Internal Branding to be Customer Focused

I have just spoken with Steve Farber who is a wonderful author - The Radical Edge: Stoke Your Business, Amp Your Life, and Change the World and The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership are really worth reading. I was talking to him about being obsessed with customers - and he said any company that isn't will ultimately fail. I tend to agree and would take this one step further.

Any company that is not obsessed with their employees, and their employees being customer centric will fail. Every thing you do whether it be a service, manufacture, retail, wholesale depends on your people believing in what they do...feeling the values of the brand and displaying them throughout their interaction with the customers. An example is Toyota - the manufacturing teams live quality and want their product to live up to the customer standards. They might not meet them but they want the customer to feel the quality.

If you are going to get this level of engagement - great 4 step guide here over a series of posts - then you must interact with your team, to the same values, to the same mission that you want them to do to your customers. For many support areas such as finance that can mean their internal customers. Remember services can be outsourced and you are interacting with a customer and fighting for the contract!

Customers are Sacred

Customers are the most important part of any firm. Looking after the customer is a given - or at least should be! It is a relationship that needs work and attention. Remember that any asset - in this case the relationship - deteriorates if left neglected. Assets need attention and care.

So this makes complete sense for external customers but it just as true for internal customers. Customers to your work are just as sacred and should be dealt with, with the same care and attention. Ask them what they want, educate them about what you can do, deal with queries promptly, treat with respect....you wouldn't shout at an external customer so why an internal?

People who build strong internal networks will always be valuable. People who see the internal customer as sacred will be valued. People will want to nurture that relationship not look for other alternatives e.g. outsourcing. Remember the best way to protect your job is to do it brilliantly! If you do the job in isolation and not create added value then why would people not see this as a commodity that could be bought "cheaper". Add value...to add success...to add security.