Where does the customer do work that should be ours?

The Pattern

When an internal business system is poorly coordinated, the burden of coordination is inevitably outsourced to the customer.

What We Observe

We frequently observe high-effort customer interactions masquerading as standard procedure.

• The customer has to repeat their information to three different departments.
• The customer has to call to check the status of their order because the systems don't sync.
• The customer is forced to navigate a complex IVR phone tree to find the one person who can solve their problem.

The business views this as "customer service." The customer views this as "doing the company's job for them."

Why It Matters

Customer Effort is a direct driver of churn. When you force the customer to manage your internal silos, you burn trust. Furthermore, this creates a massive hidden cost: the business has to staff support teams just to handle the inbound status-chasing generated by its own broken processes.

What May Be Underneath It

This happens because companies design processes from the inside out. They optimize for the convenience of the billing department, or the constraints of the CRM, rather than designing the flow of value from the customer's perspective. The customer becomes the human API connecting the company's disconnected departments.

What We Would Question

We challenge leadership to map the Customer Time. How many minutes does the customer spend actively managing their relationship with you?

What to Watch

Watch your inbound support tickets. If a significant percentage are "status checks" or "information corrections," your internal friction is bleeding out.