1. Building Silos or Breaking Silos? Internal Customers is a
Flawed Concept!
I spent many years of consulting on internal Customers. I helped companies look at internal
Customers, and how they could get value from the other departments of the company. And
keeping internal Customers happy. Companies would throw SLA’s at me (Service Level
Agreements) so that performance of departments and expectations of internal Customers were
met.
But my work with external Customers showed that one very important reason for Customers to be
unhappy was the various silos that are built in companies, and how departments are insulated
from each other. Silos are promoted by the concept of internal customers. Departments tend to be
independent of each other. This leads to a lack of internal cooperation. Even worse, everyone
thinks the customer is taken care of because there is a customer department and they all wash
their hands off the customer and think they have no customer role. The results of a survey with
400 CEO’s shows that the two major reasons for failure to provide good Customer Experience are
(1) Lack of a clear Customer Strategy, and (2) Lack of Internal Cooperation.
Thus if you want to give your Customer a good experience abandon the concept of internal
Customers. Build internal teamwork and cooperation. We work with various departments in
defining their Customer roles. We ask why departments such as HRD and IT are considered staff

2. functions. The reason is they do not add value. They are really extractors of value not creators of
value. When have you heard an HRD CXO ask: What value have I added to the employee? When
did he ask whether the employee feels valued? Is it the HRD CXO’s job or is it the department
manager’s job? Or is it everyone’s or no one’s job?
We improve internal cooperation and teamwork by starting a Courtesy System, so people are nice
to each other and start smiling. This then shows in the way you handle your colleagues and your
external Customers
An external Customer could care less about internal silos. He wants a seamless experience. He
does not care who is doing the work for him, and telling him this is the job of another department
is most irksome for him (he doesn’t want to hear: Not my job!)
And we break silos by building a Customer strategy with tasks and leadership from various
departments. We build the Customer’s Bill of Rights, backed by a Circle of Promises from various
department so that the Customer realises his rights are being honoured by the company.
This is the first step to creating Firms of Endearment, where all stakeholders feel endeared and
the profitability increases.
Break silos soonest! Forget the concept of Internal Customers.
I will be chairing 3rd "Maximizing Customer Loyalty & Profitability" Telecom Conference organized by
Telecom IQ (A Division of IQPC), in Germany on May, 21-22, 2013
Contact Customer Value Foundation.
Call any Time
Mob: (+91) 9971288580
Gautam Mahajan, President-Customer Value Foundation
M: +91 9810060368
Tel: 11-26831226, Fax: 11-26929055
email: mahajan@customervaluefoundation.com
website: http://www.customervaluefoundation.com
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Customer Value foundation (CVF) helps companies to Create Value and profit by Creating Value for the customers,
employee and for each person working with the companies.

3. Total Customer Value Management (TCVM) transform the entire company to focus on Creating Value for the
customer by aligning each person's role in Creating Customer Value and getting shareholder wealth and Value.
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