Implementing and Measuring the Effectiveness of Internal Marketing.

Abstract

Despite over a decade of interest in internal marketing and the evolution of various approaches to its operationalisation, the potential benefits of an internal marketing campaign in improving the quality of service delivered to the customer have not been fully explored. This article focuses on the internal customer model of internal marketing, further developing the concept through a synthesis with service blueprinting (a method of representing the service delivery mechanism), to produce a new model of internal marketing, which can be readily applied to the service organisation. An exploratory investigation into the effect of applying this model of internal marketing to service quality is conducted. Changes in internal service quality are measured using a modification of the SERVQUAL model and external service quality is measured using the original SERVQUAL model. This exploratory study was undertaken in a medium sized UK service organisation, and found that service quality increased both internally and externally when this model of internal marketing was applied within the company.