The Voice of the (Internal) Customer

Customer service is about understanding what your customers value and then giving it to them. Great customer focused organizations are known for listening intently to their customers and then responding with products and services tailored to what they hear. But how many do this internally and listen to the voices of their own employees as effectively as they do their external customers?

Identifying the Voice of the Customer is a technique for capturing customer feedback in exactly the terms used by customers from their point-of-view. The Voice of the Customer becomes the basis for future product and service enhancements. It helps avoid the internal we-know-better bias that can spring up in any organization.

Typically it is a minority of people within an organization that interact directly with external customers. Yet those involved directly with external customers are the internal customer of a fellow employee. And they in turn are the internal customer of other employees, and so on. Any break or let down in this chain of internal customer support eventually is experienced by the external customer as well.

What works for external customers works just as well for internal customers as well. Here an internal customer is defined as anyone in an organization who receives a work product from anyone else. A work product can be data entered into a computer, information obtained through individual research or analysis, or a decision that was made.

Applying the Voice of the Customer internally is a process of listening to fellow employees about what they value about the work products they receive. Just as with external customers, statements of value and corresponding areas of waste are captured in exactly the terms used by the employee.

Been filling out that form the same way for years? Providing that analysis exactly the same way day after day? You might be surprised what your internal customer would say if you asked them to describe in their terms what the value is of the work you give them. What may appear to be an important and valuable contribution to you might reflect back differently when held up to the mirror of your internal customer’s words.

In fact it can be quite a shock; one that you should prepare for. When seeking out the Voice of the (Internal) Customer:

• Ask unbiased questions on what adds value to them and what doesn’t
• Write down (where everyone can see) everything you hear using the exact words
• Do not become defensive as a result of what’s said
• Remember that it’s hard to listen while talking

Updated August 10, 2010, first published March 25, 2007