Why I banned the internal customer

Antoine de KervilerCIO - Eurostar

Define “customer”

An internal customer is directly connected to an organization, and is usually internal to the organization.

He is usually a stakeholder, an employee, or a shareholder, but the definition can also encompass creditors and external regulators.

Source : Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer

“A customer is the recipient of a good, service, product, or idea, obtained  from  a seller, vendor,  or supplier for  a  monetary  or other valuable consideration.”

The customer moves to the peripheryLet’s build a web site

CCommercialRevenue

IS / ITDevelop, operate

DevelopmentCode

InfrastructureOperate

Service deskMonitor

SalesRevenue

MarketingOffer, product

AdvertisingMake it knownDigital

Social, affiliation…

LegalT&Cs, privacy

FinancePayment, fraud

UX / CXUsability

PMOCoordination, change management

A

Monopolistic behaviors

One internal supplier

Some side effects

Internal customer

Soon, you’ve lost sight of the customerHe loses patience and shops around

Internal customerAntoine de Kerviler

CIO - Eurostar

Only one customer

The customer is the person travelling…

Focus on the customer

No more “over the fence” culture

Customer asks Design Built Customer wants

Build an efficient web team

RevenueMgt

Dev OpsUI / UXPayment

Advertising

Dev TeamTests Architects

SocialNetworks

IS Security

Service DeskFinance Legal

Digitalsales

Distribution systems

Contactcenter

Digital steering group

• One budget : IS + commercial• Co-managed by CIO and Commercial Director• Key functions represented = 6 people• Ad-hoc additional attendees• Very simple and transparent prioritization• Fully transparent

Very simple prioritisation systemCustomer

benefitCompany

benefit Impact Priority Cost of doing nothingProjects

0 … 13 0 … 13 0 … 13 B + B - I £Description

13 3 8 813 + 3 - 8

£ 10k / wkChange service for customer

3 13 13 33 + 13 - 13

£ 50k / wkHost servers on another OS

All projects and tasks are prioritized and decisions are made by joint team

Rebooking and refunds are

processed in a few days

Everyone has the same info

Give your staff permission to innovate

Process can beoutsourced & crowdsourced

Dev team builta single purpose

app

Need to handle huge activity peaks

Realtime info becomes available

Contact center builds an intranet

page

Need to inform staff and customers

Everyone is aligned on the objectives, it’s easy to empower people to innovate

Key take aways

• Get rid of the internal customer• Focus your teams on the one & only customer• Prioritize tasks, projects according to customer

+ company benefit• Give your staff permission to innovate

I banned the internal customer

Antoine de KervilerCIO - Eurostar

Thank you

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