Does your organization have separate approaches to internal and external customer experience?
SVP in Finance (non-banking), 1,001 - 5,000 employees
External/internal is just a designation that you give to your customers. Ultimately, it comes down to identifying the problem that you're trying to solve; understanding what these customers are facing is what you need to focus on. I do believe that if internal customers are happy and their workflows are better, they will influence the output that external customers experience, especially in IT, the service organization. It can make life easier for the agent or delivery person and much more aligned; chances are that will transfer to the external customers interacting with them. The way I see it, everyone you're servicing is a customer. You have to start with understanding the problems and their experience in that workflow. Put yourself in their position to feel their pain—that helps you design solutions that meet the customer’s needs. Sometimes they're not going to tell you exactly what their pain points are but if you actually put yourself in that position, you will see and feel it. Then you'll be able to design solutions that are a better fit for their needs.
Managing Director in Finance (non-banking), 1,001 - 5,000 employees
And ultimately we are all consumers ourselves, whether internal or external. Plus, sometimes we move between companies and end up using the product that we delivered and designed. So we might want to have a good experience.
Sr. Director of Enterprise Security in Software, 5,001 - 10,000 employees
If you’re not fanatical about your internal customer’s experience—customer zero—then you're completely missing the point. I've worked at some companies with product managers who were much more focused on some theoretical external customer that was yet to sign a deal and less customer-obsessed with internal customers who were actually eating our own dog food. And that's always been such a huge aspect of every place I've been at, to eat your own dog food—drink your own champagne, if you prefer. Because if you're not fanatical about what the internal experience is, it feels fake to pretend you're fanatical about the external experience.Thankfully I've worked at a bunch of companies that were just as fanatical about customer zero as they were about a big money deal with some theoretical Fortune 500. You have to have both. Certainly when I'm the external customer, there are some great companies out there that have done a fantastic job of making me feel like every feature I wanted was top of mind for them, or my success was their success, etc. And you do have to be customer success obsessed.
CEO in Manufacturing, 11 - 50 employees
It’s just about serving the customer and the customer is both internal and external. You may approach them differently in how you talk to them or what you're doing but in the end you're trying to solve a problem and make things easier for them. Then that ultimately leads to the obsession of always being on the platform and always leveraging the things you have. Internally, they don't really have a choice but externally, they do. But you want them to always return to your platform and to your servers, because if not, then your job is harder.Content you might like
Founder, Self-employed
Work travel is a privilege. Embracing your experience to meet new people, and see the beauty of nature and culture wherever you go.Quarterly14%
Twice per year46%
Annually31%
Every 3 years7%
Every 5 years1%
Other (please share below)0%
237 PARTICIPANTS
Community User in Software, 11 - 50 employees
organized a virtual escape room via https://www.puzzlebreak.us/ - even though his team lost it was a fun subtitue for just a "virtual happy hour"
So there’s some prioritization for internal customers when it comes to submitting your request. I don't think that's the way it should be but that's what happens. For external customers, it's definitely much harder to get high satisfaction scores. You want people to be happy with the ROI that you're providing to a customer and it's much harder to get that high level of customer experience and customer satisfaction.