Pro-Haul Internship Journal, Essay Example

Before I started the internship, I used to think Pro-Haul provides moving services to customers but the internship has changed my definition of what Pro-Haul is. Pro-Haul is not a moving service company but instead the provider of moving solutions. The new definition is more customer-oriented as opposed to older definition which was product-oriented. When clients come to me, they often do not say what they want but instead state their problem and expect me to provide the best answer to their need. These experiences have motivated me to do more background research on the customers so that I can anticipate their needs and provide them better solutions.

The internship has also been helping me improve my communication skills. I provide information to clients from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds and I have been noticing that customers from certain cultures make greater use of their body language as opposed to others. When communicating with such clients, I particularly pay attention to their body language and sometimes I can tell if the customer may have more questions even if he does not say so.

I have also been learning about the importance of monitoring the competition. I often observe that customers know about the prices being charged by the competing moving companies which means Pro-Haul cannot charge competitive prices until it knows the prices being charged by the competition. This shows that monitoring the external environment for opportunities and threats is as important as focusing on operating efficiency.

The internship has convinced me that the marketing profession will continue to place customer rather than the product at the center of the marketing strategy. Internet has given tremendous power to customers by making it quite easy and cheap to access information and the more information the customers have, the greater the negotiation power they possess.