What Is an Example of an External Customer?

The term is contrasted with internal customer, which refers to a person inside a business organization who is reliant upon others inside that organization for services, information, products and so forth. A checkout operator in a supermarket, for instance, will depend on people having stocked the shelves as well as perhaps the availability of customer service representatives. Likewise, waiting staff in a restaurant will rely on the chef's provision of food, so that they can deliver to the external customers, who are the diners.