Service Marketing for InterContinental Hotels: Flow Charts, Service Encounter and Managerial Implications

This essay discusses the flow charts of back and front stage services of InterContinental Hotels, the significance of service encounter and experience of guests, and the managerial implications at different stages of flow charts.

Running Head: SERVICE MARKETING 1
Service Marketing

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Introduction
Generally, a service organization performs the functions and operations by creating and
managing its front and back stage departments which assist it to offer services by knowing about
the needs and expectations of customers (Lovelock and Patterson, 2015). The major objective of
this essay is to discuss about different aspects of hospitality management. For this essay, the
chosen service organization is InterContinental Hotels. InterContinental Hotel is British
hospitality organization that is headquartered in Buckinghamshire. This is a hotel group that
offers hotel services in more than 100 nations. It has approximately 5,431 hotels all over the
world. There are various brands under this hotel group like Crowne Plaza, Candlewood Suites,
Holiday Inn, Even Hotels, Hotel Indigo, Kimpton Hotels and Resorts, Staybridge Suites and
Hualuxe (InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, 2018). It offers different hospitality services
ranging from luxury spa breaks to gourmet dining for its guests and couples. This essay includes
the flow chart diagrams for the back stage and front stage divisions of this service industry
organization i.e. InterContinental Hotel. Moreover, it will describe the significance of service
encounter and experience of guests. At the end, the essay will explain the managerial
implications at different stages of flow charts.
Flow Charts
Flowchart is a diagrammatic presentation which showcases how an organization starts its
operations and activities to attain its pre-determined goals. A service organization creates flow
charts by looking at the needs and demands of guests and visitors. InterContinental Hotel is one
of the largest hotel groups that have its operations in various countries. As of the year 2012, this
group has over 5400 hotels from which 4433 are run under franchise agreements and 907 are
managed by group as separately owned. It is founded in the year 2003 and current chairman of
this hospitality group is Christopher Marshall (InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, 2018). This
essay includes the flow charts of back and front stage services of InterContinental Hotels. These
flow charts assist the hotel to attain its corporate and business objectives.
These flow charts are given below:

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Front Stage Flow Chart
A hospitality organization uses front stage flow chart to manage the services and information as
per international level and to fulfill the expectations and needs of guests at all the locations in the
world. The major aspects of front office roles of an organization primarily emphasizes on
creating focus on interaction with customers and collection of organization’s details from
customers (Wood, 2015). Moreover, it can be stated that operations of front stage emphasize on
the communication process with the back office division of service organization to provide the
adequate information. It will make its back office operations smoother.
In addition to this, it can be noted that front office flow chart of InterContinental Hotel includes
different steps such as interaction with visitors or guests, making booking and reservations for
rooms, services in waiting area, check-in process and related formalities, management of rooms
and waiting area and check out formalities etc. All of these processes form the front stage flow
chart of InterContinental Hotel. The hotel has various people to supervise all the functions and
operations of the hotel. They ensure that guests do not confront any issue in availing their
hospitality services. Front office staff of this hotel performs all the roles and responsibilities in an
effective manner so that they can provide an excellent experience of their stay at hotels of
InterContinental Hospitality Group (Gunarathne, 2014). The front desk flow chart of
InterContinental Hotel Group indicates that it is creating its decisions based on the data of guests
and visitors that is given by reception staff. It leads the back office employees to perform their
tasks and improve the delivery of service and meet the service encounter.

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Does guest have reservation?
If Yes
Is there room available?
If Right Customer
Front stage Flow Chart
(Source: By author)
Guest reaches to
hotel If No
Check availability
of room
Yes
Check-in
Formalities
Managing the
waiting area
Find the details of
booking
Verify the details
Allot the room to stay
accordingly
If Full
Say no to guests
Management of
rooms before
allocation
Allot the room as per
needs
Guests take the
services like food, spa
etc.
Check-out process
and formalities
Sharing information
with back office staff

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The above created flow chart shows that management of InterContinental Hotel is taking its
decisions based on the data of customer. Later, the data is forwarded to the back stage staff. It
describes the manner that how this hotel manages its external operations and businesses which
are visible to the guests (Wood, 2015).
Back Stage Flow Chart
In any hospitality organization, back stage flow chart includes the back stage functions which
refer to operations undertaken by thee supporting divisions. These processes and activities are
invisible to guests. Generally, the people in back stage department do not interact with the guests
directly. Back office operations play a crucial role in generating revenues and significant growth
for this hotel (Lusch and Vargo, 2014). The front desk operations of a hotel can be effective due
to its back desk processes. In InterContinental Hotel, this division includes different departments
such as marketing, sales, Finance, Kitchen, Housekeeping, HR etc. All of these functions are
significant to assist the above –mentioned front stage operations. These roles and functions are
like receiving the phone calls, reverting on the mails, filling the customer forms, advertisement
of hotel services, documentation procedures etc.
Back Stage Flow Chart
Attending Calls at hotel
Maintaining the information and guests records
Cleaning of waiting rooms and rooms
House-keeping activities
Post service functions

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(Source: By author)
Furthermore, other activities are such as housekeeping services, cleaning of waiting area and
rooms and post service functions. The management and effectiveness of its back stage operations
can be analyzed by looking at its rooms and guests serving staff. These processes started by back
office staff have a critical role in managing higher standards of services and application of
changes introduced by front office staff of InterContinental Hotels. At chosen service
organization, the back stage flow chart is created by top managers by using the data which is
given by front desk employees. Apart from this, back office operations are flexible as it can be
changed by top managers according to the conditions and changes in the demands and
expectations of guests (Hsiao, Chuang and Huang, 2018).
Significance of Service Encounter
Service encounter is a critical aspect in the service offering process of any organization. It refers
to the exchange between service providers and customers where a client faces two aspects, one is
behavioral aspect and another is service aspect (Zolfagharian, Hasan and Iyer, 2018).
InterContinental Hotel is operating its business in global hospitality sector so there is need to
develop and maintain the higher quality standards of services. It enables the organization to stay
competitive in the industry. Senior management of the organization emphasizes on providing
service encounter by analyzing the changing market trends, expectations and needs of possible
customers. It allows the organizations in achieving competitive edge in targeted customer
segment. In providing service encounter, interaction with the guest has an important role in
improving the service delivery standards (Bitner and Wang, 2014). It includes various types of
service encounter with the staff and senior managers of the organization. Primarily, a service
organization like InterContinental Hotel can experience three types of service encounters i.e.
indirect, direct personal and remote encounter.
At InterContinental Hotels, senior management takes the decisions considering these types of
service encounter. Later, it implements its operations and activities and allots the roles and
responsibilities to its both back stage and front stage employees. The whole process of hotel can
help it to improve the productivity and effectiveness of its activities so that it can attain preset

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objectives (Gummesson, 2014). By emphasizing on these service encounters, the management at
InterContinental Hotels makes the decisions about functions, arrangement and utilization of
resources, allotting responsibilities and roles to the employees. It has improved the efficiency
and effectiveness of hotel’s operations to approach its overall objectives. Service encounter of
InterContinental Hotel is apt due to its quality hospitality services and variety of services room,
food and beverages and spa. The hotel may face the issues related to unethical behavior of
employees and customers. It can create issue in encountering service in an effective way (Félix-
Brasdefer, 2015).
At InterContinental Hotel uses all indirect, direct and remote service encounters for the
management of services and their delivery also. By analyzing the operations and employees of
the chosen hotel, it can be stated that remote service encounter is very good for guests and hotel
as well because they can use internet and advanced technologies to provide satisfaction to guests
(Zhao, Yan and Keh, 2018). Service analysis of this hotel shows that it offers service encounter
that is better than its competing hotels like Hilton. Hotels of this group are very good of
providing on time services and managing food quality. Additionally, services like gym, spa and
other complimentary services are offered. Thus, service encounter plays an important role in
fulfilling the needs of customers and establish an effective brand image in the industry (Mok,
Sparks and Kadampully, 2013). Considering its importance, InterContinental Hotel is organizing
market research and taking the feedback from their guests and visitors. In service encounter,
organization and its people align their actions to achieve its objectives by organizing the
behavior of people.
Managerial Implications
In the above section, the business of chosen service organization is determined by analyzing the
service encounter between employees and customers. For hospitality organizations, it is very
important to know about the managerial implications of service encounter. The effectiveness and
value of its activities can be supervised by analyzing the service encounter between customers
and staff. In this, communication has an important role because it assists in evaluating demands
and needs of visitors for developing effectiveness of service quality. By experiencing the
services of InterContinental Hotel, it can be stated that evaluation of hotel’s activities and service
encounter may have a great effect on managerial efficiency and reputation of hotel (Kimes,

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2016). At these hotels, there are many processes such as interacting with the guests,
understanding their demands and providing some complementary services which may have a
significant effect on managerial processes. However, this hotel has attained a good brand image
by providing quality services, but it is not able to provide service encounter every time. It can
have adverse impact on the managerial approach of this hotel. So, there is need to stake some
required actions in order to fill the identified gaps. The top management should adopt effective
strategies so that they can understand the expectations and demands of customers (Lai et al,
2018). It can be recommended that managerial implication of this hotel may assist it to attain
objectives and enhance the process of service delivery.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that for a service organization, it is very important to categorize its
staff into front office and back office as per its functions. The above report is focused on back
stage and front stage flow charts of chosen service company i.e. InterContinental Hotel. All the
tasks and responsibilities need to be divided in different categories. Furthermore, it is analyzed
that service encounter is very important for the growth and success of a service firm. Thus, each
and every service organization should be focused on providing effective service encounter.

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