The "internal customer" concept can be used as a way of thinking about and measuring value. By using surveys to learn about internal support, companies can get specific information on how to take away obstacles to higher performance and eliminate activities which do not add value, while reducing frustrations which may lead to turnover. Thus, an internal customer survey can be used as a diagnostic tool to improve performance and increase value at every level.
Our data base tells us that many leading companies are moving agressively to align employees and departments behind common goals and strategies; that is, for example, a primary reason to install and cascade a balanced scorecard to all units. Internal customer service surveys can help to determine whether departments are following the global strategy in word and deed.
Another use of internal customer service surveys is to help those who manage internal or shared service areas, such as human resources, IT, finance, legal, or purchasing from being outsourced because their value proposition is low. By getting information on perceived strengths and internal customers' needs, frustrations, and favorite features, managers can improve their departments' reputations, performance and ability to thrive within the company.
In addition to the standard customer issues, internal customer surveys may need to probe special issues such as alignment with common goals and strategies, sharing limited resources, and partnering.
In a Metrus Group / Quality magazine survey, 841 executives and managers described what they felt were the strongest barriers to change. 62% mentioned organizational culture, 61% cited lack of perceptions that improvement was needed, and 55% reported organizational structure issues. Internal customer surveys can pinpoint skills, focus, and cultural and structural barriers to high performance. A simple internal customer survey can help leaders to overcome most of the barriers to change.
Metrus' proprietary approach to securing key information on the service relationship and value proposition, coupled with easy to use manager reports makes the process efficient and the information highly effective. The information has enabled many Metrus clients to pinpoint internal bottlenecks, resource allocations that produce low or high value, and competency gaps, enabling the users to make changes to dramatically increase value.
For example, within a Financial Services group, a collections unit received a 29 rating (our to 100) on the overall value of its services while a sister unit received a 91 rating. This was a dramatic "aha" to the organization. The information allowed this unit to pinpoint four specific service gaps that were keeping the value of its services low, which had kindled talk of outsourcing. By targeting these performance dimensions, coupled with a new focus on employee skill gaps, they were able to raise their internal customer ratings to over 60 within one year.
This organization also was smart in linking the internal customer information with their employee and external customer surveys. The results were powerful. It was also clear from the "linked" findings that this unit had supervisory problems, external customer concerns, and low morale leading to frequent turnover. The power of the three surveys enabled the organization to hone in to the core issues quickly and make critical improvements that ultimately increased customer and employee retention, customer volume, and internal customer satifaction, while reducing headcount and costs.
Furthermore, internal customer service ratings are often a good predictor of your external customers' retention and buying behavior, and an excellent predictor of productivity.
Knowing that internal customer issues often can influence customer retention and buying behavior and even employee retention, and with the cost savings of electronic administration, the question should not be whether to do an internal customer survey, but how and when to start.
Metrus Group offers a variety of internal customer services, including focus groups, surveys and financial and customer linkage analyses. Click here to contact us for more information.