Internal Customer Service Case Study

Internal Customer Case Study

Danielle Gagnon

The server and the cook both have biased points of view.  The cook is preparing meals for customers that he doesn’t interact with which would make it difficult for him to empathize with them.  The server however has the opportunity to connect with the customer and empathize but didn’t have the opportunity to know the situation in the kitchen.  Basically in this situation the cook and the server were both at a disadvantage.

This situation affects the relationship between the coworkers, or Internal Customers, because they aren’t working together to create excellent service for the external customer.  This strain on their relationship will affect how the other kitchen staff will work together and the quality of the food being served.  The server’s attitude after the incident will permeate into the service she’s giving the customer at hand which in turn makes the company suffer.

From the cooks perspective he couldn’t empathize with the server and everything that was going wrong in the kitchen was more important than what the customer needed.  He also generalized and stereotyped servers as a whole and couldn’t put himself in their shoes.  If he had followed the laws of service he would have put his own personal vendettas and issues behind him so that he could work properly and for the customer.

Then from the server’s perspective, the dining room was extremely busy and she didn’t understand the demands of the kitchen.  This would lead to the servers attitude changing and the customer would be able to pick up on this change in mood and could perceive it to be their fault or about them.

The first law states that they must have team work, courtesy, empathy and the ability to be accessible.  Both the cook and the server didn’t follow through with any of these.  The cook wasn’t courteous towards the server when she needed the steak redone and the server didn’t have empathy for the cook’s demands.  They were both inaccessible to each other and they behaved as individuals instead of as a team.

Had they used these methods they would have been able to put aside their differences and focus on the situation at hand.  Their tasks would not only be less stressful but they would be able to work more efficiently afterward without it affecting any more internal or external customers.