Customer Services need to be transcended throughout the organizations-explain this in the light of triangle model

 For many executives, the terms “customer service” and “customer experience” are interchangeable, the latter simply representing a new industry buzzword to file away.

 For the world’s most successful brands, customer experience represents so much more than service—it begins the moment a customer hears about your brand, and follows them through their decision-making process, purchase, post-purchase and yes, customer service interactions.

 Traditionally, businesses have segmented the customer experience into silos. The marketing department handles the initial introduction to the product, the Web team handles the online information-gathering process, the sales team handles the purchase process, and the service team handles everything post-purchase.

 The service marketing triangle emphasizes three different coinciding elements. It includes internal marketing, external marketing and interactive marketing. The premise is that when companies take care of their employees, their employees are more likely to work diligently to take care of customers who were attracted to the company by external marketing.

 

 External Marketing-Making Promises

Through these efforts a company makes promises to its customers regarding what they can expect and how it will be delivered. Traditional marketing activities such as advertising, sales, special promotions, and pricing facilities this type of marketing, but for services, other factors also communicate the promises to customers. The service employees, the design and decor of the facility, and the service process itself also communicate and help to set customer expectation. Service guarantees and two-way communication are additional ways of communicating service promises. Unless consistent and realistic promises are set via all of these external communication vehicles, a customer relationship will be off to a shaky beginning. Further, if there is tendency to over promise, the relationship may also be off to weak beginning.

Interactive Marketing-Keeping Promises

External marketing is just the beginning for services marketers – promises made just to keep. Keeping promises is the second type of marketing activities captured by the triangle and is the most critical from the customer’s point of view. Services promises are most often kept or broken by the employees of the firms or by the third party providers, most often in real time. Sometimes service promises are even delivered through technology, as discussed a bit later.  Interactive marketing occurs in the moment of truth when the customer interacts with the organization and the service is produced and consumed. Interestingly, promises are kept or broken and the reliability of service is tested every time the customer interacts with the organization.

Internal Marketing-Enabling Promises

This is the third phase that takers place through the enabling of promises. In order fro providers and service systems to deliver on the promises made. They must have skills, abilities, tools, and motivation to deliver. In other words, they must be enabled. These essential services marketing activity has become known as internal marketing. Promises area to make, but unless providers are recruited, trained, provided with tools and appropriate internal systems, and rewarded for good service, the promises may not be kept. Internal marketing also hinges on the assumption that employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction are inextricably linked.