Services Marketing Report: In-depth Analysis of The Spice Room

This report provides a detailed analysis of services marketing, using The Spice Room, an Australian Indian restaurant, as a case study. It explores the restaurant's front and back-stage operations, highlighting how they manage customer interactions and service delivery. The report examines the service encounter, emphasizing the importance of employee engagement and automated systems. It also delves into the managerial implications, discussing how the restaurant's management team ensures efficient operations, employee training, and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the report addresses service recovery strategies, outlining how The Spice Room handles issues such as late delivery or incorrect orders to maintain customer loyalty and protect its reputation. The report provides insights into the restaurant's use of front-stage and back-stage operations, service encounters, managerial implications, and service recovery strategies.

Running head: SERVICES MARKETING
Services marketing
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Front and back stages.......................................................................................................................4
Service encounter.............................................................................................................................7
Managerial implications..................................................................................................................8
Service recovery............................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The services marketing concept is widely known as the ways by which the business
organization manage its services in different levels to ensure meeting the demands and
expectations of clients with ease and effectiveness. The business organization that has been
selected as the case study in this essay is The Spice Room located in Australia. It is one of the
best Indian restaurant originated in Australia and has maintained the culture and heritage of the
place with its great quality food items available for the guests in Australia. The restaurant
delivers the best quality Indian cuisine and boosts of beautiful decoration and marbled ceilings
covered with Indian designs, which has easily created a great ambience and enriched the lunch
and dinner experience of the guests visiting the restaurant (Thespiceroom.com.au 2018). The
meals that are delivered to the guests are produced by the exotic vegetables, fresh seafood and
meat products sourced from the farmyards and suppliers associated with the process of
management of stakeholders in business. The menu consists of a wide variety of food items that
are both exemplary and quality wise great, due to which the popular Indian dishes like biriyani,
rice and tandoor items have been popular delicacies within the customers (Lovelock and
Patterson 2015).
The customers are not only satisfied with the great quality food items that are being
provided with, but also the management of a Indian culture has resulted in gaining a positive
mindset of the restaurant. The grilled items and tandoor items are burnt with the right
temperature, which has maintained the great taste and quality too and thus the customers are
satisfied too. In spite of the economic growth in Australia, there have been fluctuations in prices
of commodities along with the higher price of wholesale food items, which has made it difficult
for the clients to understand the expenses made by restaurant to keep them satisfied and retain, as
it was found from the National Restaurant Association’s survey in Australia (FISK 2013). While
the front stage activities involve welcoming the guests and managing communication with them
about the kids of services they want, the back stage activities mainly include managing value
chain process and ensure that food services are delivered to them on time, though they should not
be informed much about the internal operations carried out (Wirtz and Lovelock 2016).
Front and back stages
The services marketing involves management of services and design emphasis to create
business to client interaction and focus more on the non-technological principles and function
including the ability to empower employees to know the customers. The font stage of The Spice
Room, Australia has prioritized on the service encounter and managed communication between
the business and its customers related to the services to be delivered by the restaurant authorities
to the guests (Nasution et al. 2014). The back stage operations are considered as the services
provided in the value chain and the customers cannot see those.
Front stage

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As it can be seen from the picture that the front stage of the business involves the
receptionist and customers’ services staffs associated with the welcoming of guests to the
restaurant, managing the orders placed by them along with their booking based on their
necessary seat arrangements. It is an effective platform present at the restaurant and as it has
always been the fact that the first impression is the last impression, so the restaurant has
managed the guests well by welcoming them with something special to create a positive mindset
among them regarding their experience they will be gaining while having food at the restaurant
(Berry 2016). The receptionist present at the front stage illustrates about the necessary booking
procedures and making arrangements of the table to be booked for the client while the
customers’ services staffs mainly take up orders and any customer related queries that are asked
by the clients before visiting the restaurant by communication through mails, chat message
conversations, etc. As soon as the client books the table, the front stage having direct connection
with the back stage, makes sure to transfer the information and messages regarding the services
to be provided to the client (Amin et al. 2013).
Back stage

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The back stage is the operational area where the food preparations are made and the
information and messages are directly transferred from the front stage to the back stage. This
includes considering the expectations of clients and even understanding their allergic food items
to make sure that the food is prepared keeping in mind the health and safety standards. The
customers are the most important stakeholders in any business and within the hospitality sector;
it is of utmost importance when satisfaction of clients is the first and foremost thing to be
considered by the restaurant (Lu et al. 2013). The Spice Room has maintained good connection
between the front stage and back stage staffs to deliver the right services to the guests
accordingly. After the bookings are made at front stage, the customers are provided with proper
seating arrangements where they can relax and have a enjoyable dining experience. The needs of
theirs along with the food items the guests want to have are ordered to the waiters while within
the restaurant, the chefs have even questioned some guests about the food materials that might be
allergic to them. This has helped in preparing the best quality food and keep them satisfied as a
whole through maintenance of food health and safety standards too (Kang, Tang and Fiore
2014). The back stage includes the technical core components where the bookings and orders are
managed and then information about the food to be prepared is provided to the staffs present at
the kitchen. By gaining the right information from the technical core department to the kitchen
facility, the services are delivered on time keeping in mind their dietary habits and consuming
behaviors for enriching their dining experience (Chang 2013).
Service encounter
The service encounter within a restaurant basically signifies the level of
engagement of the hotel staffs and managers to deliver the best quality services to the customers
to keep them satisfied. The Spice Room, because of its good communication between the front
stage and back stage has maintained coordination and team work, which has not only facilitated
the services delivery and marketing, but has also made them visit the restaurant again to obtain

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some better experience every time (Wong 2013). While entering the restaurant, the receptionist
has welcomed the guests and made them aware and acknowledged with the kinds of services
delivered at the restaurant, the number of guests and how many seats are required for having a
enjoyable supper. The service encounter establishes close connection with the visitors and this
has been a great approach undertaken by The Spice Room to deliver services based on their
specific needs and preferences. Due to the great quality services offered, the restaurant has
remained full most of the times and with the additional Indian culture and heritage, the restaurant
has been craze for grilled and tandoor food lovers all over Australia (Dabholkar 2015). The
restaurant has started a self service check in and check out that enables automated check-in-
service system and there is no need to wait in queues or wait to make bookings rather the
bookings are made automatically with the use of various payment options (Gazzoli, Hancer and
Kim 2013). The automated system has made it convenient for the customers to make bookings of
seats at the restaurant and it has largely reduced the workload and pressure to the restaurant staffs
too. The website managed by the business thespiceroom.com.au has allowed the clients to book
online as well and they have been provided with accessibility to various product and service
related features that can be availed along with other activities regarding sustainability and CSR
the business has been associated with at present (Giebelhausen et al. 2014). Therefore, the
service encounter has helped in managing the front and back stage operations perfectly and
furthermore allowed The Spice Room for better communication management, implemented
automated system for gaining self-service and transforming the services to service system for
greater client satisfaction and improved services marketing too.
Managerial implications
The managerial roles bring efficiency in managing the front and back stage operations
appropriately and to deliver the best quality services to the customers. While the back stage
operations are managed to keep proper control over the functions managed at the front stage of
the restaurant, the mistakes that might be experienced there could be reduced largely. The
controlling components of the front stage are managed at the back stages like the front office
operations are more concerned with the revenue generation and management of admin
operations, the back office operations involve regulatory obligations , maintaining client safety,
food safety and even maintaining the quality standards (Choi and La 2013). The manager of the
restaurant should keep close eye on the performances of staffs and create proper connection
between the front and back stages for promoting greater flow and exchange of information
between the business departments and prevent any conflicts that might emerge. At The Spice
Room, the HR manager also has played a vital role in managing the human resources by
understanding their training and developmental needs, encouraging and motivating hem to
perform top their potential and keep the guests satisfied. With the utilization of value model, the
clients’ behaviors are understood and proper recruitment and selection processes have been
conducted. The employees are selected without any discriminatory activities and rather they are
trained in such a manner, so that they can keep the customers engaged while visiting the
restaurant and even influence their readiness to purchase decision (Choi and Choi 2014). The
managerial implications include using the research outcomes for developing a value framework
and understand the purchasing behaviors of clients, based on which the resources are allocated at
the business to generate better broader and reliable services. With the arrangement of training

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sessions by the managers, the employee skills have improved and the services’ delivery has been
facilitated by creating positive customers;’ perceptions towards the value chain management
(Thespiceroom.com.au 2018). The resource based knowledge and information regarding the
value chain framework has further assisted in enhancing the potential of business to become a
successful restaurant in Australia within no time.
Service recovery
The recovery of service specified providing the customer with additional benefits in the
form of discounts, offers or free services’ delivery in case of any faults or mistakes committed by
the restaurant authorities. It is an effective way to keep the client engaged in spite of the faults
that are to be taken to assure them that the faults have been rectified and the client satisfaction is
the first thing that the restaurant is concerned about. The service failures could occur due to later
delivery of food, bad quality food and defects in food item (Nasution et al. 2014). There might
also be food items that are out of stock, incorrect temperature and heating resulting in bad quality
food and even the inappropriate behaviors of staffs, which could major issues as well. At the
front stage, issues could emerge due to wrong orders placed, error for billing and incorrect
invoice. The organizational policies and laws represent the restaurant to be held responsible
incase of any faults committed by them that have lead to client dissatisfaction
(Thespiceroom.com.au 2018). To ensure prevention of bad image and reputation, the restaurant
has been penalized in certain cases and could even result in providing the clients with discounts
and offers for the purchases that they might make in the future from The Spice Room.
Conclusion
The hospitality businesses, especially the restaurants were managed with proper
maintenance of front and back office operations just like the case of The Indian Spice, which had
been one of the major Indian restaurants originated in Australia. While the back stage mainly
involved managing the concerns and activities prepared by the front stage operations, the front
stage operations included welcoming the guests and keeping them engaged through providing
them with information about the food items and related services offered by The Spice Room,
Australia. Both the front and back stages were responsible for managing the business activities
and ensured proper services marketing through service encounter, delivery and service recovery
as well. The manager of the restaurant should play a major role in transforming the business and
make sure that the Indian based restaurant in Australia could sustain the competitive business
environment within the hospitality sector conveniently.

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References
Amin, M., Yahya, Z., Ismayatim, W.F.A., Nasharuddin, S.Z. and Kassim, E., 2013. Service
quality dimension and customer satisfaction: An empirical study in the Malaysian hotel industry.
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Berry, L.L., 2016. Revisiting “big ideas in services marketing” 30 years later. Journal of Services
Marketing, 30(1), pp.3-6.
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of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(4), pp.536-557.
Choi, B. and Choi, B.J., 2014. The effects of perceived service recovery justice on customer
affection, loyalty, and word-of-mouth. European Journal of Marketing, 48(1/2), pp.108-131.
Choi, B. and La, S., 2013. The impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and customer
trust on the restoration of loyalty after service failure and recovery. Journal of Services
Marketing, 27(3), pp.223-233.
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http://www.thespiceroom.com.au/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018].
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