Development of internal products
Central to internal marketing is the development of internal products (goods and services) based on the specific needs of the target audience – in this case, the employees. These may include practices, plans, structure, vision, mission and values as well as new performance measures, new ways of working, services and training courses, and the job itself (Ahmed, Rafiq & Saad, 2003).
Activity 5 Identifying internal product
Just about anything that employees ‘consume’ or ‘use’ that shapes their working life and environment can be considered to be an internal product. A good example of internal product is ‘an easily accessible and “customer friendly” complaints process’.
Can you come up with three other internal products an organisation can use to engage employees and enhance their job satisfaction?
Discussion
You might have come up with:
- clear plans, timescales, processes and procedures for dealing with customer complaints and achieving service recovery
- a support system for employees who deal with service failure and customer complaints
- training programmes for employees in dealing with customers and managing complaints
- clear guidelines on the scope and nature of employee responsibility and autonomy
- a process for integrating customer feedback into management decision-making and service redesign.