Get them
Talking
Your staff know they have internal customers but do they know their
internal customers? Probably not, unless you have given them formal opportunities
to meet with their internal
customers.
Despite knowing how important it is to keep external customers very
satisfied, and understanding this can not happen unless internal customers
get what they need from their internal suppliers, most staff are caught
up in their own world. Human nature being what it is, if people spend
all day dealing with accounts, then accounts is what they will think about.
If they are running a machine to produce left-handed widgets then widgets
will be their focus.
If you want the concept of internal customer to be meaningful to your
staff, you will need to bring the world of the internal customer into
each work team's workplace and hold the team accountable for meeting their
internal customer's needs. Here are five steps for helping teams get to
know their internal customers.
1. Focus everyone on the external customer.
The first step is to create an opportunity for all work teams to listen
to your company's external customers. The best way to do this is to organise
a meeting with all staff and three unhappy, and preferably outspoken,
customers. Ask the customers to talk about what your company does well
and what it does poorly. Ask them also to describe what their customers
demand from them and consequently what they expect from your company.
Let each customer speak for 10 minutes and then throw the meeting open
to questions from your staff. These should be questions to learn and
understand, not to challenge, defend, justify, or deny.
2. Break into teams.
When the discussion has run its course and the customers sent on their
way, ask staff to go into their work teams and give them 30 minutes to
discuss what they believe they must provide their internal customers
if the company's external customers are going to get what they are demanding.
Also, ask the work teams to discuss which of their internal customer's
needs they are currently meeting, and where they see opportunities to
improve. Finally, ask the teams to discuss what they need from their
internal suppliers in order to be able to serve their internal customers
well.
Make sure notes are taken and kept on file. Bring the teams back together
ask each team to make a brief report.
3. Create an opportunity to meet with the internal
customer.
Staff must leave the meeting knowing what is going to happen next. Tell
them that what they have concluded is, of course, only their view of the
world, and just as today they discovered how useful it is to hear directly
from the external customers, it would be equally beneficial for them to
meet with their internal customers. After all, there is little more dangerous
than delusions of adequacy!
Tell each team that you expect that in the next 6 weeks they will have
had a meeting with their major internal customer (for which they will
be given time during working hours). The meetings could be between all
members of both teams, representatives of one and all members of the other
or just representatives from each team. In my experience, the first option
is the best even if it is the most difficult to arrange. That way everyone
gets to hear what everyone has to say.
At the meeting, each team should ask their customer to talk about the
same issues as the external customers did. What does the team do well
and what poorly? What do the customer team's customers demand from them
and therefore what do they need from the supplier team? They should also
ask if there is anything they do that is not used by the customer because
this is wasted effort. Again, notes should be taken and kept.
At the end of the meeting, the two teams must agree on a date in three
months time when they will meet again to review progress. This is very
performing teams will not enjoy the first meeting and they certainly will
not want to meet in three months time and listen to their internal customers
complaining about the same issues. On the other hand, if teams improve
between the two meetings, they will find it motivating to hear to their
customers praise them for now doing a better job. important as this creates
the accountability. Poorly
4. Work to improve.
To get the most from these meetings, each team needs to improve its performance.
They will need time to do this. Allow each team between 30 and 60 minutes
every fortnight to meet and discuss how they can do things better. Some
individuals might be also part of mini-project teams that work on problems
between meetings.
At the first meeting, each team should compare the feedback from their
customer with their notes from the company-wide meeting where they reviewed
their performance. This is often a useful reality check!
5. Make it the way you do business.
You and your staff will quickly see the benefits from this approach, particularly
if you hold another company meeting four months later. Invite the external
customers back to talk about the improvements they have seen, and ask
each team to report on the changes they have made and whether they have
noticed their own internal supplier's game has lifted.
At the end of the meeting, announce this is now the way you will do
business. Tell staff every three months they will meet with their internal
customers to find out what they need improve or even just do differently.
Then between meetings they will meet to find better ways of doing things.
If you are not in a position to arrange this company-wide, do it with
your division, department, branch or team. Over time, others will notice
the improvement and ask what you have been doing. Who knows, you might
be the person who began the change that gave your company the edge in
today's cutthroat market.
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