When a co-worker walks into your office with a request, do you treat that person as well as you’d treat a new client you’re trying to land?
You should.
When employees follow the “golden rule” – treating fellow staff members the way they’d like to be treated – it’s more than just polite or politically correct. It’s great for business:
- it increases employee satisfaction and company morale;
- it lowers employee acquisition costs;
- it increases employee productivity and performance;
- it sets the bar for how well your external customers are treated.
But the opposite is also true! So make sure you’re not committing one of these fundamental internal customer service mistakes:
- Lack of understanding. Can your staff differentiate between the concepts of internal and external customer service? Do they understand the interdependent needs of all internal stakeholders? If not, they won’t meet your service expectations.
- Lack of integration. Every single employee is an internal customer service representative. No exceptions. Full staff buy-in and participation is essential to success. So if exceptional internal customer service practices aren’t thoroughly ingrained in your daily work routines and company culture, your team won’t be able to deliver it consistently.
- Lack of empowerment. Effective internal customer service is proactive and should require little or no supervision to deliver. If your employees don’t have the means and authority to deliver on the commitments they make, they’ll fail at least some of the time.
- Lack of leadership modeling. Successful internal customer service initiatives start at the top. If your leadership team doesn’t communicate clearly and foster collaborative work processes, you can’t expect your employees to!
Committing one of these mistakes? Don’t worry, I have lots of great tips for turning things around. Check out these earlier posts:
- Shareworthy service is for internal customers, too
- Tips for delivering great internal customer service
- Improving internal customer service in your staffing firm
Final Thoughts
Shareworthy service shouldn’t be reserved just for the people outside your company – it’s for your internal customers, too. The best staffing companies realize this and strive to deliver exceptional service with every “customer” interaction – whether that customer is inside or outside the company.