Intercontinental Hotel Group: Front And Backstage Operations

Choose a real-life service organisation that you are familiar with. 

Prepare a flowchart of the back-stage as well as the front-stage operations of this business. Using this flowchart, explain the significance of the service encounter, and its managerial implications. 

1.Flowchart 
2. Explanation of significance of the service encounter

3. Analysis of managerial implications

4. Essay format & presentation 

Importance of Front and Backstage Operations

The intercontinental hotel group presents one of the leading hotel chains with branches spread all over the world. The hotel has been known for its executive services that it offers to the clients and has gained a positive reputation in most nations. As a result, many people and organizations seek the services of the organizations in every place they travel due to the high level of uniformity in the service quality which helps them avoid uncertainty when moving into other countries (Bleiwas & DiNapoli, 2016). The hotel offers a wide variety of services including accommodation, food, conferencing facilities, and accessories to support business travelers. The continued provision of quality services has resulted in the organization being ranked as a priority by many organizations. Though the industry it operates is highly competitive, its market share is large compared to many of its competitors due to the high number of loyal customers who have made it the hotel of choice. Despite having the high market share and a good number of loyal clients, the hotel operates in a highly sensitive industry such that a simple change or value addition from the competitor could result in a shift in its market in favor of its competitors (Barrows, 2016). Maintenance of the service quality, as well as an embracement of new techniques, is a sensitive area. To succeed in this operations, the hotel needs to make frequent adjustments to its mode of operation and ensure that the operations remain up to date to continue pleasing the clients. Adjustment of factors in the front and backstage, therefore, are necessary as informed by current developments to meet the needs of the clients.     

The clients of the intercontinental hotel are seeking a positive service encounter from the different sections of the organization. The different services offered in the organization are as a result of the different services that take place in the front stage and the backstage of the organization. The front stage sells that image of the organization to its clients while on the backstage presents the contributing factors that lead to the image in the front stage.

The front stage of the intercontinental hotel is comprised of six main areas where the organization interacts with the clients, and this includes the reception area, the restaurant, guestrooms, bar, curio, and the internet. In this platforms, the client interacts directly with the organization and views the image that they will take around for the organization (David, 2013). Management of this image is, therefore, the most sensitive way of maintaining a high market share. Any deformities in one section of the frontstage lead to the clients having a negative reputation for the entire organization and could result in adverse effects on the institution.  The services in this section are offered directly to the client and have a direct effect in the sense that when a defect appears from the front stage, the client will identify the source of th issue and rate the service to be poor. Clients visiting the establishment have to get the information from the web which markets the frontstage facilities to the client and therefore they are required to meet the promise given in the website for the client to get satisfied.

Frontstage Operations

On the other hand, the backstage operations of the organization help to shape the features that will be visible in the front stage. For instance activities such as food safety in the backstage helps in ensuring that the clients are served with safe food. When the safety measures are not undertaken carefully, the clients may end up getting ill from the consumption of unsafe food and will lead to a negative reputation to the whole organization. All activities in the backstage, therefore, become critical to the success of any institution (Downey, 2016). At the Intercontinental hotel, the backstage includes operations such as procurement and purchase, storage and inventories, the kitchen operations, food production, accounting, and human resource department. Each of this areas is critical to the development of the front stage to meet the needs of the clients. An example is the human resource department which is concerned with the recruitment and selection of employees (DeCenzo, et al., 2015). In the hotel industry, the employees available in the frontstage critically influence the activities in the front stage which complement the customer experience. A simple action such as the change in attitude could result in the client rating the whole experience poor. It's therefore critical to ensure that the organization has the most qualified clients to provide service to its clients.

Backstage operations are critical to the survival of the organization. For instance, the procurement, accounting, and inventory departments are critical to the success of the organization, and any problem is emerging from this sections need to be addressed carefully before getting worse (Roberts, 2014). An error emerging from the procurement area could be transferred to all the other sections in the backstage and reach the front stage to reach the client who will raise concerns about the services in the hotel. A problem arising from the accounts section will lead to adverse effects on the organization's profitability and could finally result in the closure of the entire hotel. While a problem from the human resource or food production directly affects the client and lead to the negative public image resulting in less preference over the competitors. A problem arising from the front stage directly affects the clients and their experience making them give a negative rating to the organization. Therefore regardless of the area of involvement of the clients to the actions being undertaken in a particular section of the organization, the organizations frontstage and backstage activities are relevant in the promotion of the clients service encounter.

In the realization of the operations that involve the front and backstage in the organization and their importance in maintaining the services encounter in the organization, various implications are made to the organization. For instance, in the light of the knowledge n the effects of the backstage operations on the organization's services, the management, therefore, need to step up their services to ensure that the backstage operations are performed to the standards required by the organization (Goksoy, 2016). Control can take different forms in this section which include service operations such as maintaining up to date accounts and hiring qualified personnel.

Backstage Operations

The personnel in the hotel industry is a major asset to the organization. The actions committed by one member of the organization could lead to adverse effects on the entire organization. The implication for the management is that the human resource section needs to be highly equipped with the strategies and tactics to ensure that they get the best employees to work in the organization (Robert N Lussier, 2013). The challenge in the hotel industry is that the whole processes are integrated into one service which is the customer experience. Even though the clients only interact with the members in the front stage, a problem that arises from the backstage could be easily transferred to the front stage and tamper with the customer experience. The service value and the attention given to both sections regarding staffing should be the same for all sections.

All sections whether the front stage or the backstage are equally important to the organization. The management, therefore, needs to have the understanding that the two sections in the hotel are integrated, and they all contribute to the experience of the customer (Chilton & Bloodgood, 2014). The attention in most organization focuses on the public image resulting from the front stage and disregard the backstage. For an organization like the intercontinental hotel, the two areas are significant in complementing the customer experience since a problem emerging from the backstage will affect the client's experience at the frontstage leading to a negative report. There is a need to, therefore, accord all sections equal attention and ensure that they are operating up to the standards required.

Likewise, the management needs to take more care of the internal business operations found in the backstage to remain profitable. Sections such as procurement and accounting need to be managed carefully to ensure that the organization gets the best facilities at the lowest prices to remain profitable (Barth & Barber, 2017). The accounting section also needs to be accorded the relevant attention to prevent losses that could emerge from the internal environment. When the revenue is present in the organization, there will be a greater opportunity to use it in marketing and other sales promotion strategies to realize more returns.

The management of the intercontinental hotel needs to invest resources in both the front and the backstage of the organization to realize value for the clients’ money. Neglecting of any of the two areas would result in significant implications to the organization leading to loss of money and the positive reputation (Hess, et al., 2016). Increase in operations, and attention for the two areas, therefore, becomes necessary since they all operate as a single entity to deliver the positive experience to the clients. Since the industry is highly dynamic and the competition is also high, the management needs to be updated with the current trends in each section of the organization and ensure that the staff members in this areas are familiar with all the developments to make a positive appeal to the clients (Gerth, 2013). Members visiting the organization come with different expectations that need to be addressed with the highest level of attention.

Personnel in the Hotel Industry

Consequently, due to the dynamic nature of the industry and the continued consideration of different options by the clients, there is a need for the organization to consider having a mechanism of introducing changed in different areas without being destructive to the workforce (Walker, 2017). The changes should be introduced upon consideration of all the affected parties and the influence of the new developments in the client's view. The idea will be to reduce monotony for the clients especially in the front stage and improve the services being offered at the backstage.

The overall implication is therefore that the management needs to accord each section in an organization with the same level of attention. Failure to give equal attention to some areas in the organization leads to adverse secondary effects. A huge percentage of the organizations which fail is due to lack of proper management of items in the backstage (Regier & Redish, 2015). Most organization are customer oriented and forget important factors that could lead to their failure. The cumulative results are that the organization effects are multiplied and distributed to all the other sectors causing more harm. In the long run, the organization ends up failing due to lack of attention in the critical sectors.

A good example is a failure to manage the employees in the organization which leads to low levels of motivation. The effects of lack of motivation become visible to the organization and are transferred to the job being done leading to poor quality output (Lee & Raschke, 2016). The ultimate effect is that the organization gets a negative reputation for serving the clients inappropriately.   

Conclusion

The Intercontinental hotel is a worldwide hotel chain that has been successful in providing hospitality services to its clients. The front stage of the organization include the food service sections, the reception and the guestroom which are visible to the clients. The backstage, on the other hand, includes the internal operations such as purchasing, human resource, accounting, and the food production area. All the services in this area are integrated making the management of each of the sections necessary. The hotel industry is also highly competitive and sensitive in that a small deviation from the service quality could lead to an effect on the whole experience of the client leading to a negative report. The hotel, therefore, needs to step up its services in both the front stage and the backstage for it to continue having a positive report and maintain the large market share.

References

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