If you are going to ask any successful business entrepreneur what is the secret of their company's success, chances are they would include providing high quality service is one of them. There is no doubt that customer service is one of the most vital aspects to any business organization, whether it is a small home business or a multinational corporation.

That being the case, it is no wonder why there are so many materials and training seminars that are now available for companies to help them improve the level of the customer service that they provide to their customers. In many cases, apart from providing new and existing customers a line of products and service that they could avail from the company, much of the resources are often allocated in two departments: marketing and customer service.

Despite this being the case, there are still many companies that struggle to provide effective and efficient customer service to their customers. Why is this the case? It is mainly because of the fact that many companies tend to only focus on one type of customer wherein in reality, companies have actually two sets of customers that they need to provide effective and efficient quality service to. The first is the external customer or those individuals and companies that are found outside of the organization. The second group is the internal customers, who are actually the employees within the business organization.

According to many business analysts, the satisfactory level of a company's internal customer has a direct impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of customer service provided by the company to its external customers. Based on studies that have been conducted, they have determined that majority of those companies that struggle in providing high quality customer service to those customers that avail of their products and services are those that have a workforce that is dissatisfied with the manner on how they are treated by the company. In retrospect, those companies that are able to provide excellent customer service consistently are those that have a workforce that is also happy, satisfied and consist of employees that have been with the company for many years.

If your company needs to improve in the level of customer service it provides to your new and existing customers, clients, stakeholders and investors, the most effective and efficient way is to treat your employees as though they are also your company's customers, thus the term internal customers. The reason is very simple. Your employees have their own needs that need to be met by the company. When the company fails to meet these needs, they react in the same manner as your external customers in that they would also be left discouraged and dissatisfied with the company.

However, the repercussions are far greater than external customers. When an external customer becomes dissatisfied, the company loses financial revenue. When an internal customer is not satisfied, the results are not experienced internally. It spills over to the external customers of the company causing a huge impact on the overall image and financial growth of the business.