Internal Marketing

A couple of days ago I walked up to my newspaper box to pick up the paper and encountered a mess. The paper had been stuffed into the box amid slush and snow. Since the paper was not enclosed in a protective plastic covering, it was soggy and limp. I carefully carried it into the house, separated its parts, and hung them over chairs to dry.

As I was doing this, I thought about the role of the delivery person. Although this person may not picture himself as an important part of the company’s marketing, he is. He actually puts the company’s product, the newspaper, into the customer’s possession. How that newspaper arrives makes the first impression of that day’s product. That impression contributes to the customer’s attitude toward the company. More importantly, the condition of the newspaper when the customer gets it determines how and even if the customer can consume the product. A newspaper that is damaged beyond retrieval cannot be opened, viewed, or read.

A newspaper in that condition causes frustration with the customer. The customer does not have the product which he ordered, and he must now take time to address the situation. At the very least, the customer will be emotionally upset. He will probably contact the company and complain. Another company employee will take the call and process the adjustment to the customer’s bill or have another paper delivered. The customer will go without the product or receive it late and not be happy with either option.

The company cultivated this customer, and the customer subscribed to get the information that the paper provides. If the paper is not readable, the customer has not received what he wanted. If the customer does not receive what he wants, the company has an unhappy customer and risks losing him. Since the company’s objectives include happy customers and repeat sales, those objectives are not being met.

All this happens due to the actions of a delivery person. Does he understand the importance of his job?

I doubt it. He sees himself as someone who drives around and stuffs newspapers into boxes. Likely, he has not been shown how his job fits into the company’s revenue stream. He does not know that his position is an integral part of the company’s marketing. He has not been told that the delivery of a readable newspaper, not merely the delivery of a paper, is critical to the company’s success.

This is not his fault. Informing him is management’s responsibility. In order for the company to be profitable, management needs internally market and inform every employee of how his job contributes to the company’s success. Each employee ought to understand how to do his job well and that doing so is important. He needs to know how his job helps achieve the company’s objectives. When he does, he will make certain that the paper he delivers is in a condition which makes the customer happy. That, of course, is the company’s ultimate objective.

How many of your employees do their job without understanding how it fits into your company’s objective of serving and retaining customers?