The purpose of this report is to enlighten the reader about the internal and external functioning of the service company Hilton, Australia. Hilton is a hotel service group that is highly famous in the hotel and hospitality industry worldwide. The company provides accommodation, food, spa, sauna etc. services to the customers coming in their hotels. The service organization is an organization that does not provide any products to the customers for their use but it provide services to the customers that can be consumed by them once at a time. The service industry operations are different from the other product based industries because it has not product to offer but services that are consumable at that place only. This industry majorly initiates the operations by co-ordinating with the front stage and back stage activities. The below mentioned reflective essay provide description about the back stage and front stage operations of the company Hilton, Australia. More details about the essay are discussed below:
Flowchart
A service flowchart is a diagram that shows how the company initiate its activities and build steps to achieve the targets defined. Service flowchart is a diagram that is designed and developed according to the service standards, expectations of the visitors, culture and service qualities of the competitors as well. Service refers to the process of understanding of the requirements of customers present in the target market and the process of offering the customers aspect that can satisfy their requirements. The services are also paid and have some limitations as well. Further, Hilton is a profound company present in the hotel and hospitality industry that is present in the industry since 1919. The company has spread its operations around six continents and more than 85 countries as well. Conrad Hilton is the founder of Hilton Hotel and Resorts Group (Hilton 2018). The below mentioned front and back service flow chart of the company aptly explain the delivery of information process along with the explanation of ways in which the company meets the internal business objectives in an effective and professional manner.
The company Hilton is using the front stage flow chart in order to manage the information and services on an international level and properly meet the requirements of all the customers present in different parts of the world. As per my belief, the main aspects of the front stage functions of a service organization mainly focuses on developing focus customers interaction and visitors to collect the details about the company. The front stage operations also focuses on the process of communication with the back stage department of the company to deliver adequate information so that the back operations can go on smoothly (Chen, Wang, Leyrie, and Clergeau 2017).
Along with this, it should be noted that the front stage flow chart of the Hilton Hotel includes the process of making reservations, waiting area planning, check-in and check-out details and operating the room functions as well. All these processes are a part of the front stage flow chart of the company. My role in this process is to supervise all the functions and make sure that the visitors do not face any problem in attaining the services from the company. The front desk employees of Hilton hotel perform the task in such a way that the help the customers to attain hint of the professional objectives of the company (Smit, and Melissen 2018).
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Figure 1: Front Stage Service Flow Chart
From the above mentioned flowchart, it can be clearly seen that Hilton management is making decisions on the basis of information provided to the employees from the customers and then the employees forwards the information to the back office employees. This flowchart explains the way in which Hilton organizes its external business functions in the market (Szende, and Dalton 2015).
The back stage process of the company Hilton plays a significant role in influencing the growth of the company in the target market. There are many services provided by the company to the customers in the market. The front stage operations of the company work effectively because of the back stage activities only (Manhas, and Tukamushaba 2015). The back stage operations of the company involves taking phone calls, replying to mails of clients and completing documentation process etc. These are the most notable works done by the back stage employees according to my observation. The back stage flowchart also includes activities like housekeeping services and other post operational activities. These activities initiated by the back stage employees plays a vital role in maintaining service standards and implementation of changes referred by the front stage employees of Hilton Hotel. Still I see the back stage flowchart as more flexible as the top management aims to make changes in back stage processes so as to meet the expectations of the clients on time as well (Gummesson 2014).
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Figure 2: Back Stage Flow Chart
The service organization Hilton is working in the international market of hotel and hospitality industry so they need to maintain the quality standards of the services so as to compete in the target market and sustain their position as well. The top level management of the company focuses on improvement in the service encounter by evaluating the trends, demand and needs of potential clients as well. In this way, they easily attain competitive advantage in the target market. The conversation between the customers and the company plays a significant role in increasing the standard of service delivery that involves different types of encounter with the employees and the top level management people of the company as well (Erkmen, and Hancer 2015). Mainly there are three types of encounter present in a service organization like Hilton. These encounters includes remote, indirect and direct personal encounter. By taking the responsibility of such encounters, the management takes the decision about the process of arranging the resources, planning functions, assigning roles and responsibilities to the staff members and increasing effectiveness of the operations so as to attain the organizational goals (Hanks, Line, and Mattila 2016). Service encounter of Hilton is appropriate in terms of on time delivery and managing quality standards of food, room, spa etc. The unethical behaviour of the customers create problem in encountering the services in a proper manner (Bharwani, and Jauhari 2013).
In the current environment, direct, indirect and remote encounter has been used for the purpose of managing the services and planning the development of product and its delivery as well. According to the analysis, remote encounter are good for the customers and the organization as well as it make use of net banking and other technological machines to satisfy the customers. In this type of encounter, the quality of the service is assured as it is tested, modified and then presented to customers (Bowie, Buttle, Brookes, and Mariussen 2016). Further, indirect personal encounter includes telephonic interaction that has more scope for variability in delivery of service. This process also eliminates communication error and service enquiry as well. This type of service encounter also gives preferences to indirect personal service encounter that understands the need of the potential visitors and customers. In service encounter people and service companies align their activities to attain goals by coordinating the behaviour of participants (Kandampully, Zhang, and Bilgihan, 2015).
The business of service industry is looked as the service encounter between the customers and employees as well. The process and level of interaction helps the management to evaluate the expectations of the company and the potential of the management to effectively initiate the actions to maintain the quality of services. Further, according to the service standards and the ways of managing services, it is important for the organization to adequately initiate interaction with the visitors. This type of interaction with the customers helps the management to circulate guidelines to the human resource management according to the needs and wants of the customers. Interaction between both the levels will improve the overall performance of the company (Kokkranikal, Antony, Kosgi, and Losekoot 2013). In addition to this, the encounter of services along with good follow back and monitoring of operations and services development process provides positive impact to brand image of the company and effectively management the activities of Hilton Hotel as well. As per my views and opinion, in the perspective of the management of Hilton, it is important for the company to understand the needs of the customers and listen to their issues as well (Gallan, Jarvis, Brown, and Bitner 2013).
On the basis of that, the company should offer additional services to the customers to increase their level of satisfaction as well. These values will create constructive impact on the customers and management process of the service organization as well. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the company Hilton has a good brand image to maintain and quality services as well but the company lacks in the case of service encounter approach that is hampering the managerial approach of the company as well (Chang, Chen, and Lan 2013). So, in order to overcome the gaps present in the organization, management of the company needs to make efforts in understanding the requirements of existing as well as prospective customers present in the market. The company also needs to make the employees extremely helpful and understanding with the customers. The employees should also develop the capability to understand the issues of the employees irrespective of the difference in their culture, language etc. The management should adequately take the responsibility to initiate duties according to the role assigned to them by the top level management (Dabholkar 2015).
So, according to me, this type of managerial approach will surely help the company to initiate business functions for Hilton in such a way the expectation meets to the services and growth objective of Hilton is also met. In this way, the service delivered will also show positive results for the company. The company should align the back stage and front stage functions in such a way that objectives of the company are received. The company should also look after different ways of service encounter to effectively initiate its sales, the company effectively uses front, and back stage activities but it just need to align both the functions together so that good communication is initiated at workplace (Calabrese,Costa, and Menichini 2013).
Conclusion
Thus in the limelight of above mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the above mentioned reflective essay evaluated the significance of service encounter of the back stage and front stage functions of the hotel Hilton, Australia. The essay evaluated the back stage and front stage functions conducted in Hilton that helps the management to initiate the flow of work and grow as well. There is optimum level of communication and co-ordination between both the process of Hilton that helps the company to meet the expectations of the visitors and fully satisfy them as well. Service encounter with remote and indirect interaction can also help the company to grow and succeed in the target market. Hilton is working excellently in the hotel and hospitality industry however, it just need to focus on the service encounter activities so as to increase the future prospects of the organization.
References
Bharwani, S. and Jauhari, V., 2013. An exploratory study of competencies required to co-create memorable customer experiences in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,25(6), pp.823-843.
Bowie, D., Buttle, F., Brookes, M. and Mariussen, A., 2016. Hospitality marketing. UK: Routledge.
Calabrese, A., Costa, R. and Menichini, T., 2013. Using Fuzzy AHP to manage Intellectual Capital assets: An application to the ICT service industry. Expert Systems with Applications, 40(9), pp.3747-3755.
Chang, C.S., Chen, S.Y. and Lan, Y.T., 2013. Service quality, trust, and patient satisfaction in interpersonal-based medical service encounters. BMC health services research, 13(1), p.1.
Chen, J., Wang, J., Leyrie, C. and Clergeau, C., 2017. A decision-making model for the application of the new service system structure based on front-back stage decoupling into nature-based tourism district. International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 23(5-6), pp.513-527.
Dabholkar, P.A., 2015. How to improve perceived service quality by increasing customer participation. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 483-487). Springer International Publishing.
Erkmen, E. and Hancer, M., 2015. “Do your internal branding efforts measure up?” Consumers’ response to brand supporting behaviors of hospitality employees. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(5), pp.878-895.
Gallan, A.S., Jarvis, C.B., Brown, S.W. and Bitner, M.J., 2013. Customer positivity and participation in services: an empirical test in a health care context. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(3), pp.338-356.
Gummesson, E., 2014. Productivity, quality and relationship marketing in service operations: A revisit in a new service paradigm. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(5), pp.656-662.
Hanks, L., Line, N.D. and Mattila, A.S., 2016. The impact of self-service technology and the presence of others on cause-related marketing programs in restaurants. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 25(5), pp.547-562.
Hilton., (2018) About Our Brand [online]. Retrieved from https://www.google.co.in/search?q=about+hilton&rlz=1C1GCEB_enIN780IN780&oq=about+hilt&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.3597j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 [Accessed on 9 September 2018].
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. and Bilgihan, A., 2015. Customer loyalty: a review and future directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), pp.379-414.
Kokkranikal, J., Antony, J., Kosgi, H. and Losekoot, E., 2013. Barriers and challenges in the application of Six Sigma in the hospitality industry: Some observations and findings. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 62(3), pp.317-322.
Manhas, P.S. and Tukamushaba, E.K., 2015. Understanding service experience and its impact on brand image in hospitality sector. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 45, pp.77-87.
Smit, B. and Melissen, F., 2018. Sustainable Customer Experience Design: Co-creating Experiences in Events, Tourism and Hospitality. Routledge.
Szende, P. and Dalton, A., 2015. Service blueprinting: Shifting from a storyboard to a scorecard. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 18(3), pp.207-225.
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