Innovate or Die – Just not the way you thought…

In any business, every department can put a strong case forward as to why they are the most important function and the most critical to the business success. For example, Marketing devise the products and services to attract the customer and Operations deliver it to the customer. Whilst the back office ensures that systems and procedures are running smoothly to ensure everything reaches the customer on time and in full. Though, does any of it really matter without someone initially engaging the customer and ultimately converting them into a sale?

How effective a business sells its products and services and retains its customers determines how successful it will be. So, it is interesting to reflect on why some businesses do not adopt a customer-centric approach within the internal functions of their organisation. Every department in a business has its own internal customers, for example, the manufacturing plant’s customer are the locations where the product is distributed. The distribution team’s customer is the sales team, the finance team’s customer is anyone who needs an invoice paid, and the story goes on.

Rather than these departments merely following a process to suit their own needs and internal priorities, how much stronger would the business be if they treated their internal stakeholder like customers and focussed on delighting them? What if they treated them as a key customer that they were dependant on revenue from to survive? If they took the view that their very success (and ultimate survival) was predicated on providing an exceptional customer service to those internal customers, how successful could the business be?

Businesses go through continuous process improvement discussions all the time, most of these discussions are looking in, how can we improve our department and make our job better? Considering the internal customer through this process, where their pain points and frustrations lie, this can change the team’s perspective from what impacts them to what can they fix that impacts others. This would result in a much better flow from department to department through the business improving the overall experience for everyone.

When businesses say they must innovate or die, they are not just referring to product and service innovations. Innovations in the back end of the business are just as important as any other.

By departments treating each other as internal customers, a business can improve morale, efficiency, stability, innovation and have a positive flow on effect to the end customer. All these items will contribute to the overall success and profitability of the business.

This is not a process, this is an ideology, The Internal Customer… who is yours?