Customer Service Speaker Article

Serving Inside Out (part One)

By Dean Lindsay (from his upcoming book, SERVICE IS EVERYTHING)

A company’s progress hinges on the progress of its people.  What many organizations often overlook in their search for ways to improve their level of external customer service is the importance of their internal customer service.  It is vital to know that ‘Service is Everything’ to Everyone.
“A customer is anyone who can influence a sale, or a suit, a vote, an appropriation, a budget…a job or a career.” — Warren Blanding
In the big picture, whoever is affected, positively or negatively, by the work we do is our customer.  Every person, in every role, at every level, in every organization has customers.  Every team member is a link in the customer-service chain.  To some degree, each individual is responsible for creating world-class customer service.  When a team member not dealing directly with customers drops the ball or is slow to respond to another team member’s organizational need they are weakening the external customer service.
 “Love all, Serve all.”  — Motto at Hard Rock Cafe
Internal customer service is the support we provide team members and the attitudes that go along with that support.  All the folks within an organization need to be treated like the vital components they are. 
“For an organization’s external customer service to be first rate, its internal customer service must be first rate first.” – Dean Lindsay, Customer Service Speaker (from his upcoming book, SERVICE IS EVERYTHING)
There is overwhelming evidence to the direct relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.  External customer satisfaction rarely rises above internal customer satisfaction.  In other words, it is tough to get our external customer service better than our internal customer service.  If a company wants its employees to exceed customer expectations, a solid first step is for the company to create a work environment that exceeds the employees’ expectations.    
In many organizations it is common to find that employees and co-workers – internal customers – don’t treat each other nearly as well as they do the organization’s external customers.  This is un-FORTUNE-ate because internal customer service touches all aspect of a business including morale and productivity.  Companies that suffer in internal customer service usually face challenges with turnover and absenteeism as well as lower external customer satisfaction.
Be Progress.
More on SERVING INSIDE OUT in the next post!
CLick to Watch Dean Lindsay, Customer Service Speaker, in action.