Internal Marketing process, Barriers & Advantages (Service Marketing 17.05.2021)

Internal Marketing process:

Involving the employees in the development of the marketing strategies is one of the first step to Internal marketing. However, there are various ways in which the organization can design Internal marketing:

 

a) Aligning Organizational objective with employee attitude: One of the most important strategy to do Internal marketing is to align the overall organizational objectives with the attitude of the employees. The service staff should be involved and taken into confidence while designing the external promotional and communication marketing plans. The service personnel should always be clearly informed about the vision of the organization and their role in the fulfilment of the vision should also be briefed. This helps in the alignment of organizational purpose with that of the employees’ attitude which is reflected during the service encounters.

 

b) Comprehending the Organizational Core values: Every employee of the organization should be introduced to the core values and philosophy of the organization. This is important as it is the employees who reflect the organizational values to the customers. Thus, understanding and appreciating the basic values of the organization by the service staff is essential to be reflected to the consumers, in turn.

 

c) Coordination: Having acquainted the employees to the driving philosophy of the organization and the overall vision statement to all, it is useful to coordinate the efforts of all employees to achieve the common purpose of customer satisfaction and organizational growth. This step is critical as humans have a tendency for conflicts. The service manager must ensure that each individual in the organisation understands his role in the service production and delivery and knows what he has to do and when. The concept of Total Quality Management can also be introduced at this step to explain the important role that each and every individual play in the service delivery.

 

d) Developing congenial environment: Creation of an open and trustworthy atmosphere is the next step in Internal marketing process. The employees should feel confident to share their views with their immediate seniors as well as with the top authorities for the purpose of improving the service quality or reduction in the customer waiting time.

 

e) Empowering employees: Internal Marketing is facilitated with having empowered employees in the organization. The level of belongingness and motivation is directly proportional to the degree of empowerment offered to the service staff. When the employees feel that they are authorized to facilitate and expedite the customers service delivery, they become more creative and enthusiastic to satisfy the consumers, which is the aim of the organization also.

 

f) Reward: Internal marketing can also be done by rewarding the service employees for their exceptional performance in discharging their duties. Critical cases may be given a special consideration along with the routine services offered by the employees. This not only motivates the winning employee but also generates a healthy competition amongst the other service personnel.

 

Barriers to Internal Marketing

While the above variables are significant for the successful implementation of Internal Marketing, there are some factors which hinder the process of Internal marketing.

 

a) Resistance to change Whenever a new idea is to be implemented, a likely reaction by those getting affected is to resist the new idea or the proposed change. Many a times people resist the change due to lack of complete information, fear of loss of authority, fear of loss of promotional opportunities or job security, to name a few. Service managers must confront such factors leading to resistance to change and ensure that all employees concerned are able to appreciate and accept the proposed implementation of Internal Marketing.

 

b) Failure to fix responsibilities Often the service organizations are unable to identify the position and delegate the requisite responsibility to effectively implement Internal Marketing. This is evident when the service employees are able to take a decision concerning quality service delivery but are unable or unwilling to do it.

 

c) Lack of support from the top management Even when all the variables within an organization are in right perspective for the implementation of Internal marketing, nothing can be achieved if it does not have the support of the top level management. For an effective Internal Marketing, the employees down the line should get supportive and substantial indicators from the top management for its implementation else the whole exercise will be futile.

 

d) Managerial incompetence If the service managers responsible for the Internal marketing are incompetent or does not rightly appreciate the concept of Internal marketing, the implementation cannot be effectively done. Often, the managers are unable to catch the indicators affecting the service quality level or the employee motivational levels and thus fail in their duty of putting Internal marketing process in place and may only pay a lip service to the concept.

 

Advantages of Internal Marketing in Service organizations

There are several benefits which a Service firm can accrue from the Internal Marketing.

 

a) Introduction of change A service organization will have to consistently upgrade its service creation and service delivery system to offer quality services to its consumers. For doing so several changes may be desired from time to time including the upgradation of technology, increased dependence on Information Technology and improvements in the service delivery processes necessitating refreshers training for the service staff. All these tasks are feasible to be smoothly implemented in the event of the presence of the concept of Internal marketing.

 

b) Building Corporate Brand Image Internal Marketing commences with treating the service staff as the potential consumers. Efforts are made to convince them of the organisational practices and strategies so that in turn they are able to convey the same to the target consumers with conviction. In this process, Internal Marketing facilitates the Corporate Brand building.

 

c) Improving Coordination Internal Marketing tries to contain the Inter-departmental and Intra-departmental conflicts by aligning the organizational objectives with the individual attitude and behaviour. Since all the employees in the service organisation are expected to look up to a common direction to channelize their efforts, this in turn, will facilitate the development of cordial relations and improvement in the coordination amongst all the employees in an organization.

 

d) Motivates the Employees and enhances performance Internal Marketing begins with the encouragement of the service employees and sharing with them the process of decision making. This facilitates in improving the performance of the employees and delivery of consumer satisfying experience during the service transaction.