Internal Marketing- A Tool to Harness Employees’ Power in Service Organizations in India

Sita Mishra

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v5n1p185

Abstract

Customer service is one of the most crucial aspects of an organization’s competitive advantage and it is the critical element which internal marketing (IM) influences, whatever business or industry the organization operates. Internal marketing is based on the notion of communicating with internal markets and treating employees like customers. Implementing an internal marketing plan helps in educating, stimulating, guiding and leading workforce to higher levels of performance and gratification. The service employee often represents the organization in the eyes of the customer. Due to this, the role of employee is both complex and multi-dimensional. The internal customer concept is a promising area of study in the marketing and organizational behaviour literature. This study contributes to the understanding of what IM is and focuses on importance of employees in service encounters. Further, the paper focuses on rationale for adoption of this concept within services organizations in India.

Highlights

Employees are the backbone of any business success and they need to be educated, motivated and maintained in organization at all cost to support the organization to be globally competitive
Frontline employees are critical to the success of the organizations as they are in direct contact with external customers
These employees can have an elevated impact on the quality of products and services delivered by the firm and this influence should be fully leveraged by supervision (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996)

Summary

Introduction

Employees are the backbone of any business success and they need to be educated, motivated and maintained in organization at all cost to support the organization to be globally competitive. Frontline employees are critical to the success of the organizations as they are in direct contact with external customers. These employees can have an elevated impact on the quality of products and services delivered by the firm and this influence should be fully leveraged by supervision (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996). The increasing recognition of the importance of the employees’ role in the service industry has led service organizations to adopt Internal Marketing (IM) and treat their employees as internal customers. Internal marketing can refurbish the face of a company (George 1990), as has been reported by case studies and anecdotal accounts indicating clear gains in employee understanding of corporate values, employee commitment, service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty (Opoku et al, 2009; Sartain 2005; Ahmed and Rafiq 2002; Bergstrom, Blumenthal, and Crothers 2002; Hallam 2003)

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