Our business climate is continuously changing. The ‘the age of the customer’ describes where we are now. Companies are changing their perspectives from inside-out to outside-in and are asked to drive their businesses totally different than ever before. In many cases companies need to become customer obsessed to survive to be able to manage customer experiences and the results that follow. Customer Experience (CX) Management is in that sense still a young profession in which companies have their obstacles to overcome, including: ‘what is CX all about?’.
Questions arise like: ‘What does CX actually mean for us?’, ‘Who do we want to be for our customers?’ ‘How to become customer centric / focus on the customer and still be different then competition?’, ‘What do we need to do differently without losing who we are?’, and many more… Where to start?
I have seen companies starting to use the concept of the ‘internal customer’ to get the CX-motor running. But be careful, this concept often brings the opposite of what is intended…
The concept of the ‘internal customer’ is ‘internal!
- CX is all about bringing ‘the outside’ in… which means that the ‘external’ customer should be addressed. ‘The internal customer’ moves the focus inwards again, which can solely just be pointed out by the word ‘internal’. Although the concept of ‘the internal customer’ is meant well, it makes sure the ‘internal focus’ remains.
- In addition ‘the internal customer’ even creates some sort of hierarchy between people. If that is the case you might even hear people say ‘I am your customer’. This can be illustrated by throwing work over the fence… or worse; After saying – ‘I am your customer’ – the non-said comma can frequently be put in place too to finish the sentence with; ‘you figure it out’, or: ‘I am telling you what to do’. People are mostly unaware that this is actually what is going on. However people do have that ‘gut feeling’ that is hard to pinpoint as such, especially in operational departments. That feeling is usually quite uncomfortable.
- The essence of CX lays at the ‘external’ and ‘actual customer’. Thát actual customer is capable of firing all employees, c-suit, and shareholders, … . Simply by stop doing business with you… The internal customer does NOT have this ability. Nonetheless, the internal customer’s attitude can point in the other direction to protect positions. Meanwhile he/she is also “watching” other ‘internal customers’, which can become quite ugly if the previous point (2.) also occurs.
Salaries are not paid by colleagues (incl. leadership) in the end, right?! People are not working to ‘just do a thing’ and go home afterwards… The company/organization exists because customers are doing business with them, and get their ‘job to be done’ by fulfilling certain needs that create value for them. The customer pays the salaries! It is as simple as that.
The ‘internal customer’ will lack involvement
By focusing on the ‘internal customer’ people tend to have an eye on each other and their roles (eg. within certain processes). In that matter the focus on the real customer weakens and the hard-needed collaboration and cohesion is often diluted to make successful customer experiences happen. Whoops, that effect of the ‘internal customer’ was not intended…
If CX is (part of) your strategic focus, stop imploding!
And what IF people tell their leader(s) what to do, since they feel they are served by leadership… Do these people then take the company strategy, mission, and vision into account? Ánd then… what if a leader is also acting accordingly…
Most probably inconsistency is lurking. Leaders need to make sure all people contribute to the common goal/big dream of the company, while taking peoples’ talents and personal/professional growth into account. It is a two-way stream to a certain extend.
People need direction, preferably by an inspiring vision, and focus, including how it involves them. Without it, people will feel less involved. Leaders should lead the way! The common overall CX-goal (companywide) should therefore be clear and inspiring, to enable to deliver on it together with support in the way of working. This stimulates collaboration and cohesion between people, departments, processes, systems, etc. decreasing frustrations and elements of waste (LEAN). Simply by knowing what is aimed for. It helps to point people in the same direction.
But be aware… Customer Experience Management goes beyond the borders of the company. To deliver the desired CX it is needed to involve 3rd parties too, which are your business partners (suppliers, sales funnel partners, etc.).
By keeping the focus on the ‘internal customer’ business partners are in the worst case not even in the picture to deliver the desired CX. Or they are not fully engaged in becoming successful in CX, simply as they are not really seen as partners to reach the common CX goal. They are then not included in what kind of customer experience to deliver, with lack of involvement as a consequence.
Your business partners are nót your customers!
Never underestimate the power of business partners. They are just as much part of the desired customer experience, especially when they are in the frontline directly interacting with your actual customers (eg. deliveries) who’s job should be done.
Business partners should understand a company’s customers just as much from an outside-in perspective to be able to deliver on the desired customer experience in the chain process. If these “shared” customers are not fully understood, and if the moments that make a difference (strategically) are unknown, it is impossible to manage business partners effectively. This means the risk is run that business partners;
- do business with customers as it suits them (maybe even on the moments that matter most to these customers ánd then they are able to weaken the brand/customer experience in a worst case scenario)…
- supporting only their own results
- are dominating/influencing the experience as such that they do know your business partner, but do not longer know WHO YOU ARE.
With business partners you share your customers as an “asset”, while they are part of creating an authentic and consistent experience, simply because:
Partners are part of your brand identity ánd customer experience…
This also means that they are definitely not your chain (alias internal) customer! Although it might be that partners pay some of the invoices… That does not make them customers from a commercial perspective, so do not treat them as such!
In collaboration with your partners there are targets to aim for and results to deliver…. Those targets and results are based on your customer’s willing to do business with you. You haven’t ever set a target for your actual customers, right?
The business partner’s approach towards the customer should be in line of the company’s brand identity and customer experience strategy, which are determined by the company indirectly selling services or products. Business partners should also be supported though, to help them influence the desired customer experience in a positive way. It all comes down to…
WHO do YOU WANT to BE for your customers?
A hard question to answer! It will include the company’s’ values and identity, but next to that there is a match to be made with the customer needs. It is the foundation of an inspiring vision and clear focus. But first…
You will need to understand what your customer is going through while doing business with you.
Just ‘knowing’ the actual customer is not enough. Deeper insights are needed in; customer’s needs (functional and emotional), context, (in)direct interactions, etc. of the actual customer. And if this work is settled the even harder work starts: getting it done! The company should be shaped* to be able to fulfill the needs of customers, and work towards the desired customer experience (from enterprise architecture to culture, and the other way around). In that matter authenticity and consistency are key which can be enabled by:
Focus on cohesion and collaboration, with a clear CX vision…
Answers should be given on questions like; how does your CX look like? What does that mean for the company structure in it’s processes, systems, leadership, etc.? What is ok to keep doing? What should be done differently to be/remain successful? This is the start of making CX actionable purely by setting the framework.
But how to make sure cohesion and collaboration are strengthened? To start with I would advocate to leave out vocabulary as ‘the internal customer’! Based on reasons I mentioned earlier it will frustrate the collaboration and cohesion, and therefore the success rate. All parties need to play their role to create value for the actual customer.
“People need to understand how to work together while working together”…
while knowing what to aim for and how to interact to deliver the desired results. This is helping to break down the silo’s and barriers and enables the desired customer experience. Easier said than done, especially if there are some serious patterns to break through. Shaping the leadership style and focusing on employee engagement are therefore definitely part of the “game”! Next to the fact that the customer centric way of working should be supported in every way to embed CX!
Help employees to be efficient and effective in their job to embed CX in your company
This ability is given by providing the right tools, data/information, and systems (especially your CRM/engagement platform). Those should also support KPI measures, which are aligned with the strategic focus. As systems should be set up as a backbone, they are essential in supporting the desired customer experience. And while being built on a clear landscape [enterprise architecture] it helps to manage customer centricity even more effectively. In that matter cohesion and collaboration is taken care of in its full extend. If done well, the concept of the ‘internal customer’ fades away…
At the moment the company runs sufficiently smooth to get the ‘actual’ customer’s job done… the concept of the ‘internal customer’ has no use anymore. Leading to a better atmosphere as well! Win Win Win I would say.
Easy? No.
Worthwhile? YES!
If a company starts with a framework, based on a clear CX-vision and focus on the desired customer experience it will create meaning from the beginning… and that will be the first and fundamental step to let the concept of the ‘internal customer’ behind.
*I talk about ‘shaping’ instead of ‘transforming’, since you do not want to become something totally different. You still want to be known as a company for who you are, based on your values.