Before discussing the function of customer service, it is useful to clarify what is meant by a customer, with regard to a business. A customer can be a person, company, or department which makes use of the goods and/or services produced and offered by another person or organisation.
This description, whilst accurate, does not give the best understanding of a customer for the purpose of discussing customer service. To give a broader understanding, consider three different categories of customer who may need consideration.
- Potential Customers: a person, company, or department which may make use of the goods and/or services produced and offered at some point in the future
- Current Customers: a person, company, or department which makes use of the goods and/or services produced and offered
- Previous Customers: a person, company, or department which has made use of the goods and/or services produced and offered in the past
The reason for making this distinction from the outset is to show that it is not just the current customers of an organisation who should be considered within many aspects of customer service, but also those who have been previously or may be in the future.
Customers come in two very different and distinct types, internal customers and external customers.
Your internal customers are other people or colleagues who are directly connected to your organisation that want or need something from you.
Your external customers are people from another company, or members of the public, who want to get information or buy products or services from you. The external customer may be the ultimate consumer of your businesses products/services (what most people would understand by the term customer) or another company your business supplies or someone who is directly affected by your business.