Who is your customer?
Silly question? Not really. Considering many believe the customer is always right. So who really is your customer? One would simply say- the one who pays for your product/service. Is that really true?
The salesperson would possibly say this and be convinced of its completeness. But, for the purpose of this discussion let us look at functions other than sales. Considering most established business organizations have multiple functions that help in running the business and therefore delivering a service/product. Who is Finance’s customer? Who is Marketing’s customer? Who is HR’s customer? Who is recruitment’s customer? Most of these functions would say- ‘we have internal customers’. Is that really true?
Commonly this would be the accepted answer and belief, but businesses have changed and so has the nature of the customer or more importantly the consumer. I have a contrary view. I do not believe in internal customers. A customer is one who pays for a value/service and has a choice of vendor/service provider. In today’s world even a B2B company needs to understand the end consumer. Why is that you may ask?
Today, consumers are directing every bit of product or service. You are asking for a certain kind of mobile handset with features provided by a certain OS. The mobile manufacturer has no choice but to cater. This is an easy example to consider but look at complex businesses, complexity being defined as businesses where the consumer has no direct view of an internal process/system/product. In a bank you very often have no idea who is powering your ATM technology, who is driving your Internet banking service and yet you make your demands and the bank has to make sure its service providers can cope up. So this means the service provider has to keep in sync with the end consumer, consumers like you and me, understand our needs-current and future. So now, for a service provider is the Bank the customer or the consumer the real customer? Gets me thinking and fuels my theory that regardless of the business, it is the end consumer who is finally driving business worldwide. Candidates today choose their employer. Employees chose to stay or leave. Each employee has a role in what the business’s customer gets from the company and has to ask oneself what am I doing to make it better for my company’s customer and many have to ask what am I doing to make it better for my customer’s customer.
Coming back to my original discussion. This means that in a business while any function has its operational goals, objectives and targets what it has to do is cater to the final consumer.
The degree of ‘catering’ will vary by function. But, internal customers have no choice of vendor/service provider nor do they pay for the service/product. So are they really customers? My answer is NO. They are stakeholders, not customers. This means they have a stake in what you do to ultimately satisfy two sets of customers (the Business customer and the end consumer). So HR’s customer is the employee and the customer buying service/product from the company. Recruitment’s customer is the candidate and the customer buying service/product from the company. Finance’s customer is all the other functions that depend on it and the company management/investors. Marketing’s customer is the existing client and potential clients, not the product manager, not the salesperson. In essence this means, within an organization business functions have a stake in each other’s success and therefore have to work collaboratively to allow each function to do what they do best, their profession.
What will this thinking do? I would imagine this line of thinking would ensure professional capabilities would win over internal competition thus improving efficiency and customer-centricity.
