Service Operations Of Hilton Hotels: Front Stage And Back Stage Flowchart

Customer behaviour and response

In this report service operation of Hilton hotels which is one of the premium category hotels in Australia has been discussed through demonstration of their front and back stage service operational processes.  These service processes helps to deliver good service delivery so as to meet expectations and satisfactions of customers. Hilton hotels are a renowned brand in hospitality service and are present globally.  Moreover in this report the significance of service encounters and their implication on managers is presented for better understanding of service marketing and relationship with customers.  

Discussion

There are various elements of service design and operations within a hotel services industry such as Hilton hotel, which are:

Customer behaviour and response: according to Teixeira et al. (2012) the customer behaviour and response occurs when they receive full set of service activity during their stay and check-in at Hilton hotels within the process of service delivery. Like for instance, customer behaviour and responses initiates from the moment they step into the Hilton hotel establishment where they are attended and welcomed during entry and escorted to reception services. Here the guests then start conversation with the reception executives to confirm their check in details and make a check in for stay.

This front stage process at reception involves allocating a room for stay, systemizing baggage delivers to rooms and handing over of keys to guests. In some cases the guests also seek for information of transportation and travel services from hotel attendants. The guests also look for recreation amenities like gym, pool and indoor sports courts etc as part of Hilton services and for all such service assistance guests approach executives of Hilton hotels and seek for proper information and support for services. 

Visible touch point activities: according to Wang, Wang and Yang-Fei (2016) these include one to one activities that occur during interactions amongst the customer and visible front level hotel executives. These visible touch point activities involves settling and responding to all form of information seeking and query conversations from the guests so as to facilitate their customer actions with appropriate responses and satisfaction. Some of the visible touch point activities that occur at front level at Hilton hotel are front desk interactions, housekeeping services, dining and recreational service interactions.

Invisible touch point activities: according to Beltagui, Candi and Riedel (2016) contrary to visible touch point interactions the invisible touch point activities mostly involve invisible back stage intercommunication among hotel executives and guests. This describes that in such activities the hotel staffs do not interact directly with customers in any form of communication and involves activities like telephonic calls, email exchanges between customer and hotel executives of Hilton hotels. Although these do not include direct communication but they are very significant part of service delivery archetype of Hilton hotels.

Support operations:  these service routines occur back stages of service operations and do not include straightforward communication or visibility with guests. But support operations are vital to insure consistent implementation and rendition of services in Hilton hotels. For instance, these operations include IT, HR or Accounting operations of hotel.

Visible touch point activities

Physical ambience: according to Andreassen et al. (2016) these involve all things that are visible and consumable by guests which can create an impression on their thinking and makes significant implication on their decision behaviour about the service dispositions at Hilton hotels. For instance the warm welcome that guests receive while entering the premises of hotel and body language and smile at reception services are all physical ambience vectors that reflects hospitable services and can impact guests reactions and thinking.

Front stage and Back stage service operations

According to Katzan and Katzan (2015) the operations of service businesses are widely categorized into two elements i.e. front stage and back stage service operations. The front stage operations include all activities or operations that are used to directly connect and communicate with consumers. The executives of Hilton hotel who handle the front stage operations are proficient with all forms of service encounters that are carried out within hotel services and have adequate expertise to cope with customers responses to insure that a good service delivery archetype is delivered with seamless front stage assistance.

According to Pereira (2012) the back stage operations includes all those activities where hotel executives does not come in direct contact or communication with consumers and these are mostly carried out behind and not visible to guests. The back stage operation insures to support front stage service operations so as to facilitate customer interactions and encounters. The success of Hilton hotel’s hospitality delivery services is because of the fact that there is a strong cooperation between their front stage and back stage service operations.

Front Stage Flowchart

The illustrated flowchart depicts the front stage service operations that include the service encounters among the consumer and hotel’s front level executives.  As is evident according to Clatworthy (2012) the front stage service operations accounts for mass of service delivery operations and direct encounters with customers. The front stage operations of Hilton hotel starts with major customer behaviour and visible employee responses. The fundamental part of front stage process begins at front desk or reception of Hilton hotels and these involves welcoming the guests with a pleasing gesture and assisting them in their check-in process by handling their personal details, arranging for porter services to rooms, entertaining customer queries and giving them assistance in case of any booking of transportation or travel services.

All these activities are related to front stage process and communications between customer and staffs of hotel. According to Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena, McMillan, Pantin, Taller and Willie (2013) each of the process in front stage renders physical evidence which impacts and makes impression on guests and influences their satisfaction with service delivery. Hence front stage process of Hilton hotel are given vital significance as they represent the hospitality aspects of hotel because of being first point of reference where customers reach and contact and needs high level of acknowledgement on part of employees to stimulate positive behaviour and perceptions of customers.

The front level employees need to be highly efficient and adaptive to quickly respond to situations based on intuitions as they have to accommodate service delivery suitable to a situation on hand. The front stag service operations are generally more work demanding as the staffs need to be multi-tasking so as to effectively manage customer’s encounters, additional staffs and their involvement for effective delivery of services.    

Invisible touch point activities

Backstage Flowchart

According to Liu, Xu and Ling (2017) the back stage service operations illustrates those activities that are offered through support processes and do not have direct involvement or communication with customers as back stage employees remain behind stage and are not visible to customers. These are generally forbearer of front stage service operations within the service delivery prototype cycle. Employees rendering back stage operations do not interact or manage customers directly or face to face. In Hilton hotels the back stage service operations involves IT operations, Sales and Marketing, HR or Accounting operations, Kitchen services, hotel surveillance services and housekeeping.

The customers do not encounter or experience any activities of back stage process on direct level but all these are vital functions that support the front level operations. For instance satisfactory housekeeping and cleanliness are integral to insure satisfaction level of customers within their stay at Hilton. Moreover Sales and marketing are also significant back stage operations as because they market services of Hilton hotel to right set of customers and entrusts the brand value with their cooperation in regular operations to attain good brand recognition in market and maintain profitability.    

Significance of service encounters

According to Lai, Lui and Hon (2014) Service encounters describe the point of interaction or encounter between customer and staff of service business. These communications generally creates a form of impression on the mind of customers or influences their feelings. As such service encounters reflects and drives customers thinking or opinions for a service delivery or brand awareness in general. The service encounters are significant for Hilton hotels service delivery as they form a two way correlation between their customers and management of hotel. 

Positive service encounters stimulates behaviour of customers and inspires them for positive response to services of hotel and further drives their perceptions for repeat visit or positive word of mouth communications to others.   Thus this is significant to drive value proposition of hotel and maintain positive image among customers to meet their satisfaction and expectations level.

At Hilton hotels every direct communication or invisible encounters between customers and hotel management forms service encounters to create moments. These involves several guest originated activities, employees originated activities and invisible activities. Like for instance online services of Hilton hotels also forms of service encounters that impacts perceptions of guests. The online booking facilities in the websites of Hilton hotel are user friendly due to navigation convenience which makes the booking systems deliver better service encounters.

Also all front stage operations within hotel service delivery process specifically are critical elements of service encounters. Service encounters are significant as they can be both pleasant and unpleasant however it is vital to enhance satisfactory and positive service encounters to deliver better service experiences to customers and meet their expectation level for the success of Hilton. These service encounters insure that satisfied customers will return to hotel in future.

According to Anaya, Miao, Mattila and Almanza (2016) Satisfaction level of customers is considered the most vital element or vector for the success of Hilton hotels services and as they operate worldwide so high satisfaction level of customers and their service encounters are essential to be maintained at par with international benchmarks across all providers. The prime stimulus for satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction is: (Long-Tolbert and Gammoh 2012)

Support operations

Market share: as Hilton is prominent hotel chain across the globe so the prime stimulus for their success is market share or size that they hold in comparison to rivals like Marriot and Sheraton. The bigger market share determines the high level of fulfilment of the customers because of services delivered at Hilton.

Profitableness: the larger revenue, income of Hilton and high sales figures are direct stimulus of the high fulfilment level of customers who stay at Hilton.  

Repeat visit: more number of repeated visits of customers is another direct stimulus for satisfaction level of customers. The preference of customers for services of Hilton in Australia and in other regions likewise whenever they choose to travel reflects high level of customer fulfilment, delivery of brand promise and high level of service delivery.  

Customer evaluation: this element is direct stimulus of customer fulfilment or un-fulfilment through service delivery of Hilton. A rise in level of complaints is a red flag for Hilton and is handled with immediate effect so that these bad service encounters do not impact brand image and value awareness. 

Customer referral: positive word of mouth communication and suggestions by satisfied customers to their friends and relatives reflects high level of customer fulfilment while negative communications reflects frustrations and resentment of unsatisfied customers. A larger level of referral assures greater degree of customer fulfilment.  

Managerial implications of service encounters

According to Sharma and Wu (2015) Service encounters are vital as they create impression long time on service delivery. As such for Hilton hotels positive encounters are significant for success. So managers tend to keep a watchful eye on service encounters and activities to insure that service encounters are disposed at high degree of benchmarks through their employees so as to meet customer expectations and satisfaction. As such service encounters are vital for managers as negative encounters can lead to serious costs for business like compensating customer for poor services or even ill such as encountering fall in consumer visits in future or losing a valuable customer. Hence managers at Hilton vigorously assure that service encounters between their staffs and customers meet up to the standards to deliver pleasurable guest experience. Managers need to be vigilant of any negative encounters that may emerge in service delivery cycle and must assure proper recovery actions to settle such encounters amicably.  

Conclusion

Thus it can be concluded that to maintain a good brand value in service business the providers such as Hilton needs to focus their service delivery archetype on key areas like customer communications, operations and management of employees. As brand promise of Hilton depends on service encounters so any event of negative encounter needs to be addressed with instant actions to regain confidence of customers and modify their impressions. This is due to the fact that satisfied customer bring in more business as well as promotes goodwill and value to others. So making encounters amicable is significant to retain customers and turn out negative perceptions.  Hence a compelling service delivery archetype helps in delivering success and growth of services and helps to maintain customer relationships. 

References

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