By 
Honestly, is there an internal customer? The term “Internal Customer” has been so overused that it has become a cliché, losing its original meaning. The term Internal Customer was originally used in the field of Management Science (MS). However, it was later popularized by Joseph Juran, the management consultant known for his dedication to quality management in companies, especially factories.
The initial use of the term Internal Customers was intended to refer to ‘users’. This user refers to the people who will use the production of another department or unit. This is how the term internal and external customer was born. External customer refers to customers/consumers outside the company who are users of the company’s product/services and internal customer refers to the user of the product/services of another department/unit. The use was purely for technical differentiation.
However, the term was later expanded to reflect management styles, teamwork, interdepartmental communication, etc. The extension went beyond the technical relationships between departments and individuals in the company (known as hard areas) to include the soft areas of attitude, experience, teamwork, etc. This is when you’ll find bosses promoting teamwork by asking employees to view and treat another department as their own customer. What seems shocking is that even trainers and consultants preach this gospel when they themselves cannot treat their own receptionist or account clerk as a customer.
The thing is, first we have to be really honest with ourselves and answer this question: “Can I see and treat the account department or the purchasing department, marketing, IT, technical support, as our own customer?” And that means you work to bring your best to the other department, take all their bullshit, and reassure yourself by saying with a smile, “Oh, well…they’re my clients after all.”
The problem lies in the word – Customer. The very word suggests to our mind that it is a business transaction, money, and that direct monetary benefit will arise from this transaction. These things are not as apparent when dealing with another department (at least not as directly as with actual customers). So why are we swimming against the current to beat our team into accepting the other colleagues as customers? Let’s face the fact…it’s not going to happen. The other department may be your internal customer from Juran’s management science point of view. But they are definitely not customers from the point of view of our daily interaction and operation. The Internal Customer is a Myth.
The answer is Partner. Instead of beating the staff into accepting the internal customer idea (which tickles your brain every time you hear it); Why not use a term that our psychology and consciousness would accept? Partner is a much more acceptable term.
In sales and customer service we talk about maturing the seller-buyer relationship. This consumer to partner maturation process begins from a Consumer to a Customer to a Customer and then to a Partner. When a person buys something from us through a third party or an intermediary, they are consumers for us. When they buy from us, they become our customers. A client refers to a relationship in which the seller acts as an advisor. This could be when the product or service requires guidance or follow-up. Such examples would be as a lawyer, wellness centers, fitness instructors, and to some extent even real estate agents. The third stage is called the Partner. This is when the buyer and seller have formed a powerful bond that is bound together by trust, transparency, mutual respect, and interest in each other’s success. We are talking about a powerful relationship that is productive for both of you.
The situation with a work team is that by default they are in a partnership situation. Systems, processes and daily activities are focused on a partnership-like relationship rather than a customer relationship. So why would we want to ‘de-mature’ (if that term makes us understand) that relationship to a customer-supplier relationship? Taking a client situation, he would probably call one of his clients Mr. Goldwin or Ms. Johnson in previous meetings. But in a partnership relationship, you would conveniently refer to them by their first name. Wouldn’t it look weird if a person who calls someone Tim all the time one day calls him Mr. Goldwin?
While I’m not saying you’ll call your colleagues by their last name in an internal customer situation; the weirdness of treating a colleague as a ‘customer’ is as absurd as that. So the best alternative would be to motivate the team to accept each other as partners. This can be accomplished by building trust in the team, practicing a sense of openness at the leadership level, making everyone on the team feel special for their contribution, and showing how their personal successes depend on the successes of the team. Team members are not internal customers but partners. Let’s be honest with ourselves.