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Make It Your Business Not to Forget Your Internal Customers

Heather Legg

May 13, 2015

When someone owns a small business; a lot of time and thought needs to go into the customers. But that means both customers, external and internal.

Whereas many people focus on the external customers - that is the people you are selling to, your clients, the ones who pay your bills, owners also need to focus on internal customers - the people who make the business run.

Let's take a look at who exactly the internal customers are.

Your Employees are Backbone of Company

These are your employees, the ones who work behind the scenes to make your business a success. And to make a successful business, they all need to be able to work together.

Think about this, you've got your salespeople, but they need to work with your human resources people and your payroll people and the ones who fulfill orders.

If there is a breakdown in any of these chains, it can affect the people who deal directly with the external customers, who may in turn sense dissatisfaction and second guess their dealing with you.

Some examples - your sales person notices a problem on his paycheck. He calls payroll to figure out why his commission wasn't paid correctly. Your payroll employee does not call him back for days. He becomes nervous and frustrated so he doesn't work as well with the external customer who needs his attention.

Another example is when two internal employees don't get along.

Customers may be able to sense this and not want to work with a company with dissention in it. Perhaps your internal customers are mad at you; they don't feel treated well or respected. Will they be working as hard as they could?

As the following article looks at, above are some reasons why you need to take care of your internal customers, and here are some ways to do it:

• Treat your internal customers well - Let them know they are valued, treat them to a catered lunch every so often or give them casual Fridays. Compliment them when you see them doing something good and for their efforts. Smile and greet them by name.

• When you need to correct or fix something, do it in private - Don't ever criticize someone in front of other employees. It sets a bad example and puts a bad vibe over everyone.

• Provide expectations - Let your internal customers know what you expect. If there is a chain of command and a hierarchy, make sure that everyone knows that everyone deserves equal respect, no matter where they fall in that chain. Sure, some may have more authority than others, but that doesn't mean anyone deserves any less respect.

If the workplace is a happy place, full of respect and positivity, your external customers will sense it. They'll want to be a part of it and keep doing business with you.

Please share any successful tips you have on keeping your internal customers happy.

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