November 24th, 2005

Hello!

Superb customer service is key to make loyal advocates out of your customers.

In this issue:

1. Should there be Internal Customer Service?
2. 2nd call: Site Survey
3. CustomerServicePoint.com Info

Should there be Internal Customer Service?

The questions asked:

1. Should we offer customer service to the internal customer? Customer service is often described as a competitive edge (and rightly so!) to keep customers from taking their business elsewhere. But the internal customer (employee) has no other place to go (than the HR department).



2. If so, how to go about delivering internal customer service?

Ok, let's take this bull by the horns.

Should we offer customer service to the internal customer?

The question of the necessity of delivering internal customer service is ultimately a question of money: if the service is meant to keep the customer happy and from walking away, but we have a monopoly and they can't go anywhere, why should we spend the money to keep the customer happy?

So if it's all about money (and it is), let's see if there are any hidden costs that are not taken into account.

First of all: are you absolutely sure that your customers can't go anywhere else? While employed by the company there truly is no other place to go that the HR department of that company. Even if you get sick and tired with rude behavior and/or questions taking forever to be answered. But employees do have a choice: they could leave to company! And many do, if they don't feel valued. Or a valued internal customer! So what does it cost to replace an employee? What does it cost to build up the knowledge lost?

There's another example I personally had a close encounter with. I've worked for the procurement department of a Dutch brewery, responsible for all buying of goods and materials. Our procedures were so long and bureaucratic, that it would take ages for some materials to arrive. It later turned out that, in frustration, other departments had started to buy directly from suppliers, cutting out procurement completely. In the administration, this was covered by saying that, say a computer, was actually personnel costs. So, they did go elsewhere!

For the departments, who didn't want our 'service', this was OK, but since buying now was decentralized to a certain scale, the company was getting worse deals.

But there is more: another hidden costs is time used. For instance, if an employee has a certain HR-related question, and he has no-one from the HR department to turn to (no service, remember), s/he still wants to have his/her question answered. So what happens: s/he looks on the Internet, talks with colleagues about it, discusses it with yet another person, etc.

Not good for productivity!

Now multiply that with 1000s of employees, all wanting the same question answered... this may be costing BIG!

I hope I've made my point. Supporting departments are there to smoothen the business for the rest of the company. With their expertise, and negotiating power. Handling the rest of the company as internal customers, and imagining them as real internal customers that could go elsewhere (as you have seen, this does happen), is just good business.

Now to come to the 2nd question:

How to go about delivering internal customer service?

Well, this question has both a short and a long answer. The short answer is, of course, to deliver internal customer service just as you would if it was normal customer service. The need for a smooth... transaction, if you will, ... is equally important for both kinds of customers.

The long answer is to describe how to deliver good customer service, period. I can't do that in an article. There are bookcases written about this subject. And I do my best to show my point of view with the Customer Service Point web site.

One more thing: a department that knows its internal customers and delivers great service to them, is often proud of what they do. And proud people just do better!

We want your opinion: Site Survey

Your opinion is important to me.

I want to build and grow Customer Service Point into a site that provides you with helpful information.

Guessing is out of the question... I have to know if I'm on the right track, and which themes you are most interested in.

Please take the time to fill out the following survey, and I'll give extra high priority to the areas you vote for.

Thank you so much for your time!

CSP Site Survey

CustomerServicePoint.com Info

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I want to hear from you!

If you have a story to share about how you go about delivering internal customer service, or another customer service story you'd like to share with the readers of customer servings, contact me. Maybe you'll see your own article and name published in this e-zine!

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Customer Servings is the e-zine for www.customerservicepoint.com, your resource on improving customer service. The newsletter is sent at irregular intervals.

Customer Servings is for you!

If you have any suggestions for subjects you would like to see in future issues, or have comments in general on Customer Servings or Customer Service Point, please contact me.

I welcome your remarks!

(C) 2005, Marjan Steneker