What is internal customer service and why is it important?

"It just takes a lot of effort to get things done."

A friend recently shared these frustrations. She had worked in sales at her company for the past six years. It had a good product and she was successful, but something was gnawing at her.

My friend explained that it was becoming increasingly difficult to hit her sales targets. The challenge wasn't a new competitor, shifting market conditions, or even the pandemic.

The biggest issue was a lack of internal customer service.

My friend increasingly spent time and effort navigating corporate bureaucracy, waiting for results, and following-up with other departments to make sure they didn't drop the ball.

"I'm not looking right now," she said, "but I'd jump at the opportunity to leave if the right offer came along."

Poor internal customer service frustrates many employees like my friend. This post will answer three critical questions:

1. What is internal customer service?

2. Why is it important?

3. How can you make it better?

What is internal customer service?

Most people think of a customer as someone who buys our products and services.

Customer-focused organizations tend to define "customer" more broadly. A customer to these organizations is anyone we serve.

So an internal customer can be defined this way:

An internal customer is anyone we serve inside our own organization.

This can include several groups of coworkers:

• People on your team

• Your boss

• People in other departments

You can also broaden it to include contractors, vendors, and other third-parties you work closely with to get your job done and ultimately serve your external customers.

Internal customers often have a few common characteristics when compared to external customers:

• Frequent interactions: we tend to serve the same people more often.

• Close relationships: we form tighter bonds with the people we work with.

• Two-way service: internal customers often serve each other.

These characteristics don't always hold true.

In some larger organizations, some departments serve thousands of internal customers and more closely resemble a traditional external customer service team.

Here are a few examples:

• An IT help desk in a major retail chain keeps the computer systems running at over a thousand stores.

• An employee relations contact center in a multinational company helps thousands of remote employees with their human resources needs.

• The underwriting department in a credit union reviews loan applications submitted by loan officers at the credit union's branches.

This short video provides more information about who is an internal customer.

Defining internal customer service from Customer Service: Serving Internal Customers by Jeff Toister and Madecraft

Why is internal customer service important?

My wife, Sally, and I recently checked into a non-smoking hotel room that reeked of cigarette smoke. We had to trudge downstairs to the front desk to request another room.

It's clear we experienced a service failure, but what about the front desk employee who checked us in?

He experienced an internal service failure.

The employee relied on a colleague in the hotel's housekeeping department to verify the room was clean and available. Marking the room as clean despite the strong odor of cigarette smoke set the front desk employee up to fail.

We were patient and understanding, but many customers are not.

This creates a miserable experience for employees. Getting yelled at by customer after customer for mistakes that someone else made can make employees quickly re-evaluate whether they're in the right job.

External service failures aren't the only sign of a problem.

My friend in sales has managed to prevent any major issues so far, and her numbers still look good. But all the extra effort required to overcome poor internal customer service eventually wears thin.

How can you improve internal customer service?

Roughly 50 percent of my customer service training requests are for internal customer service. What I've learned over many years is the formula for improving both internal and external customer service is essentially the same.

First, you must define outstanding service so everyone is on the same page.

The best way to do this is to create a customer experience vision statement. You can follow my step-by-step guide to write your own.

Next, make sure every employee is aware of what a great customer experience looks like and how they play a role.

This includes employees who only provide internal customer service. No one in a customer-focused organization is exempt from service.

You can use this guide to engaging employees to get everyone on board.

Finally, remove the friction that makes it overly difficult for employees to serve each other at the highest level. You can get a few ideas here.

Conclusion

You can help your employees build their skills with my LinkedIn Learning course, Serving Internal Customers. Over 100,000 people around the world have taken the course so far.

It's available to all LinkedIn Learning subscribers. You can also view the course with a free, 30-day trial.

Here's a short preview.

Serving internal customers from Customer Service: Serving Internal Customers by Jeff Toister and Madecraft

How to get other departments to care about customers

Do you ever feel like employees in other departments don't care about customers?

Years ago, I worked for a company that sold uniforms embroidered with clients' logos. My job was providing customer service and growing sales.

Getting new uniforms produced and shipped involved a lot of other departments. Many created frustrating customer service problems that cost us business.

• Shipping delays

• Quality issues

• Billing errors

It was frustrating, because people in these departments didn't seem to care.

One day, a chance encounter in the cafeteria completely changed my perspective. The cafeteria was crowded, so Donna and a few other employees from accounting offered me a seat at their table.

I was initially hesitant—accounting had caused me its fair share of problems. But I'm glad I joined them. That lunch changed everything I knew about internal teamwork.

Here's what I learned.

Lesson 1: Build Relationships

Teamwork is a two-way street. You must get to know and appreciate other people if you expect them to know and appreciate you.

My company discouraged relationships. Every interaction with other departments was done either by computer or proxy.

For instance, I set up a new client by entering their information into our customer relationship management (CRM) system. Someone from accounting would use that information to bill the client.

If there was a billing error, I was expected to go to my boss, who would talk to the accounting boss, who would talk to the accountant to work out the issue. That became a giant game of telephone that could literally take several days to resolve.

That day at lunch, I discovered that Donna did the accounting for many of my clients.

A lightbulb went off. No longer did I need to wait a week to solve an accounting issue. I could go straight to my friend Donna and we could figure it out in a few minutes.

It was big company, and nearly two thousand people worked at our facility alone, but I quickly identified key people in other departments. A buyer in merchandising, an expediter in fulfillment, a graphic designer in the art department, and a customer service rep on another team all become part of my network.

I went out of my way to build positive relationships with them because I knew they could help me serve my customers.

Action: Identify important relationships to build with people other departments.

Lesson 2: Listen

Listening to others brings new, unexpected insights. It’s also a sign of respect, and an important way to build relationships. For instance, people in other departments often aren't as uncaring as they seem.

Donna had her own frustrations with the billing process. Carless salespeople often neglected to include the correct billing information or the customer’s purchase order when entering a sale. By listening to her, I realized there were things I could do to make it easier for her to send accurate and timely bills.

So while I was happy to have a direct connection to the accounting department, Donna was just as happy to be able to call me when she needed help.

Listening also helped me improve procedures.

Our art department could take up to two weeks to create the pattern our embroidery machines used to sew a client's logo onto a uniform. Different materials required new embroidery patterns, so the pattern for a polyester-blend, jersey-knit polo shirt would not work on a nylon jacket.

That meant I had to request a new pattern and wait two weeks each time a client ordered a new type of garment for their uniforms.

These delays cost me a lot of business. One day, I met with Cat, one of the graphic artists, to listen to the art department’s challenges and learn more about their work.

Cat showed me that some embroidery patterns could be used on multiple types of garments. She also explained that I could save time by requesting a new logo be designed for multiple types of garments at once. This way, when a client ordered a new item, I already had an embroidery pattern ready for whatever item they ordered.

This insight helped me avoid the two week art set-up delay on more orders, which allowed me to earn more business. The art department was happy because creating the same logo for multiple garment types at once was more efficient.

Action: Listen to people from other departments to understand the challenges they face. You might even learn a few shortcuts.

Lesson 3: Help others win

The best way to get other people to care about your goals is to help them achieve their goals. People in other departments are far more cooperative when they believe you are helping them win.

The production department mandated a minimum order size of six because the smallest embroidery machines stitched logos on six garments at one time. This was a problem because my biggest client ordered thousands of uniforms per year, but they had multiple locations that each had just a handful of employees.

We’d lose the sale when my client wanted to order three shirts for a new, part-time employee or replace a single jacket.

I decided to spend some time talking to people in production, where I learned they were under enormous pressure to operate more efficiently. To them, losing an order for three shirts wasn't as important as keeping their costs down.

Working together, we were able to find a solution.

While my customer placed a lot of small orders, we often received orders from multiple locations at the same time. Production agreed to combine these orders to meet the six item minimum, and then the fulfillment center would separate the items and ship them to their individual locations.

This was easy to do since we already had a process to facilitate sorting items this way. One service my company provided was sorting and bagging uniforms for each individual employee, so they were easier for clients to distribute.

Action: Collaborate with other departments to find win-win solutions.

Epilogue

My job at the uniform company taught me a lot about teamwork.

On one hand, I worked with my network to reduce errors, decrease lead time, and increase sales. On the other hand, I quickly learned my initiative wasn't supported by leadership.

Our general manager was coasting towards retirement and did as little work as possible. The sales director who oversaw our department didn't understand how operational problems hurt sales and actively discouraged me from connecting with people in other departments on my own. My boss, the sales manager, was so scared of his boss (the director) that he would avoid attracting attention at all costs.

The company eventually restructured and our entire department was laid off. By then, I had learned a bonus lesson about teamwork: when leaders absolutely refuse to work together, it's time to go somewhere else.

The day that layoffs were announced, I had taken the day off to interview at another company. Two weeks later, I had a new job.

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Hope is not lost! My new book, The Guaranteed Customer Experience, shows you how to get other departments to buy-in to customer experience.

Win & Retain Customers

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What you need to know about internal customer service

"I won't give you that report."

The report tracked the percentage of successful credit card offers made by each sales rep in our contact center. The initiative was created by the marketing department, and a marketing manager controlled access to the report. 

This was more than twenty years ago, when large reports were printed and distributed as physical copies. The data you can get with a few clicks today required someone with access to the right computer system back then.

The manager treated me with open disdain when I called and asked to be added to the distribution list. She worked in the great kingdom of marketing, while I was in the lowly call center.

Withholding the report was a power play.

We've all encountered internal roadblocks like this manager. These are coworkers who should be on our side, but appear to steadfastly work against us. It's frustrating and annoying.

There is a solution.

I eventually got my own copy of the report. And I learned how to overcome the internal stigma of working in the call center to successfully partner with other departments. One program added an extra $1 million per year in additional revenue.

The secret is understanding your most important internal customers, and learning how to become indispensable to them.

What is internal customer service?

A customer is anyone you serve, so internal customer service is serving internal customers. This includes several groups of coworkers:

• People on your team

• Your boss

• People in other departments

It can also include other groups such as contractors, vendors, and partners who work closely with us.

The marketing manager didn't view me as an internal customer, so she was dismissive of my request because it didn’t appear to benefit her. But I was a customer—her department was "selling" the report, and I wanted to buy it.

There are a few qualities that make internal service unique:

• Frequent interactions

• Closer interpersonal relationships (sometimes)

• Two-way service

Two-way service occurs when each party serves the other, so you're each other's customer. 

My mistake in approaching the marketing manager was not recognizing a two-way service relationship. She was a customer for my services as well, since she was responsible for the credit card project and she could benefit if the acceptance rate improved. But I didn’t consider her needs when I requested the report.

Eventually, I was able to share my progress. She gladly added me to the report distribution once she saw that I was helping her numbers look good.

You can identify your own internal customers with the help of this short training video.

Define internal customer service from Customer Service: Serving Internal Customers by Jeff Toister

Identifying your most important internal customers

It's great to have positive relationships with all of your internal customers. There are a few individuals or groups where a great relationship is extra important to your success.

For instance, the marketing manager could have been an important ally for my project. We both shared the same goal of increasing the credit card acceptance rate. My job got more difficult when she refused to put me on the distribution list for the report.

I learned from this experience the next time I worked on a project that involved another department. One example was call center agents were asked to upsell slow-moving products, but were having little success.

A merchandising manager and his team were internal customers for this project. I was there customer, too, I needed their help to identify the right sales pitch for our call center agents to make to customers.

Rather than tell the manager what I needed from him, I started this relationship by asking more about what he was trying to achieve. This led to a few insights:

• Slow-moving products took up valuable space in the warehouse.

• Selling these items freed up cash to invest in better products.

• The manager was evaluated based on how well his purchases sold.

Once I understood these needs, I was able to describe how I could help him achieve his goals. This made him a willing partner who was eager to help me get what I needed to our call center agents could improve their sales.

Can you identify your most important customers and their needs?

Identify key customer relationships from Customer Service: Serving Internal Customers by Jeff Toister

How do you provide outstanding internal customer service?

The fundamentals of customer service are similar, whether your customers are external or internal.

1. Build rapport and establish a positive relationship.

2. Listen carefully to understand your customers' needs.

3. Take action to help your customer succeed.

This was how I approached my relationship with the merchandising manager and his team. I asked to meet with them to kick off our project, and then I listened carefully to their needs.

The call center agents who were asked to upsell these products were also my customer, since I needed to support their performance. I listened to calls, and met with several agents to understand what worked and what didn't. This helped me understand exactly what they needed to do their jobs well.

All that listening helped us identify several solutions that quickly improved sales. The program generated an additional $1 million in revenue over the course of the first year.

Take Action

You can create great relationships with your own internal customers following this same process:

1. List your internal customers

2. Identify your key customers to focus on

3. Listen to their needs, and take action to help them

This lesson stayed with me throughout my corporate career. Whenever I identified an important internal customer, I took time to understand their needs. It became far easier to get what I wanted when I could demonstrate my commitment to helping them get what they wanted.

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Why Should You Care About Internal Customer Service?

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Imagine a customer service manager needs to hire a new representative.

There are probably a lot of other employees they depend on to get that done. A recruiter posts the job and screens candidates. Human resources provides an orientation. Payroll enters the new hire into the system so they can get paid. Facilities gets the new hire's workstation setup and issues any necessary access badges. IT creates all the necessary software accounts.

All of those people are responsible for internal customer service. 

Internal service doesn't always get the same level of scrutiny as external service, yet it's vital to a company's success. If any of the employees in the scenario above fail to do their job, the new hire won't enjoy a smooth onboarding experience and they may not live up to their potential.

Approximately 50 percent of the training requests I receive are for internal customer service. This post takes a closer look at who is an internal customer and why internal service is so important.

Who is an internal customer?

An internal customer is any internal stakeholder you serve. This typically means other employees, but it might also include contractors, temporary workers, or owners. The goal of internal service is usually to help someone else so an external customer receives better service.

There are a few common characteristics of internal customers that help separate them from external customers:

• Frequency of interactions: we tend to serve the same internal customers more often.

• Closer relationships: we form tighter bonds with the people we work with.

• Two-way service: internal customers often serve each other.

That last point is important, yet often overlooked.

Why is internal customer service so important?

Internal service is an essential part of the employee experience.

I once hired a new customer service representative, only to be told by the IT manager that it would take three weeks to get their new computer. That created a poor experience for my new hire and made onboarding more difficult.

It felt like a service failure from the IT manager, but the reality was we were both at fault.

The IT manager learned about about the new hire once they had accepted the job offer, which was just one week before they started. In my mind, this was plenty of time to get a computer and setup the employee's workstation, but that was a big assumption on my part. I caused unnecessary tension with the IT manager because I didn't proactively let him know about my hiring plans.

He doesn't get off the hook in this scenario, either. The three-week lead time to order a computer was excessive, and entirely due to his desire to stick with a certain model of computer. He would have been able to get the new hire setup much faster if he had been more flexible.

It was a powerful learning experience. The next time I hired someone, I was much more proactive. And to the IT manager’s credit, he was much more flexible. The end result was the next employee had a workstation ready to go on their first day.

Later in my career, I saw the concept of mutual internal service play out with a hospital where I was doing some consulting and customer service training.

The hospital provided scrubs for its medical staff. The team responsible for stocking the scrubs was receiving complaints that there were not enough scrubs available and designated storage areas were frequently empty.

The supply manager took a tour of the hospital with a few internal customers to get a closer look. The tour quickly revealed the two-way street that often happens when serving internal customers.

The supply manager learned medical personnel got nervous when the supply of scrubs ran low. They didn't trust the supply team to refill them in time, so people would take extra sets of scrubs and hide them for later. Then when a unit ran out of scrubs, they'd go raid the supply cabinet in another unit, causing them to run out as well.

The solution was fairly straightforward. The supply team agreed to refill the supply cabinets more often, which helped build trust because there was usually an ample amount on hand. And medical staff leaders agreed to reinforce the one pair of scrubs at a time policy, while proactively alerting the supply team if scrubs were getting low so there could be an extra delivery.

Steps to improve internal customer service

The first step to improving service is defining what great service looks like.

This can be done by creating a customer service vision, which is a shared definition of outstanding customer service. My research into customer-focused organizations reveals that elite teams share the same vision for internal and external service.

Brand leadership expert Denise Lee Yohn captures this concept well in her book, Fusion. In it, she describes how the most powerful and authentic brands are a reflection of the company’s internal culture.

On a personal level, you can serve your internal customers better by identifying each one (or group of customers) and their core needs.

For example, in the hiring scenario, I needed the IT manager to provide my new hire with a computer and all the necessary software access. In return, the IT manager needed me to provide him with timely notification of new hires.

You can use this downloadable worksheet to complete the exercise.

This short video provides even more insight into who is an internal customer and why serving them is important.

Define internal customer service from Customer Service: Serving Internal Customers by Jeff Toister

New Training Video: Serving Internal Customers

Finally, there's a training course geared specifically towards internal customer service.

Nearly 50 percent of my client requests throughout my career have been for internal customer service. This is a special type of customer service that involves serving internal stakeholders.

The new training video from LinkedIn Learning is called Serving Internal Customers. Here's an overview, a preview, and information on how you can access it for free.

On the set of Serving Internal Customers. Photo credit: Jeff Toister

Overview

An internal customer is an internal stakeholder you serve. This includes coworkers, contractors, and even vendors. Here are just a few jobs that are heavily-focused on internal customer service:

• Human Resources

• Finance and Accounting

• IT

• Facilities and Maintenance

• Security

Many large organizations with multiple locations even have internal contact centers established to support the needs of employees and managers in the field.

Serving Internal Customers focuses on the special skills required to be successful in these roles. Topics include:

• Distinguishing between internal and external customer service

• Creating positive workplace relationships

• Working with difficult coworkers

• Practicing active listening to uncover your customers' needs

• Managing internal customer expectations

• Anticipating problems

• Defusing angry colleagues

• Adjusting your workplace attitude

Preview

The training video has a few special features to increase learning impact:

• Realistic scenes

• Short segments

• Hands-on activities

You can see all of these special features in this short segment on active listening techniques.

Active listening techniques from Customer Service: Serving Internal Customers by Jeff Toister

Resources

You can view the entire course on Lynda.com. LinkedIn Premium subscribers can watch the video on that platform.

A 30-day trial if you aren't already a Lynda member. This will give you access to the entire learning library. You'll be able to view all 17 of my courses plus training videos from other customer service experts such as Brad Cleveland and Leslie O'Flahavan.

The library also contains many other topics in addition to customer service. You can learn about leadership, marketing, programming, and many more. All of the courses are taught by experts in the field and professionally filmed and produced.