Are Internal Customers More Important than External Customers?
If you have read my Ivey Business Review article When Customers Collide, you will know that I consider the very idea of internal customers to be harmful and imprudent.
But not everyone agrees, including very popular and successful businessmen like former BB&T CEO John Allison and excellence advocate Tom Peters.
Here’s a clip of Tom Peters “insisting” that managerial leaders spread the word and introduce into their culture the idea that “Your internal customers are more important than your external customers.”
I don’t find his examples convincing. In fact, it seems to me that few executives and managers would want his or her employees to behave in ways Tom Peters approves.
Watch the video and draw your own conclusions.
Read my article to see what I think.
Leave a comment to let me know whether you agree or disagree.
There is a danger inherent in chasing one’s own business fads – from IN SEARCH OF to A PASSION FOR to INTERNAL CUSTOMERS – round and round the unicorn carousel. The danger is that one’s head can slip right up one’s own recTOM.