Internal Processes in Services and Customer Relationships
Volume 15, Number 3 Article by Anand Kasturi September, 2003
Internal Processes in Services and Customer Relationships :
Though the Indian customer’s experience of post-sales relationship-building is relatively new, relationship marketing (the strategic orientation of doing business that focusses on keeping and improving current customers, rather than on acquiring new customers) is here to stay. Bonds with customers can be built at four levels – financial (based solely on financial ‘rewards’ for repeat customers or those who buy in large volumes), social (through social and interpersonal as well as financial bonds), through customisation (designing appropriate service offerings and delivery mechanisms) and structural (the ‘highest’ level of bond, involving a very tight integration between the customer and the service provider).
In the services marketing triangle between the company, the frontline employees, and the customers, internal marketing (enabling the relationship by empowering and supporting frontline employees) plays an important part. A wide range of internal processes – dealing with people, materials and/ or information – could influence the relationships that companies build and maintain with their customers. Depending upon the choice of level at which the company strategically aims to retain customers, the nature of internal processes will change. A higher level strategy will require more complex and sophisticated internal processes to support the relationship-building.
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