The other more insidious byproduct of the “who’s whose customer” war is the attention of both parties on internal conflict rather than on the real customer—the one writing the checks. The counter guy treated Mel like a kind of war correspondent—a nice feature for the folks back home but purely superfluous to the real battle. [...]

Internal Colleagues are not Internal Customers It is popular to use the concept…internal and external customer. But, it’s flawed. The attractiveness of the idea probably started with a line like, “If you’re not serving the customer, you’d better be serving someone who is.” It was first spoken in Ron Zemke and Karl Albrecht’s book Service [...]

It all started with a spark plug! A friend of ours reported that his weed eater refused to start on a Spring Saturday and he surmised the spark plug had given up the ghost! Mel drove to a nearby auto parts store for a replacement. The service counter person quickly determined the plug Mel needed [...]

By: Chip R. Bell Service warriors know ordinary service leaves customers only satisfied. Seventy-five percent of customers who leave an organization to go with a competitor say there were satisfied with the one they abandoned. Being a service warrior means delivering a service experience that is remarkable—one that makes customers remark positively to others. Chanaka [...]