The effectiveness of internal marketing strategies in creating customer conscious employees in private tertiary education institutions in Gaborone

Abstract

Many private tertiary education institutions (PTEis) thrive through customer satisfaction and quality service delivery. Failure to deliver services to the expected customer satisfaction breeds a myriad of problems. PTEis are facing serious competition from an increased number of competitors, reduced government spending on PTEis, and the general decrease in the desire for tertiary education by potential students. As a result of these problems PTEis are forced to apply appropriate internal marketing (IM) strategies in order to enhance service delivery. The main objective of this research is to determine if IM activities are fulfilling their intended purpose of creating customer centred employees. Such IM activities are designed to enhance employee productive behaviour (EPB). EPB is viewed as an essential element in excellent service delivery. The conceptual model for this study was adapted from Siddiqi and Zahoor (2016). The descriptive research method as well as the quantitative research approach was used in this study. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, captured using Microsoft Excel and analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 21 that was further used to compute the factor analysis. The target population of this study consisted of academic staff from the PTEis in Gaborone. The questionnaires were conveniently hand delivered to a sample size of 140 respondents. The findings of this study show that most employees acknowledged that IM activities are existing in their organisations and are intended to motivate them. The author of this study argues that the PTEis management or leadership could apply the recommendations proposed by this study, the EPB could be improved and excellent customer service could be increased.