INTERNAL MARKETING

Internal Marketing

Internal Marketing

Introduction

Internal marketing has become a necessity to ensure excellence in customer service. The reason is simple; internal customers need to be happy, motivated, and satisfied in order for them to satisfy external customers. The global economic environment has become so competitive and saturated that every organization needs to engage itself in internal marketing. The internal customers have to be kept up to date about the happenings. The economic environment is constantly changing, with new entrants in the business world. People believe that the internal culture of the organization should be based on a few organizational values. These values should lead to loyalty of both employees and customers.

There is more to internal marketing than what the organisations seem to know. They are mistaken that it is another cost to the organisation and it not necessary. However, the economic conditions that are prevailing show that internal marketing is highly necessary for customer service excellence. The employees must know the vision of the organisation so that they are aligned with it. The goals and objectives that the organisation sets are dependent upon the vision and mission. The purpose of goal setting is to enable the individual to focus all of their attention and effort on achieving the desired outcomes (Goulding, 2002, pp. 01).

Discussion

Many organisations make the mistake of sending their employees for training or conducting training and consultation sessions and stop at that. There is no doubt that training is essential for the growth of the employees and in turn, of the organisation. However, it is more important to practice certain values that the organisation keeps close to its heart. These values constitute the culture of the organisational, and it is the first step to take when travelling the road to excellence. The service culture should be like a painting with intricate detail for all employees to see, understand and be able to describe. Once they are able to do this, they will be able to practice the values in the service culture.

An example to illustrate the concept of values in service culture will help in better understanding. If an organisation wants their service culture to be friendly, it will have to determine the various aspects of friendliness. The aspects include determining how friendliness can be made a core value. In order to achieve this understanding, they must know what a friendly core value sounds, feels and looks like. Since the service culture is to be made for the customers (internal and external), then it is best to take their opinion in regard to friendliness. The front- line employees and customers are the biggest asset in this case as they can provide the precise details. The involvement of the front- line employees is essential when developing the service culture and the values that constitute that culture. They act as the representatives of the organisation in front of the customers (Ballantyne, 2003, pp. 1242).

Even now, the organisations that practice internal marketing are less in ...