Service Management and

Marketing
The human factors of services
Gábor Réthi, PhD
„Attitude is important, everything else can be
learned”

2
Internal Service Market
The employees are always on “display”,
•so their internal relationship may have a grave impact on
the perceived quality of the service.
•The internal values are important for two reasons.
• On the one hand if we accept the “holographic model of the organization”,
it is difficult to behave in a customer-oriented way, if the internal personal
and professional processes do not support this.
• On the other hand, the frustrated position arising from the disharmony of
external and internal relations cannot be maintained on an individual level
either.
The concept of internal marketing and the
internal client
•The members of the organization are the primary market,
a so-called internal market, which is the market of inward
service offerings as external marketing programs
•A coordinating and goal-oriented approach, which fully
considers the employees, harmonizing the internal
endeavours with the external efficiency of the
organization.
•A leadership approach, which considers the staff, their
functions, and working units as internal customers, who
have to provide a service in the same fashion as for the
external partners.
Situations that can highlight the internal
marketing approach
•Establishing a service culture in the organization, which
emphasizes the importance of services among
employees.
•Maintaining the service–oriented nature among members
of the organization
•Introducing new products and services into the market, or
applying new internal technology, systems and service
methods.
Internal marketing as leadership
philosophy
• An essential element of organizational culture should be the ability to influence the attitude
of members. This may be a tool for control, by which the leadership ensures that the
employee, who is in a continuous relationship with the customer, conveys the expected
professional and personal behaviours. At the same time it is worth noting that the lack of
harmony between levels in the Schein-model cannot be maintained in the long run, and may
lead to mistakes, which will be sensed by the partner as quality mistakes. That is why it is
important to influence the value–level, which is beneath the attitude level, in the long run.
• Continuous communication is needed for presenting organizational procedures, descriptions
of work processes, organizational processes and descriptions of products and services. It is
important that the employees are well informed about products on offer, campaigns, sales,
and advertisements. Failure to do so may well have a harmful effect on the whole
organization.
• The basis of value for implementing internal marketing has to be organizational trust. This
unquestionable trust is the foundation of the culture, which is implied in espoused attitudes.
This situation of trust is called psychological contract, which tentatively exists among the
members of the organization. It is also relevant for the organization-client relationship, as a
means of ensuring long-distance cooperation.
Internal marketing activities
• Training, as a tool for developing skills and changing
attitudes, influences internal marketing in various channels:
• It may help the holistic approach of the organization in
understanding the vision of the company, by which the strategy and
the whole marketing process will be comprehensive on an individual
level.
• It may help in the development of the expected attitude. Thus the
service strategy and the marketing approach can be implemented.
• It may help in developing the communication, customer care, sales,
and service skills.
Internal marketing activities
• Managerial support and inner dialogue
• There are numerous methods of managerial support, some of which are as
follows:
• Formal training on a daily basis
• Regular support and encouragement of employees on a daily basis
• Involving the employees in the planning and decision-making processes
• Providing frequent information to employees and two-way communication in formal and informal relationships
• Forming an open and encouraging atmosphere in the organization
• The efficacy of the above is greatly increased by the continuous
involvement and support of the leadership. Further tools of internal
marketing can include:
• Internal information to all the staff, and support of information
• Human resource management
• External information of the public
• Support by system and technology
• Correcting errors in internal service
• Marketing research and market segmentation
Thank you for the kind attention!