Implementing relationship marketing and the role of internal and external customers: the case of small textile retailers in Northwest Province-South Africa

Abstract

Developing an internal and external customer orientation will facilitate the implementation of relationship marketing principles by businesses. Relationship marketing highlights the need for an external customer orientation which in turn raises the need for customer-oriented ernployees. Employees will only be customer-oriented if an internal customer orientation is evident in the business. Four constructs pertaining to the internal customer orientation of small- to medium -sized textile retailers in the North-West Province were identified.After checking for internal consistency, effect sizes were determinemed for these constructs, analysing the practical signifinance of employees as opposed to customer orientation of the same businesses were identified.The four identified constructs underpinning an external customer orientation were also checked for internal consisstency and the practical significance of customers as opposed to management's opinion on the underlying constructs was determined through effect sizes.It was found that the identified businesses lacked both an internal and external customer orientation.Recommendations are made to improve internal customer orientation for the sake of an improved external customer orientation.An improved external customer orientation will facilitate the implementation of relationship marketing principles in these businesses.