An Analysis of Service Encounters: Metro Hotel's Front and Backstage

This essay provides an analysis of service encounters, focusing on the operations of the Metro Hotel in Australia. The report delves into the significance of service encounters, differentiating between front-stage and back-stage services and their impact on customer experiences. It examines various scenarios within the hotel, such as check-in, parking, and room service, to illustrate the roles of front-stage (customer-facing) and back-stage (support) employees. The analysis explores how these services contribute to customer satisfaction and loyalty, along with the managerial implications of service design and implementation. The essay highlights the importance of effective coordination between front-stage and back-stage operations for information sharing, transparency, and efficient task assignment, ultimately aiming to provide excellent customer service. The essay references several academic sources to support its claims and provides a comprehensive overview of the service encounter concept within the hospitality industry.

Essay 1
Essay

Essay 2
Executive summary
This report is written to analyze the significance of the service encounter. There can be a
different type of managerial implication as the service encounter has also been analyzed in
this report. This report will discuss the front stage and the backstage service that is provided
by the Metro Hotel, situated in Australia. This assessment provides a deep insight into the
different situations in which the front stage and the backstage services are provided. All the
situations are discussed in context with this hotel and its hospitality. The impacts on the
customers due to the services provided by this hotel can be understood well with the help of
this assessment.

Essay 3
Introduction
Metro Hotel is a group of hotels that are located and operated in Australia. Metro hotels are
owned by Trans Metro Corporation Limited. It is one of the oldest Hotel chains in Australia.
This assessment is all about service encounter, front stage and backstage services that are
provided to the customers (Metro Hotels, 2018). In order to better understand this assessment
Metro Hotel has been chosen for the evaluation. The analysis with respect to the customer
service as well as to the employee satisfaction in this organization has been made in the
assessment. This assessment also analyses the implications in the managerial aspects
regarding the services that are provided to the customer by this hotel.
Service Encounter
A service encounter is a difference between the interaction that used to be done between the
customer and the provider that is the part of the service encounter and the activities that are
carried out to make it happen. The possibility of such of the activities can only be because of
2 stage services that carried out in an organisation. This can be understood with its
significance in the following mentioned detail: -
The interaction of the customer all the service consumer with the services that are provided to
the particular customer represents the front stage services. The participants that are included
in providing such type of services is known as front desk team of an organization. Customer
relationship manager, receptionist, present, product managers are the front stage participants
in hotel operations (Chathoth, et. al., 2013).

Essay 4
(Figure – Schematic Flow Chart Diagram of Back Stage and Front Stage Services provided in
Metro Hotel)
The part of the services that are unseen by the customer which is the part of service value
chain represents back stage services. The participant that provides such type of services
comes under the category of backstage participant. The leaders, strategist managers, chef, are
included in the backstage operations of Hotel.
The interaction between the customer and employees of the organisation is known as Service
Management. To understand the service management of the particular organisation it is very
necessary to understand the backstage and front stage operations that used to accomplish in
the organisation. Some of the hotels are not having the back stage and the front stage
operation team. In this case, 'search hotels' is used within the traditional concept of service. In
the traditional concept of service, the offering to the customers depends on the availability of
rooms at the time of booking. The welcoming pitch that is used by the manager and the
hospitality services offered by the staff play an important role in attracting and retaining the
Front Stage
ParkingParking
Check in
Waiting Area
Room
Back Stage
Information about parking
Front Office, Information, Phone ca
Comfortable, entering,
refreshment
Ready, Clean, Housekeeping
Check Out Post-Operative instruction, follow

Essay 5
customers. In order to meet out such type of problems the concept of backstage and front
stage management is introduced so that effective management can be possible and good
services can be provided (Sørensen, et. al., 2013).
Backstage and front stage while providing services
The operations that are performed by the front stage, as well as back stage, can be understood
with the help of different scenarios that used to take place in the hotel. The services at the
time of different situations by the backstage team and the front stage team can make the
operations successful or not successful (Wong, 2013). It wholly depends on the
management's strategies and staff behaviour towards the customers' needs.
The guest can arrive at the hotel with the vehicle. The parking instructions are provided by
the responsible employee who will be considered as a front stage employee of this hotel. This
employee will provide good services in such a way so that parking information can be
provided to the customer. This information can be helpful in the easy parking of the vehicle
of the customer OK then customer goes in the Reception area of Metro Hotel.
The guest used to arrive at the hotel. If the particular guest is having pre-booking then there
can be two type of situation. In the first situation, the particular guest is welcomed with
warmth by the front stage employee of the Metro Hotel. The customer is provided with the
room that is like buy this customer in the previous visit. All the details about the check-in are
provided to the customer with the informative way and at Good Pitch. This will make the
customer mood good. In this situation, customer used to check-in happily in the hotel. The
second situation can be such that there is the availability of the room even the customer pre-
book the room (Ariffin & Maghzi, 2012). The customer might be tired. In this situation, the
front stage manager or Employee give the right information about the unavailability of the
room. This will affect the mood of customer greatly. Customer is provided with the offer to
get a hotel room in the nearby locality which will be arranged by Metro Hotel. The whole

Essay 6
expenses of the one day stay are accomplished by the metro hotel. All such information is
provided by the front stage employee of this hotel. Customer is also asked to wait for
sometime in the waiting room so that the mentioned process can be possible. At this time the
front stage employee used to inform the backstage employee to serve the water and the
refreshment to the customers.
Situation1 can be considered again to understand the further operations that are accomplished
by the front stage operations and back stage operations by this hotel. The same operations
will also be operated in the case of if a customer is not having a pre-booking and there is the
availability of the room. After the parking a vehicle and welcome of customer, the front stage
employees used to provide checking book in which information is written by the customer.
These employees used to help in all queries of the customers (Xie & Heung, 2012). After
providing all the necessary information to the customer with an effective pitch the front stage
employee or the manager handover the keys to room boy. This is the staff that used to carry
the luggage of the employee to the room and provides a small introduction about the room to
the customers. In this situation, these staffs work as front stage employee.
According to Lovelock & Patterson, (2015), the role as a front stage and the back stage of
some of the employees can be changed according to the situation. If the particular customer is
staying in the room then customer can ask for the water and the food. The managers that are
receiving the call of the customer will be categorised as back stage employee. This employee
used to provide services by informing about the order to the chef. The chef will cook food for
the customer. In this situation, The Chef is also a back stage employees of the customer. The
Chef will ask the housekeeper to supply the food and water to the customer’s room. The food
is supplied to the customer. In this situation, the housekeeper is the front stage employee of
this hotel.

Essay 7
The customer who stays the in the hotel is provided with different services like security,
filling the tank of water for water supply in the room. All such type of services comes under
the backstage services. The security guard here is the backstage employee of this hotel. the
customer stays for the night and Awake in the morning and after taking breakfast the
customer goes for work while giving keys to the manager, the customer asked the manager to
make the room clean. The manager here acts as a front stage employee of this hotel. The
housekeeping staffs are informed by the manager. The housekeeping staffs that clean up the
room will be considered as the backstage employee of this hotel.
The customer who arrived at the hotel will check out according to the wish of the customer.
At the time of checkout, the billing information is provided by the manager to the customer.
The front stage manager used to provide the information on all the questions that are asked by
the customer in the context of the bill. The customer used to leave the hotel after signing a
register of check out in the hotel. The front stage staff used to give instruction to the
backstage employee for post-operative instruction. The post-operative instructions can be
cleaning up the room. Making the room in a condition so that a new customer can check in in
the room with full of facilities and amenities. This can provide customer satisfaction to the
customer that will arise (Stickdorn & Schwarzenberger, 2016).
Managerial implications
The front stage service provides or creates the services that can be enjoyed by the customer.
The services are provided to the customer according to the needs and preferences of the
customer. The customer Centre services with effective human interaction are helpful that give
the output of non-accomplishment of any issue. The service blueprint and modelling artifacts
are designed by the front stage manager of this organisation. On the other hand, the backstage
employee of the organisation used to focus on the efficiency, scalability and the
standardization of the services that can be provided to the customer. Some of the backstage

Essay 8
activities are carried out by the people and some of the backstage activities are the automated
process. Treating people as an abstract actor is the mindset of backstage employee.
The service quality that is provided to the customer is totally depending on the outcome of
the services that are provided. Therefore front stage used to focus on the method by which the
output of the service can be positive (Radnor, et. al., 2014). Unlikely the back stage
employees used to provide the policies and the support structure for the service so that the
services which are designed by the front stage manager can be easily accomplished.
There is the effective coordination that used to be created because of the backstage and the
front stage service that is provided by metro Hotel. The important Information sharing
between the employees is easily possible. The transparency can also be provided to the
customer. Easy assignment of the work and the task to the employee can be possible with the
help of service encounter of front stage and back stage (Milton & Johnson, 2012). With the
effective Information sharing among the employee's good services can be provided to the
customers that are arriving at Metro Hotel.
Summary
There are different types of duties that need to be performed by the employees that belong to
backstage and front stage employees of this organisation. Service encounter is the necessary
part by which customer satisfaction can be accomplished. This can be beneficial for attracting
and making a loyal customer for Metro hotel. Services creation, designing, and
standardization of services can be effectively possible with the help of services that are
provided by the front stage and backstage employees of this organisation.

Essay 9
References
Ariffin, A.A.M. and Maghzi, A., (2012) A preliminary study on customer expectations of
hotel hospitality: Influences of personal and hotel factors. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 31(1), pp.191-198.
Chathoth, P., Altinay, L., Harrington, R.J., Okumus, F. and Chan, E.S., (2013) Co-production
versus co-creation: A process based continuum in the hotel service context. International
Journal of Hospitality Management, 32, pp.11-20.
Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., (2015) Services marketing. Australia: Pearson Australia.
Metro Hotels, 2018. About us. [Online]. Available at: https://metrohotels.com.au/about-us.
[Accessed: 24 September 2018].
Milton, S.K. and Johnson, L.W., (2012) Service blueprinting and BPMN: a
comparison. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 22(6), pp.606-621.
Radnor, Z., Osborne, S.P., Kinder, T. and Mutton, J., (2014) Operationalizing co-production
in public services delivery: the contribution of service blueprinting. Public Management
Review, 16(3), pp.402-423.
Sørensen, F., Sundbo, J. and Mattsson, J., (2013) Organisational conditions for service
encounter-based innovation. Research Policy, 42(8), pp.1446-1456.
Stickdorn, M. and Schwarzenberger, K., (2016) Service design in tourism. Entrep. Tour.
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Wong, I.A., (2013) Exploring customer equity and the role of service experience in the casino
service encounter. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 32, pp.91-101.
Xie, D. and Heung, V.C., (2012) The effects of brand relationship quality on responses to
service failure of hotel consumers. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(3),
pp.735-744.