Services Marketing and Relationship Marketing

Question: Discuss about the Services Marketing and Relationship Marketing. Answer: Introduction: Australia is a country remarkably known for its beaches, and grand cities, such as Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and many more, and hence the country has been drawing a huge number of tourists to the nation. As a result, the service industry of Australia consisting of hotels and restaurants is flourishing and prospering every day and herein lays the significance of a high quality service encounter. Hotel Hilton Sydney is one of the most popular hotels located in Australia, that has been rendering excellent quality service to the travelers, with the help of its efficient front desk personnel, restaurant hosts, chefs and cleaning staffs. However, here I intend to critically discuss and evaluate the service experience offered to the visitors by the front stage as well as back stage working staffs of Hotel Hilton (Hotel Hilton 2016). Hotel Hilton is a service offering organization, and as such the organization provides service to its consumers via two major platforms- the front stage and the backstage. The front stage implies the service provided by the hotel to the consumers directly with the help of the working staffs, such as the receptionist, waiters, and others. On the other hand, the back stage implies the service value chain that does not have a direct interaction with the service consumers, such as back-stage reservation systems. The flowchart of the front stage service of Hotel Hilton is as follows: Flowchart of the Front Stage Service of Hotel Hilton Flowchart of the Back Stage Service of Hotel Hilton As it can be seen from the above flowchart, the front stage service of Hotel Hilton is provided by the receptionists, waiters, working staffs that come in direct contact with the service consumers. On the other hand, the back stage workers are those whom the consumers cannot see, for instance the chefs in the restaurants, the online booking service providers, and others. I believe a hotel can provide high quality service only if there is sufficient collaboration between the back stage workers and the front stage staffs (Polaine et al. 2013). Service encounter is a matter of huge significance for an emerging hotel like Hotel Sydney. I believe that in most of the services, the quality of service is experienced by the consumers when they come into a direct contact with the working staffs (Mok et al. 2013). In Hotel Hilton, the management authority ensures that the receptionist is continually updated about the latest visitors who are going to arrive at the hotel within the next few hours. The working staffs that are responsible for allocating rooms against each reservation made, are responsible enough to inform the receptionist about the visitor, his personal details and his preferences. Hence, there is proper collaboration among the receptionists and the workers of the back stage reservation staffs. As a service consumer, I strongly believe that every consumer has an expectation of the service quality he is going to receive from an organization, and hence the receptionist of Hotel Hilton keeps himself well-informed about th e basic necessities of the visitor. In case a visitor is visiting the hotel for a second time, it is the duty of the back stage reservation staffs to inform the receptionist, so that he can thank the visitor cordially for a second time visit (Odger 2012). Again, the restaurant receptionist who is a front stage worker collects the necessary information about the food preferences of the visitors from them, and then passes on the information to the back stage workers- the catering manager and the cook. I think that the interactive nature of service performances allows opportunities to solicit consumer opinions. Hence, the front stage worker of Hotel Hilton is used to assess and evaluate the performance of a back stage worker. For example, once the meal is offered at the customers table, after being cooked by the chef, it becomes the dusty of the waiter to enquire if everything is okay with the food items being served. According to me, this is done solely to ensure consumer satisfaction . I think that Hotel Hilton belongs to a service industry, and so they are selling service, which are intangible unlike the products. Hence, the manager of Hotel Hilton has to ensure that the visitors receive the best quality service from them. Service encounter, the time when the consumer comes in to direct contact with the staffs of an organization, plays a significant role, as it leaves an indelible impression in the mind of the consumers about the organization. Keeping in consideration, the importance of the service encounter, Hotel Hilton should be able to offer high quality service via the front as well as back stage workers. I think that the front stage workers should be well-informed, responsive and polished. The service consumers will primarily avail the service from the front stage staffs, and hence the manager of Hotel Hilton needs to invest much on the development of the soft skills and the communication skills of its workers. Hotel Hilton, being located in Australia, provi des service to consumers belonging to various countries and cultures, and hence the front stage workers must be well acquainted with the cultural needs of various consumers. I think the receptionist should collect the personal details of each visitor, so as to serve him best. In case a Buddhist visitor visits Hotel Hilton, the receptionist must possess sufficient knowledge about his culture and lifestyle, and the visitor should be offered strictly vegetarian meal. The value of the experience of the consumer should be high for Hotel Hilton, and hence the consumers should be treated in a friendly, polite way. I feel that it is the wait staff, cabin crew, front desk agents, whose prompt response to the consumers queries, patience, friendliness, genuineness and helpfulness, that ensures the success of the guests co-productions. For all these reasons, I believe that the manager should be investing sufficient money and time for training and supporting the front line staffs of Hotel Hilton . Again, the backstage workers of Hotel Hilton should rely on efficiency, robustness and standardization. I believe that the manager has to ensure that there is a proper collaboration among the front and back stage workers. The manager must hire a Customer Satisfaction Manager and a Quality Assurance Manager to ensure that there is an organized approach to meet the consumer requirements. I think the manager should hold weekly meetings with the staffs of the hotel, and should create information flow and process models to help the staffs understand how their joint efforts contribute to the overall satisfaction of the consumer (Gummesson 2014). Besides, the manager I think should also try to merge the different mindsets of the front and back stage workers, with the help of the multidisciplinary steps. Motivating the employees, by increasing their salary structure, rewarding them with incentives and long-term benefits can help Hotel Hilton in improving the quality of service experience off ered to the consumers (Manoharan et al. 2014). Hotel Hilton has a huge prospect in future. However, the management authority must ensure that the important attributes of high quality service, such as responsiveness, empathy, assurance are present in the front stage as well as back stage employees. I think it should be remembered that any service encounter is not a result of a single encounter between a single service provider and consumer. Rather it emerges from the service offered by the joint efforts of the back stage as well front stage employees. Hence, I believe that Hotel Hilton should introduce effective design patterns for service systems that will help in the achievement of both front as well back stage goals. Reference Table: 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. Hotel Hilton Sydney, H. 2016 Hilton Sydney Hotel | Accommodation In Sydney CBD | Home. [online] Hiltonsydney.com.au. Available at: https://www.hiltonsydney.com.au/ [Accessed 10 Aug. 2016]. Manoharan, A., Gross, M.J. and Sardeshmukh, S.R., 2014. Identity-conscious vs identity-blind: Hotel managers use of formal and informal diversity management practices.International Journal of Hospitality Management,41, pp.1-9. Mok, C., Sparks, B. and Kadampully, J., 2013.Service quality management in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Routledge. Odgers, P., 2013. Benchmarking Best Practice.Benchmarks in Hospitality and Tourism, p.93. Polaine, A., Lvlie, L. and Reason, B., 2013. Service design.From Implementation to Practice. New York: Reosenfeld Media.