The Role Of Internal Marketing In Customer Service Marketing Essay

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND:

INTERNAL MARKETING: My dissertation will be based on the role of internal marketing in customer service organizations, this work attempts to divulge the critical importance of service employees and human resources in delivery of quality services and creating customer satisfaction, in the sense that an employee’s attitude towards a consumer often reflects on the reputation of the business.

Internal marketing can be defined as marketing by a service firm to train and effectively motivate its customer contact employees and all the supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction. (Armstrong and Kotler. 2002).

Internal marketing was first anticipated within the services literature in the 1970; it was seen as a solution to the difficulty that arises from delivering high quality service (Vary and Lewis. 1998). Its aim however is to improve customer perception by altering the beliefs of front line employees (Ahmed, Rafiq and Saad. 2003).

While organizations invest thousands of money on external customer service in hopes of persuading and retaining customers, little Focus is being paid to the effect poor internal customer service has on overall customer satisfaction.

 Organizations need to understand that their commitments to internal customer service must match the company’s external focus on customer cares.  Internal marketing plays an important role in enabling an organization deliver excellent customer service, as internal marketing  is the philosophy of treating employees as customers (Leonard L. Berry and A. Parasuraman in their book of marketing services: competing through quality (1991: p151): , so by treating the customers as employees,  they are able to increase employee satisfaction which will then lead to provision of better services to the customers and a better service means increase in customers satisfaction which is perceived as excellent customer service.

Engagement process;

If an organization is to be market orientated it is right to assume that there must be an attitude amongst staffs that regards customer satisfaction very important.

           Usually the people employed in an organization that provide services to customers will determine the quality of service customers receive. The profits realised by organisations are directly related to satisfied and productive service employees who are directly responsible for generating loyal and creating loyal and satisfied customers, therefore the individual employees who are in contact with customers are absolutely crucial to the “moment of truth” interactions, if they feel dissatisfied in any way then this could affect their attitude towards the external customers.

         A company with good internal marketing will often have employee loyalty as well as customer loyalty. Satisfied, skilled and motivated staff makes satisfied customer, this is because they are more likely to think about the customer and deliver good customer service if they are well trained, hired for the right job and are recruited for their positive attitude to customers. Furthermore the role of internal marketing is so important in the delivery of excellent customer service that some organization marketing strategy employ internal marketing to motivate employees and interactive marketing to create service delivery skills amongst service personnel’s.

 Information gathered from marketing communication analyst suggests that Employee engagement and satisfaction has become very important for marketing, particularly due to the increase in competition and global economic recession the world faces today. There are a lot of customer service organizations such as hotels who are competing for the market advantage, in a very competitive environment each hotels need ensure they are able to retain their employees by satisfying them in order to enable the organization improve its ability in satisfying external customers. The RITZ Carlton Hotel, A 5 star hotel recognised worldwide for its legendary and world class services provided has been able to achieve this through outstanding internal marketing strategies. Such strategies include the empowerment of their staff to satisfy customer needs and make them loyal to Ritz name. They know by doing this they are keeping their internal customers which has a positive knock on effect on the external marketers

By making use of the doctrine “We are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen” it gives the staff a sense of vanity in their performance. However the training provided to their staff empowers them with high Morale.

Having Said all this, this paper will focus on the point that the performance of internal marketing strategy is based on the way the managers lead using their creativity, imagination and competence. Helman and Payne (1992) believe the objectives of marketing depends on the reason it is being implemented therefore in this scenario the objective has to be made clear.

Project aims and objectives:

The aim of my project is to identify how internal marketing in customer service organization affects the organization as a whole, both from a negative and positive perspective, and how external consumers react to an effective customer service.

OBJECTIVES:

Review an critically analyse literature as it relates to the role of internal marketing

Conduct primary and secondary research

Analyse and discuss internal marketing

To show employees satisfaction level

To Analyse how beneficial it is for a service offering organization to have and maintain consumer and employees loyalty

To show the strategies used in various hotels and analyse the strategies and to also provide alternative strategies

To show how important internal marketing is in the hotel sector

Discuss the theoretical frame work of an employee’s loyalty

Assess employee and customers satisfaction within the organization

I would be focusing on how important the role of internal marketing is to an organization in retaining its external customers, increasing profits and maintaining market shares. My project will involve a lot of research based on hotels. I have chosen hotels as my organization because within this organization customer service excellence plays an important role in its success, because and effective internal marketing will make the customers happy.

RESEARCH APPROACH:

My research approach to this paper will be a deductive approach simply because the research is based on existing theories. Also the use of qualitative approach will be adopted in this work.

Motivation within an organization would also be an important aspect of this work; this is because certain academics have linked motivation a key determinant for job performance, thus management must therefore not neglect this fact as it can help eliminate dissatisfaction that develops amongst employees and also ensure resources are not being miss allocated. (Jobber, 1994)

Ritz Carlton would be compared to other company’s operating in the same line of business; it is with this comparison I would be able to establish some opinions on how important internal marketing is.

I will conduct a primary research by distributing questionnaires to a mix of people including family, friends and neighbours who will be representing customers and employees. The aim of the questionnaire is to find out what motivate and makes an employee happy at work place and also how customer service excellence influences a consumer. E.g. their purchase intention. This would enable me find out what keeps an employee focused and motivated at work and also what motivates a person to shop in a particular store, could it be the price, the convenience, the customer benefit or the customer services it provides to its customers.

And if I am able to I will interview former employees of / employers that operate in organizations aimed at providing customer service excellence.

My secondary research will include use a range of books, journals and newspapers to support my research and findings. I will use this information along with my findings from the primary research to come up with a valid conclusion.

The theories, models and concept that will be used in this research are about internal marketing, employee and consumers satisfaction in order to enable this research have a solid foundation, the secondary data will serve as an introduction to know how all the theories and strategies work.

Overall the primary and secondary research will enable me gain an insight into employees and consumers thought, desires and requirements, my findings, facts and figures should allow me come to a valid conclusion.

A literature review assists the researcher to show research ability and also the skill to read, understand and review other texts and works made by previous research in similar subject matter (BRYMAN, A and Bells, E, 2011).

This literature review will look at the research of various scholars that have worked on similar subject matter, highlighting points made while arguing the ground for this research.

Limitations & Ethical Issues:

It is important that the people participating in my interview come from different cultures and ages so that I can get a true representation of the population. It is important that participants are not all from one location. However the ethical issues that might occur during this research has been taken into account and although the research does not involve data that comes from data protection act care has to be taken to protect employees interviewed against retribution from employer. To tackle this research would be semi anonymous so that employees do not need to give the names of the company the work for

Conclusion:

While many organizations testify that their employees are their most valuable resources the role of internal marketing in customer service organization is highly important for the success of the organization because customer often make their opinion regarding a service based on the quality of interaction with service personnel. It is for this reason it is important that employees motivation remain consistent.

Timetable / Project plan:

JAN

FEB

MAR

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUG

SEP

Review and complete methodology

By 15th

Contact hotels and other organizations to conduct interview

By 25th

Literature review

By 7th

Research more on models and theories

By 21st

Fly to Nigeria to conduct previous booked appointments and hand out questionnaire to customers

By 20th

Data collection and analysis

By 10th

Start typing dissertation 1st draft

By 25th

2nd draft

By 15th

Write final draft

By 20th

Dissertation due