Definition of Internal Customer
Internal customers are people inside the company, typically employees or other stakeholders. They are customers of in-house services which they get from another company, department, or employees.
- in contrast to external customers who pay for your services and are not directly connected to the organization
- the idea of internal customers comes from quality management approaches (Six Sigma) and IT service management (ITSM)
- distinguishing internal customers helps to improve internal service quality and inter-department communication
- treating everyone as a customer may also encourage employees to take each other seriously, just as if they were dealing with an external customer
Examples and types of internal customers
- employees are internal customers of internal IT department, which ensures all computers and other IT services are running smoothly. Without IT employees couldn’t do their jobs and help customers
- every employee is an internal customer to HR departments because they provide employee relations, training, benefits, and mediation
- employees working in the offices are customers of office management
- all employees use some buildings, facilities and work equipment and are also customers for the facility management department
