Berry (1999) suggests that successful service organisations have a competitive
advantage with customers, partly because they have a competitive advantage with employees. These organisations invest in their employees’ on-the-job success in many
ways. Matrix 1 in the Appendix details the most important activities associated with
Internal Marketing and the views expressed by both managers and operators vis-àvis
their influence on the employees’ becoming more customer focused and service
oriented. The matrix sets the foundation for the discussion of the research findings
and includes verbatim quotations of the branch mangers and operators that took part
in the study. The researchers have developed the matrix in such a way as to enable
the reader to visualise the relationships and associations that have emerged from
the data analysis to support the arguments put forward in this paper regarding the
implementation of IM and its impact on cultural change within the banks studied.
More specifically, the matrix presents evidence that sheds light on the experiences
and perceptions of the interviewees in relation to whether and how various IM
activities strengthen customer focus and service orientation. These activities have
been grouped in four major rituals that appear to constitute Internal Marketing:
the image of the internal customer, training and education, quality standards and
rewards systems. By pursuing these four initiatives concomitantly, UK retail banks
aimed to create a culture where service mindedness and customer orientation were
the central values.