Internal and external customers
Key takeaways
- Quality is defined by whether it meets a customer's requirements, so the unit starts by identifying exactly who the customers are.
- An internal customer is a person or department inside the organisation that receives another department's output; an external customer is outside the organisation and buys or receives its final products or services.
- Customer requirements are stated (explicitly specified), implied (not stated but reasonably expected from normal use) or delight factors (unstated extras that exceed expectation and build loyalty).
- Statutory and regulatory requirements, such as standards, safety regulations and consumer-protection law, are non-negotiable whatever a particular customer asks for.
- Total quality management treats internal customers with the same discipline as external ones, because a defect passed on inside the organisation reaches the external customer later and costs more to fix.
Quality is ultimately defined by whether it meets a customer's requirements (see Quality Management System, on the fundamental concepts of quality), so this unit starts by identifying exactly who those customers are before building a service charter or communication framework (the next two chapters) around them.
Types of customers
Customer requirements
- Stated requirements: explicitly specified by the customer
- Implied requirements: not stated, but reasonably expected given the product or service's normal use
- Delight factors: unstated extras that exceed expectation and build loyalty
Statutory and regulatory requirements
Beyond what a customer asks for, an organisation must meet the legal and regulatory requirements that apply to its product, service or sector, standards, safety regulations, consumer-protection law, which are non-negotiable regardless of what a specific customer does or does not request.
Self-check
(a) Distinguish an internal customer from an external customer, with one example of each. (2 marks)
(b) Distinguish stated requirements, implied requirements and delight factors. (3 marks)
(c) Explain why statutory and regulatory requirements must be met regardless of what a specific customer requests. (2 marks)
(d) A machine shop's production department regularly hands finished parts to the packaging department without checking they meet the drawing's tolerances, saying 'the customer is external, not us'. Explain the error in this reasoning. (3 marks)
(e) Classify each of the following as a stated requirement, an implied requirement or a delight factor: a customer specifying delivery within five days; a customer expecting a purchased kettle to be safe to use; a hotel leaving a handwritten thank-you note in a guest's room. (3 marks)
Show worked answer
(a) An internal customer is an individual or department within the organisation who receives the output of another department's work, such as the packaging department receiving parts from production. An external customer is outside the organisation and purchases or receives its final products or services, such as a retail buyer.
(b) Stated requirements are explicitly specified by the customer. Implied requirements are not stated but reasonably expected given normal use. Delight factors are unstated extras that exceed expectation and build loyalty.
(c) Statutory and regulatory requirements (standards, safety regulations, consumer-protection law) are legally binding regardless of what any individual customer asks for, so meeting them is non-negotiable even if a customer does not request or is unaware of them.
(d) The packaging department is an internal customer of production, and total quality management treats internal customers with the same discipline as external ones, since a defect passed on internally will eventually reach the external customer anyway, just later and at higher cost to fix.
(e) Delivery within five days: stated requirement. A kettle being safe to use: implied requirement. A handwritten thank-you note: delight factor.
Exam tip
The internal/external distinction is the foundation of the whole unit, remember that treating an internal customer, the next department, with the same discipline as an external one is a core total-quality-management principle (see Quality Management System, on the evolution of quality).