Case Study
Internal Customer Attitudes

Student:
Date of Submission:
Lecturer:
Course: Customer Service Management

Case Study
Internal Customer Attitudes

As products and services of various competing interests become increasingly equal in terms of price and quality, organisations have realized that ultimately the deciding factor in increasing or maintaining loyal customers is the commitment of an organisation to customer service strategies such as Total Quality Management (TQM). Dr Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke have suggested in their research that, “the way employees feel is ultimately the way your customers will feel...” This case study explores the impact that an organisations customer service strategy has on the attitudes of its internal customers as well as how this dynamic ultimately allows the organisation to respond to the external customer’s wants, needs, and expectations.

In analysis of the given case study we are confronted with Pam, a low level employee with limited responsibilities, a relatively small area of influence within the organisational structure of the business, and no actual physical contact with the external customers. Given the extremely limited contact that Pam has with external customers it might be assumed that customer service is an area within the organisation that she has no involvement or necessity to be involved. The problems of this assumption are readily evident in that Pam and the organisation have only acknowledged the external customers, the person buying the end product or services from the organisation, and failed to acknowledge the internal customers who receive the goods and services produced elsewhere in the organisation to effectively deliver the end product to the external customer. Dwyer states that the cooperation between internal customers creates rapport and allows better quality service at