A TYPOLOGY FOR EVALUATING BRANCH-LEVEL PERCEPTIONS OF INTERNAL CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT PROCESSES WITHIN THE UK CLEARING BANKS

Since the late 1980, the UK Clearing Banks have faced glowing criticism over the quality of their financial services. Advantages may exist in using internal marketing to ensure closer integration of multiple functions across all departments. Although adoption of an internal marketing philosophy may improve the quality of services delivered to both internal and external customers, it appears that there are few paradigms available which can be used by bankers seeking to introduce the concept into their organisation. By applying a quasi-ethnographic approach, a qualitative internal customer management model was developed bused on the Peters and Waterman 7S framework to describe the factors influencing internal customer relationships which exist between branches and other departments within a bank. To determine if the model could be used to evaluate branch-level perceptions of internal customer management practices, a survey was undertaken using a modified version of the Parasuraman SERVQUAL model. The responses suggest that possible actions to establish a stronger internal customer orientation may include altering prevailing management styles, restructuring, redirecting operational strategies away from excessive emphasis on technical efficiency and improving under standing Of internal customer needs. Although the study indicates that the SERVQUAL tool can he used to examine internal customer service processes within the financial services sector, there is still only anecdotal evidence that stronger internal customer chains will enhance organisational performance. Further research is needed to validate claims that there are favourable cost/benefit outcomes to be exploited by strengthening internal customer management practices. For bankers who are convinced that changing internal organisational processes may enhance the quality of services delivered to external customers, then a process flow model is presented of a possible approach for evaluating and implementing changes necessary to create a stronger internal customer orientation within their organisation.