buffer (also referred to as sand-bagging). You would think that if I choose the former, I could defend my actions by referring to the forecast, which would not only reflect badly on marketing, but also create backlogs for our external customers. My solution: Analyze marketing's historical variance and adjust my materials and production plan accordingly. My reasoning: Marketing is as much a customer to me as the external customers that purchase our product.

As you read this, you can probably reflect on a number of experiences where you were faced with a similar dilemma. It's so much easier to hang your hat on a traditional measure of your performance; that being, "I did my job and if there is a bad result, it must be someone else's issue". Let me suggest that this approach is at best misguided, and more likely will result in interdepartmental feuds, finger-pointing, and inevitable lost revenues for your company.

Now that we have considered my example and your own business environment; what are some things a company, department, or individual can do to proactively develop internal customer service?

One method I adopted was to put together a customer service survey for other departments in my company. I was pleasantly surprised to find, that by simply asking for feedback on how well my functional area supported them, their perception of my service to them improved! If they had any doubts about how much I cared, approaching them with the survey eliminated their concerns. They believed I really cared; and I did!

Another method I have tried, with success, is to invite a representative from another department to one of my department's meetings. A variation is to ask to be invited to a meeting in another functional area. For example, if you are in the engineering department, arrange to attend meetings with accounting or marketing. Simply being there and listening will show you care and expose you to valuable insights as to how you can collaborate to achieve improved relations and organizational success.

Internal customer service is every bit as important as customer service to your company's paying customers. Think of yourself as a customer service department, regardless of the functional area you are responsible for. Be proactive in your interdepartmental relationship building by implementing customer service surveys, integrated meetings, or other methods that encourage communication and understanding. Initiating this approach and adopting these processes is usually contagious. Soon, others will see the value and thank you for your insight and initiative.

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