Internal Marketing

Preliminary

In the field of service marketing, quality is very closely related to employee performance. An important feature of successful organizations is motivated employees. Therefore, an employee's attitude towards the workplace and furthermore how the company can motivate employees have a direct effect on the quality of the products offered to customers. One of the most important challenges for a manager is how to make employees feel motivated and will act that can support the achievement of the goals of the organization.

The concept of internal marketing arises from the field of service marketing and its main concern is that everyone involved in interacting with customers can provide the best service to customers. The overall objective of the internal marketing process is to recruit the right staff members, so that they have a high level of collaboration among colleagues and develop motivated and customer-aware employees.

The evolution of the concept of internal marketing

The concept of internal marketing originates from the field of service marketing which initially concentrated on ways that everyone involved in the service delivery process can continue to improve the quality of interaction and service provided to customers "(Gummesson, 2000, p.27). The use of this concept is widespread and is now accepted in all forms of organization. Based on management quality theory, employees are internal consumers of a company. According to Gummesson (2000):

"The ability of employees to satisfy the needs of external customers is influenced by the company's ability to satisfy internal customers. Only if the relationship with internal customers goes well, then internal customers can improve quality, then lead to satisfaction or even more than that attract external consumers "

Definition of internal marketing concepts

One of the most basic definitions of the concept of internal marketing is, according to Cahill (1996), Internal marketing is attracting, developing, motivating and accepting qualified employees in the company's business to satisfy the needs of consumers. Internal marketing is the philosophy of a method of treating employees so they can serve consumers well "(Cahill, 1996, p.3).

This definition emphasizes the importance of satisfying the needs of employees in order to develop, motivate and get the best quality of employees in serving consumers.

Some definitions emphasize customer awareness and attention to internal customer / employee satisfaction, such as Johnson and Seymour (1985), who argue that internal marketing activities should:

"Creating an internal environment that supports customer awareness and attention to sales" (Johnson & Seymour, 1985, p.226)

And Grönroos (1994, p. 13) the definition of this concept, which states:

"Internal marketing of employees is best motivated for the purpose of thinking about service and customer-oriented performance by means of an approach similar to marketing and active, where various activities are used internally in an active way, similar to marketing, and coordinated."

The purpose of this activity is to improve the quality of external marketing relationships. (Ballantyne, 2000, p.43).

In conclusion, the definitions above show that internal marketing is a philosophy for the management of large service organizations, where employees are seen as customers and with the overall goal of improving the quality of service to external customers.

Why does an organization need internal marketing?

Employees in service companies, especially front-line personnel, have a direct effect on customer satisfaction. In this context, internal marketing is introduced. In this description, according to Grönroos (1983), that organizations must adopt market research, appropriate marketing activities and market segmentation to attract, retain and make employees act in the desired way.

The purpose of internal marketing

The overall goal of the internal marketing process is to get appropriate staff members as contact persons and for managerial positions, have high cooperation among colleagues (Grönroos, 1996) and "develop employees who are aware of the meaning of a customer and are motivated" (Grönroos, 1983 , p.93). The internal marketing process is not seen as a process that only moves in one direction only - from the top down. Instead, the process needs to be directed from and to each side of the organization so that the organization can be successful (Grönroos, 1996).

According to (Grönroos, 1996). The objectives of internal marketing activities are:

"Creating a stable workforce with reduced work absenteeism and absence, and best of all, a workforce with a high moral level, initiative and responsibility, commitment to service to customers"

In order to achieve the objectives of internal marketing, companies need to create an internal environment that makes employees behave the way they want, which is actively facilitated and inter-functional activities (Grönroos, 1983). The two main human factors that can affect productivity are the ability and effort of employees in their work. Regarding commitment, research suggests it is useful for predicting for example turnover, absenteeism and work performance (Paxon, 1993). According to Paxon (1993), Modway, Porter and Steers (1982) explain commitment as follows:

"The relative strength of personal identification with and involvement in certain organizations. Conceptually, it can be characterized by at least three factors: (a) strong acceptance and trust in the goals and values ​​of the organization; (b) willingness to issue appropriate business for the benefit of the organization; and (c) a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization "(Paxon, 1993, p.213).

Paxon (1993) explains commitment as follows:

"Structural phenomena that occur as a result of individual-organizational transactions and changes in side bets or investments over time."

This definition considers to heed what is felt by the employee, for example the loss of profits or the consideration of making new friends, which affects the employee's decision to stay or leave the organization (Mottaz, 1989; Singh and Vinnicombe, 1998). Both of these definitions describe commitment as a bond or relationship between an individual and an organization but they differ in how the bond develops (Paxon, 1993). Commitment is the result of an evaluation of the work situation, which connects employees with the organization (Mottaz, 1989). This type of commitment is defined in the literature as an attitude commitment (attitudinal commitment) or an influence commitment (affective commitment) and the second type of calculation or continuous commitment (calculative or continuance commitment), which describes a different view of the idea (Paxon, 1993).

Personnel Policy

A motivating personnel policy is needed that is logical and fair. If such a policy does not exist, then internal marketing efforts will be fruitless. The motivating personnel policy starts with a job description, which is customer oriented and considers the marketing and sales responsibilities that come with the job.

However some reflections for job descriptions are too rigid, which has a negative result on the flexibility of first-line personnel. With a clear job description obtained the recruitment procedure and the right recruitment policy so that it can get employees who can provide good service to customers (Grönroos, 1996). The concept of recruitment according to Grönroos, (1996). regarding the concept:

"Recruitment includes practices and activities carried out by the organization with the main objective of identifying and attracting potential employees"

According to Breaugh and Starke (2000), the first step in the recruitment process is goal setting (for example what classifies the person, which makes the organization interested in hiring). After setting clear objectives, a recruitment strategy can be developed and it can be decided which recruitment resources will be used. After that, to achieve goals, organizations can carry out and work with necessary activities such as message formulation, newspaper advertisements, recruiters (Breaugh and Starke, 2000). Such recruitment policies consist of segmenting potential workforces to find the most suitable employees for the company (Grönroos, 1996; Cahill, 1996). After getting a group of potential employees, the next step in the process is choosing who will be a member of the organization. Interviewing potential candidates is a common strategy for the selection and other approaches explaining the actual work, which will give a more real picture of the assignment that will be undertaken for the applicant. A reward system (for example, financially, promotion) will result in market and customer orientation (Grönroos, 1996) and also, together with educational incentives, will reduce things such as high levels of job refusal.

Internal training policy

In every company is a need to have an internal training policy, with the aim to motivate employees to work. Professional development is continuously needed, and not only includes technical work, but more importantly instills the importance of the meaning of customers, marketing and sales (Cahill, 1996; Grönroos, 1996). Rarely do personnel at the forefront of service companies realize their importance as marketers and influence on the long-term benefits of an organization. However it should be noted that a successful internal training policy is not the only answer to an organization's problems. There is no internal training policy that can produce positive results unless the policy is integrated with management methods that can motivate employees and plan procedures and are well controlled (Grönroos, 1996).

Planning and control procedures

Interaction between frontline personnel and customers is a natural part of daily life in the service industry. In this interaction, front-line personnel have an extraordinary opportunity to obtain information about customer needs, the quality of the service delivery process and customer experience regarding product quality. Motivating planning and control procedures must lead to prioritizing this knowledge. However, natural interactions between organizations and customers are too often disturbed by poor organizational systems (Grönroos, 1996).

Internal marketing at the tactic level

The purpose of internal marketing at the tactic level is to "market services, support services, (which are used as a means of competition), campaigns, and internal marketing efforts to employees" (Grönroos, 1983, p.95). This is achieved by viewing employees as the first market for organizations (Gummeson, 2000; Grönroos, 1996). furthermore, an understanding must be created in employees which is why they are expected to carry out tasks with certain attitudes and in certain situations. An attitude of acceptance between service employees and other activities of the company must be achieved, so that they can support services in their interactions with customers (Grönroos, 1983; Cahill, 1996). In addition, services from the company must have developed optimally and received internally before launching and the internal information channel must have worked (Grönroos, 1983).

Internal marketing mix for competitive advantage at the level of tactics according to Grönroos (1996) consists of:

* Interactive communication

(with the overall goal of changing attitudes),

* Sales assistance

(e.g. pamphlets, slide shows)

* Non interactive communication

(e.g. advertisements, pamphlets, wall calendars),

* Price

(salary levels and side benefits are compared directly with prices for certain services

* Things easily achieved

(flexible working hours, geographic location of the workplace),

* And supporting service activities

(e.g. meals and child care are free). (Grönroos, 1996).

Conclusion

The definition of internal marketing concept emphasizes the importance of improving service quality. This shows that there is a strong feeling towards quality management and the key to improving service quality is optimal internal marketing management. Company awareness in realizing the importance of the direct effect of internal marketing success on customer satisfaction and the importance of staff motivation for business success. Will produce a competitive advantage for the company.

Reference

Ballantyne, D., (2000), “The strengths and weaknesses of internal marketing”

Breaugh, J.A. and Starke, M., (2000), Research on Employee Recruitment: So Many Studies, So many questions, Journal of Management Remaining Questions,  ,Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 405-434.

Cahill, D.J., (1996), Internal Marketing: Your Company’s Next Stage of Growth, New York, The Haworth Press, Inc.

Gummesson, E., (2000), “Internal marketing in the light of relationship marketing and network organizations”

Grönroos, C. (1994), ”From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift Management Decision in Marketing”,  Vol. 32, No.2, pp. 4 - 20.

Grönroos, C., (1996), The theory of internalmarketing

Grönroos, C., (1983), Strategic Management and Marketing in the Service Sector , Studentlitteratur,Sweden, and Chartwell-Bratt Ltd, UK.

Johnson, E.M. and Seymour, D.T., (1985), ”The Impact of Cross Selling on the Service Encounter in Retail Banking

Mottaz, D.J., (1989), An analysis of the relationship between attitudinal commitment and behavioral The Sociological Quarterly commitment,  , Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 143-158.

Paxon, M.C., (1993), A review of the organizational commitment literature as applied to Progress in Tourism, hospitality organizations, Recreation and Hospitality, 5, pp. 211-228.

Rafiq, M. and Ahmed, P.K., (1993), ”The Scope of Internal Marketing: Defining the Boundary Between Marketing and Human Resource Journal of Marketing Management”, Vol. 9, pp. 219 - 232.

Singh, V. and Vinnicombe, S., (2000), What does commitment” really mean? Views of UK and Personnel Review Swedish engineering managers,  ,Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 228-258.

Wright, P. in Molander, C., (1989), Human Resource Management, Studentlitteratur, Lund.

Location:

Share :