Customer experience is often associated with restaurants, retail stores, hotels, and call centers. However, every organization creates experiences—whether it intentionally designs them or not.
During Unit 1 of our BMG 205 Customer Experience course at Washtenaw Community College, students examined customer experience through their own employment, volunteer work, business operations, and personal observations.
Instructor John Mira’s class feedback showed how widely the concepts applied. Students connected the material to healthcare, offices, warehouses, automotive dealerships, fitness centers, camps, online businesses, restaurants, retail stores, and many other environments.
The variety of examples reinforced one of the most important lessons from the unit: every organization has internal and external customers, and every interaction contributes to an experience.
What Is Customer Experience?
Customer experience is the overall impression a person develops through every interaction with an organization.
It includes more than the moment when a purchase is made or a service is completed. The experience may begin when someone:
- Sees an advertisement
- Visits a website
- Calls for information
- Enters a parking lot
- Reads an online review
- Sends a message
- Walks into a building
- Asks an employee for assistance
The experience continues through the transaction, delivery, follow-up, complaint process, return, or future purchase.
A business may provide a good product but still create a poor experience through confusing instructions, inaccessible facilities, inconsistent communication, long waits, or dismissive service.
The product is only one part of what customers evaluate.
External Customers: The People Organizations Serve
External customers are the people outside an organization who purchase, use, receive, or benefit from its products and services.
Depending on the organization, external customers may include:
- Retail shoppers
- Restaurant guests
- Patients
- Students and families
- Online buyers
- Banking members
- Auto-service clients
- Community members
- Business clients
- Government agencies
External customers are usually the most visible because their purchases, satisfaction, reviews, and loyalty directly affect the organization.
However, a business cannot serve them well unless the people and departments inside the organization also work together effectively.
Internal Customers: Service Begins Inside the Organization
Internal customers are employees, coworkers, departments, or partners who depend on one another to complete their work.
For example:- A salesperson depends on the inventory team for accurate product information.
- A teacher depends on the office for student records.
- A nurse depends on the scheduling team for correct appointment information.
- A shipping employee depends on the order system for accurate addresses.
- A customer-service representative depends on management for clear policies.
- A business partner depends on the other partner for timely communication.
If internal service breaks down, external customers eventually feel the effect.
Incomplete information may cause delays. Poor communication may produce errors. Unclear responsibilities may leave a customer waiting while employees decide who should handle the problem.
Customer experience begins before the customer enters the picture. It begins with the way people inside the organization communicate, share information, and support one another.
Lessons From Ann Arbor Public Schools
My approximately 30 years of office-management experience with Ann Arbor Public Schools gave me many examples of both internal and external customers.
Students, parents, guardians, visitors, and community members could be viewed as external customers receiving services from the school system.
Teachers, administrators, support staff, custodians, transportation employees, and other offices also served one another internally.
A parent’s experience might depend on several people and systems:
- Whether the telephone was answered
- Whether the employee had accurate information
- Whether records were available
- Whether another department responded
- Whether the concern was communicated clearly
- Whether someone followed up
- Whether the parent felt respected
Even when an individual employee wanted to provide excellent service, an outdated system or poor communication between departments could damage the experience.
That professional background helped me understand that customer experience is not one person’s responsibility. It is an organizational result.
Customer Experience in an Online Business
Dee & Dee Brown LLC operates differently from a traditional storefront, but our customers still encounter functional, visual, and emotional clues.
A customer may never meet us in person, yet that person forms opinions through:
- Product photographs
- Listing titles
- Descriptions
- Prices
- Response times
- Seller ratings
- Packaging
- Shipping
- Thank-you messages
- Problem resolution
Our Poshmark closet contains thousands of listings. Organization and accuracy are essential. A customer should not have to guess about the product’s condition, size, measurements, or important features.
Each listing acts as a small storefront. Each message represents our customer service. Each package becomes physical evidence of the care we put into the transaction.
The business is creating an experience even when no face-to-face conversation occurs.
Donnetta’s Perspective: Personal Service Still Matters
My Unit 1 reflections helped me recognize how much professional experience I already brought into the course.
Years of working with employees, students, parents, administrators, and community members taught me that people want to feel heard and respected.
A company may not always be able to give customers exactly what they request. However, employees can still:
- Listen carefully
- Explain the situation honestly
- Provide accurate information
- Identify available alternatives
- Follow through on promises
- Thank the customer for their time
Personal effectiveness matters because the employee’s attitude can shape how the customer interprets the entire organization.
The course also challenged me to look beyond my individual communication skills. A kind employee cannot permanently overcome a broken process. Excellent service requires both caring people and effective systems.
Dominique’s Perspective: The Experience Is a System
Dominique’s engineering and problem-solving background creates a different perspective.
She naturally examines how the parts of a process work together. A customer problem may not result from one careless employee. It may come from unclear instructions, missing information, inefficient technology, or a workflow that creates repeated mistakes.
From this perspective, improving customer experience requires examining:
- Where the process begins
- Who is responsible for each step
- What information each person needs
- Where delays or errors occur
- How the customer receives updates
- What happens when something goes wrong
- How the company learns from the results
The customer sees one experience, even when several systems and people produced it.
Moving Beyond Personal Customer Service
Unit 1 encouraged us to examine our personal service skills. Unit 2 expanded the focus by asking how organizations intentionally design experiences.
A friendly employee is important, but customers also respond to:
- Physical surroundings
- Cleanliness
- Lighting
- Noise
- Temperature
- Signs
- Accessibility
- Waiting areas
- Website design
- Checkout procedures
- Company policies
- Technology
- Packaging
- Communication systems
These details send clues about what the organization values.
A clean, organized environment may communicate professionalism. Confusing signs may create anxiety. A poorly maintained motorized cart may tell a customer with limited mobility that accessibility is not a priority. An easy-to-navigate website may make a customer feel confident before contacting anyone.
The environment communicates even when no employee is speaking.
Functional, Mechanic, and Humanic Clues
Customer-experience clues can be organized into three major categories.
Functional Clues
Functional clues show whether the product or service performs as promised.
Examples include:
- Order accuracy
- Product availability
- Reliable technology
- Correct billing
- Timely delivery
- Effective problem resolution
Mechanic Clues
Mechanic clues come from the environment and physical or digital objects.
Examples include:
- Cleanliness
- Store layout
- Lighting
- Signs
- Packaging
- Website design
- Product photographs
- Accessibility features
Humanic Clues
Humanic clues come from employees’ behavior and communication.
Examples include:
- Tone of voice
- Patience
- Eye contact
- Product knowledge
- Enthusiasm
- Body language
- Willingness to help
Customers combine these clues into one overall impression.
A business cannot depend entirely on one category. Friendly employees cannot repeatedly compensate for incorrect orders. A beautiful environment cannot overcome disrespectful treatment. A reliable product may still lose customers if purchasing it is unnecessarily frustrating.
Why a Required Template Matters
Instructor Mira also reminded students to complete future journals using the required Word template and upload the finished document instead of pasting responses into the assignment box.
At first glance, this may appear to be only an academic formatting requirement. It also demonstrates a business principle: standardized systems improve completeness and consistency.
A template helps:
- Identify every required section
- Organize information logically
- Reduce missing responses
- Make documents easier to review
- Create consistent expectations
- Improve efficiency
Businesses use templates for the same reasons.
Dee & Dee Brown LLC can use templates for:
- Product listings
- Customer responses
- Expense tracking
- Inventory records
- Meeting notes
- Social-media planning
- Complaint documentation
- Weekly business reviews
The template does not replace thoughtful work. It creates a structure that supports it.
Looking at the Complete Customer Journey
Organizations should examine the experience from beginning to end.
Questions may include:
Before the Interaction
- Can customers find accurate information?
- Is the website easy to use?
- Are prices and policies clear?
- Is the location accessible?
During the Interaction
- Are customers acknowledged?
- Do employees listen?
- Does the process work efficiently?
- Are instructions understandable?
- Can employees answer questions?
After the Interaction
- Was the problem resolved?
- Did the customer receive what was promised?
- Is follow-up available?
- Does the business express appreciation?
- Is feedback reviewed and used?
A problem at any stage can influence the customer’s final impression.
Applying the Lesson to Dee & Dee Brown LLC
This unit gives us several actions to take:
- Define what we want customers to experience.
- Review every stage of the online buying journey.
- Create consistent templates for listings and messages.
- Improve product organization and searchability.
- Examine packaging as part of the customer experience.
- Clarify Donnetta’s and Dominique’s responsibilities.
- Track repeated customer questions.
- Use feedback to improve systems.
- Make digital content easier to read and navigate.
- Ensure our communication remains honest, patient, and appreciative.
These steps will help us move from providing good individual service to designing a dependable business experience.
Our Final Takeaway
The most important lesson from Unit 1 is that customer experience applies everywhere.
Restaurants, schools, hospitals, offices, warehouses, dealerships, fitness centers, online stores, and home-based businesses may operate differently, but each one sends messages through its people, processes, policies, and environment.
External customers judge the experience they receive. Internal customers help produce that experience. When communication and systems work well inside the organization, employees are better prepared to serve people outside it.
For Dee & Dee Brown LLC, this means every photograph, message, package, procedure, and decision matters.
A company does not get to choose whether it creates a customer experience.
It only gets to choose whether that experience is intentionally designed.
Learn more about the research behind managing the total customer experience.
About Dee & Dee Brown LLC: Dee & Dee Brown LLC is a veteran-owned mother-daughter business focused on e-commerce, entrepreneurship, education, digital content, and creating opportunities through resilience and lifelong learning.
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