Deep wounds in the quality of customer service

This means that, in order to dive into the deeper causes, we must go to the top, i.e., to the internal processes that the customer does not see, but are crucial for the contact employee to have adequate tools and responses to customer demands.

And so, we come to understand these processes as internal services.

 What are back-office services and their issues

 If we look at the operations of an organization, we can see that there is a chain where each link is the customer of the previous link, and supplier of the next, until the final customer is reached.

However, especially in large organizations, it is very difficult for each employee to visualize the complete process and see how the value of his or her own link impacts the end customer.

The usual thing to do is to stick to one´s own function. I am in charge of the finance department, so I have to comply with certain processes, regulations, approvals, and I defend my result based on those parameters, regardless of whether or not it serves my internal customer and whether or not we are contributing to the organization´s goals and increasing the quality of our service to the customer.

The problem is that many internal services are often peripheral to the main operation. For example, the human resources department of an oilfield services organization. It is absolutely necessary to have the right people, to develop them, to retain them, but the core of your business is not this one, which makes them lose importance and limits them to "fulfill their functions".

But this situation has serious consequences!

Consequences of poor internal service

I have had the opportunity to work within an organization, providing an internal service (I hired consulting and training for different companies of a group) and now I find myself on the other side of the counter. The reality and the problems I perceive are often repeated.

I see internal services as the "health" of the organization. When an organization is healthy, it does not perceive it. This state simply allows it to carry out its activities without restrictions, using all its energy.

Health itself does not produce results, but... lack of health limits them. Sometimes, to the point of blocking them completely.

Example of an internal service that leaves deep wounds and its impact on quality.

A public organization dedicated to nurturing entrepreneurs and providing them with training had hired a trainer. The planning, delivery and satisfaction with the service were optimal for both parties, which would have been an excellent basis for a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

However, the organization was unable to meet its payment commitments to the supplier due to inefficiencies and excessive internal bureaucracy in the supplier payment department (one of its internal services).

These shortcomings led both the supplier and the contractor to decide not to repeat the experience. A deep wound, which directly affects the external service of the organization: the training of its associates.

I have also seen how suppliers refuse to provide certain services because they consider that it is not worth going through such tortuous and costly processes; or else they raise their prices considerably to cover the extra work that they will have to assume.

In short, injuries that limit, restrict and affect the quality of the service that finally reaches the external customer.

Fortunately, many organizations have become aware of this problem and have already taken on the challenge of rescuing internal services from the peripheries and placing them in a relevant place, in which the value they provide is health for the entire organization, and the potential to achieve its goals.