Service Marketing: Impact of Service Encounters in Hotel Industry

This report examines the impact of service marketing within the hotel industry, using Hotel Pacific in Australia as a case study. It delves into the significance of service encounters, defining them as the emotional responses of customers based on their experiences with a company. The report analyzes the frontstage and backstage operations of a hotel, highlighting the critical role of effective management in ensuring customer satisfaction. It explores how various factors, such as customer engagement, duration of service, and level of control, influence customer perceptions. The report also discusses the managerial implications of service encounters, emphasizing their impact on ROI and brand selection. It suggests strategies for improving customer satisfaction through enhanced service psychology, streamlined operations, and the effective use of customer feedback. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of both front-of-house and back-of-house operations in delivering a positive customer experience and achieving long-term business success, including advertising and the psychology of service delivery.

Running head: SERVICE MARKETING 1
Service Marketing
Student’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:

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A flowchart showing the frontstage and backstage operations of Hotel Pacific
Frontstage operations
Backstage operations
Front office manager
CommunicationReservation
Reception Guest
services
Accounts
ConciergeBell staff
Guest staff
Reservation
staff
Reception
staff Switchboard
operator
Chef’s
chamber
Laundry room Store
Washroom
Locker
room

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Introduction
The customer’s experience has an impact on any given service industry. The first
impression or experience a customer gets decides the success and future of the brand. Generally,
various brands are judged on the basis of service encounters and instances when the customers
interact with the company (Chang, Chen & Lan, 2013). This being said, the service organizations
should improve or find new ways of pleasing the customers. This is important especially in cases
where the service company interacts with the customers. Moreover, the company should take
advantage of this ideal opportunity and ensure the customers are impacted positively. This paper
focuses on the impact of services in the hotel industry by taking a look at Hotel Pacific in
Australia. Also, this paper will explain how service encounters impact the operations of a
business and how the management can get involved. Service encounters may be described as a
set of emotions displayed by customers after judging the service quality of a given company.
The customers make the judgments based on their experiences and how they are handled. Proper
management of several factors translates to customer satisfaction and eventual business success.
Significance of Service Encounters
There are various processes a customer has to go through when checking in at a hotel or
any other service industry. The flow chat shows the various stages in details. In some of these
processes, the customer has to get directly involved while in some the customer is not directly
involved. In both cases, the management has to be effective and ensure that the services they
give to their customers are the best in the market (Coelho & Henseler, 2012). The managers have

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to make sure that their services are well-designed and capable of putting a smile on the
customers’ faces immediately they enter the hotel premises. The emotional feelings that
customers express after service experience determine whether the service was satisfactory or not.
Therefore, the management has to work extra hard to satisfy the customers. For instance, the
customers in a hotel should be engaged and entertained while they wait to be attended to. This
will help to ensure that the customers will not develop a negative attitude towards the hotel and
the environment. Many hotels have a variety of entertainment options such as magazines,
pamphlets, and television sets. This also helps the organization to identify various ways they can
engage and keep their customers entertained.
The management also has to put into consideration the duration effect. The customer
should be made aware of the various operations in the hotel which include the room service,
dinner, and the rules to be followed during their stay. Another area of interest that is likely to
affect the satisfaction of customers is the level of control that the customers have in the process.
For instance, the hotel management can create an option which will enable the clients to book
their room online. This will improve the efficiency of the whole process and save a lot of time
which would have been lost in the process. Therefore, the level of a customer’s satisfaction is
directly determined by the control he or she has in the process. However, this does not apply to
the internal systems which do not directly involve the customer. In these cases, fairness,
professionalism, and justice have to be ensured in the process so that the clients can feel a sense
of engagement (Wilson, Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler, 2012). Service encounters should help a
business understand what customers need. The business should also see this as an ideal platform
to get feedback from the clients and make the necessary amendments if needed.

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Managerial Implications
As stated above, the service company should see the service encounters as an
opportunity to please the customers and ensure they leave the premises satisfied. Evidently,
service encounters are judged by many qualitative factors. The service encounters and the
managerial implications have a direct effect on the ROI since they influence the type of brand
that a customer chooses (Sirianni, Bitner, Brown & Mandel, 2013). This is evident especially in
the hotel industry where customers are very selective and demand high-quality services. In the
modern hotels, the facilities and infrastructure are the same; it is only the services that differ. The
management should focus more on the service psychology when conducting their business
activities since this will enhance the service encounters. The management should identify the
various processes and interactions the customers have to go through during their stay in the hotel
and identify the processes that may affect the customer negatively (Wirtz, 2012). The
management also needs to improve the hotel’s operations so that the customers are enlightened
about the complete process, the various steps, and the duration (Wirtz, 2012). This will help in
improving the satisfaction of the customers and also reduce the ambiguity of the whole process.
Moreover, the hotel will reduce losses since the reworks are far less in the absence of ambiguity.
It is also important for the hotel to utilize these experiences maximally by selling the
various services offered. Most organizations have not been able to develop a system which can
enable them to manage and cope with the demand and supply needs. Therefore, the hotel can
apply a psychological approach which will help in meeting the needs (Prentice & King, 2013).
This will increase the customer satisfaction who will in turn not hesitate to refer their friends.
Additionally, the brand of the hotel will be improved and more clients will be willing to taste the

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services offered. The management should also consider the internal operations which do not
directly involve the customers. Though the customers are not directly involved in these
processes, they are quite essential for the smooth running of the hotel and also impact the
customers’ satisfaction (Mudie & Pirrie, 2012). The modern hotels and other businesses are
spending fortunes advertising their services and brands on various media platforms (Verhagen,
Van Nes, Feldberg & Van Dolen, 2014). However, this might not be necessary if they offer
quality and satisfactory services. If their services are right, then they will get more long-term
clients with minimal costs.

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