Front and Back Stages

The essay introduces the concepts of services and relationship marketing managed by the business organization named Rockpool Bar & Grill in Australia. It is located in a core area of Sydney, Australia and thus has managed to draw huge numbers of customers. Te beautiful decoration based n the green marbled dinging space along with the American style Art deco skyscraper has improved the dining experience for the guests and kept them satisfied with the sumptuous meal provided (rockpoolbarandgrill.com.au 2018). The meals are produced through meat and seafood sourced from the top producers of Australia and Rockpool Bar & Grill has been one of the major restaurants with a wide range of wines and brewery items too. The menu consists of a wide range of food items though the famous steak available at the restaurant has been a popular delicacy among the customers that is sourced and then dry aged and wood fire grilled to maintain perfection of the food in terms of quality and taste (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne 2013).

Every business origination, especially those within the food and hospitality sector maintains front office and back office operations to ensure smooth business functioning along with dealing with the issues faced while managing the business operations. The front and back office operations are responsible for managing the restaurant and at the same time, facilitate the management of services’ delivery and recovery with proper support by the managers of the organization as well. Though there are signs of growth in economy, still the company owners have faced major issues an challenges including the fluctuations in commodity prices, increased prices of wholesale food items along with the pressure on bottom line of the restaurant, due to which the consumers remain not knowledgeable about the growth in economy and other expenditures based on the survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association in Australia (Peck et al. 2013). The front stage enables creating a platform for the business to interact or communicate with the customers and understand the kind of service that they want while the back stage enables a specific portion of the service value chain that are not known or watchable to the customers.

                                                   

The front stage comprises of the contact personnel or receptionist who manages the service encounters and ensures that the physical components and assets are managed by the business properly. The receptionist present at the front stage is responsible for illustrating the services offered by the restaurant to the customers, furthermore make bookings for their respective seats arranged to get the services delivered at the table during supper (Hohenthal, Johanson and Johanson 2015). The front stage has direct link with the physical components of the facility that transfers the information about the items to be produced to the kitchen facility where the food item, is made and a proper dining space is provided for the guests too. The customers are linked with the availing of services through gaining a great dining experience through the booking already made at the service encounter desk before entering the dining place. The food items are delivered to them according to their needs that are already reported to the chefs and waiters, who have made sure to maintain the food safety and health standards for keeping the clients satisfied as a whole (Hennig-Thurau and Hansen 2013).

Service Encounter

                                                        

According to Artto, Ahola and Vartiainen (2016), the back stage means the back operations managed at the restaurant including the staffs at the kitchen, waiters, chefs and other workers who are responsible for managing the operations at the back office. The technical core manages the bookings made and orders placed, based on which, the necessary information about the orders for food items are transferred to the kitchen management staffs (Artto, Ahola and Vartiainen 2016). They manages the orders by preparing the food items that are to be consumed by the clients, furthermore make arrangements for the dining and allowing the guests to consume the food items that they require. With the proper information transferred from the technical core department to the kitchen facility, the products and services are delivered properly to the clients, which has enhanced the dining experience and resulted in great customer satisfaction too (Artto, Ahola and Vartiainen 2016).

The restaurant service encounter means the place where the receptionist and other organizational staffs are present to assist the customers in getting the right services and even make their sitting arrangements at the restaurant. The quality of service encounter has been excellent for Rockpool Bar & Grill in Australia, which has helped the receptionist to welcome the guests and made them, gain a positive mindset of the business prior to availing the services of the restaurant (Hill and Hill 2017). The service encounter includes addressing the name of the customer and provides him or her with the information regarding the seats arranged to have supper. The service encounter is included as a major aspect of the service interaction where the people and processes are considered by Rockpool Bar & Grill to work according to the need and requirements of the clients and keep them satisfied as a whole. Lee and Sozen (2016) argued that the quality of service encounter is effective and of good quality because most of the clients who have made prior bookings before visiting the restaurant are provided with proper seating arrangements (Lee and Sozen 2016). The other people who want immediate service and made bookings that time have been allowed to sit in room and wait in case the seats are not found empty.

The service encounter also includes self service check in and checkout, which has allowed the customers to use the automated check in service by booking the seat through payments made via credit or debit cards. There are no hassles and need to wait in queue to interact with the receptionists, which can reduce the work load of the restaurant authorities and ensure that the services are delivered appropriately and in an organized manner (Wong 2013). According to Dabholkar (2015), the service encounter has been further facilitated to improve the customers’ interaction with the restaurant and it has been possible with the use of web based services dedicated to achieve customer service excellence. The restaurant has managed a proper website where all the information regarding the restaurant, its products and services offered and other approaches managed to maintain sustainability are present, which are readily accessible to the customers (Dabholkar 2015). This could also make them assess the various features of the restaurant and its products, furthermore ensured that the customers could made purchases of the restaurant services accurately and within quick time as well.  Thus, the service encounter could be believed as a repository for sharing and exchange of information between the business and its clients and transforming the service to service systems, not only by implementing self service systems through automation, but also by allowing the receptionists and other staffs present at the back stage to help the clients who visit the place and make them avail the best possible services that are suitable for them (Larivière et al. 2017).

According to the manager, the front stage and back stage operations are linked with each other for delivering the best quality customers’ services and focus on their satisfaction at the utmost level possible. The back office manages proper control over the activities managed at the front stage of the business; furthermore prevent errors and mistakes that might be associated with the front office operations. Based on the statements provided by Choi and La (2013), the controls of the front office operations stay at the back stage and thus the front office operations are for the generation of revenue whereas the support activities managed to help the front office are present at the back office stage considering the admin operations, laws, rules and regulations compliance (Choi and La 2013). As a manager of the organization, it is the responsibility to manage the front and back stages properly at the same time to ensure successful business functioning along with the creation of a link between these two departments. The manager is also responsible for bridging the front and back stages of the organization in the service design for ensuring smooth flow and exchange of information along with the focus on resolving the issues associated with the front and back stage issues experienced within the restaurant (Xu et al. 2014).

The managerial implications are also associated with the encouragement of individuals and influencing their buying behaviors to deliver services accordingly. Within the restaurant industry, the support provided on the basis of a value model or tangible framework is dependent on the analysis done. Due to this, the manager of Rockpool Bar & Grill, Australia must be aware of the analysis data and information related to the purchasing intentions of the customers. The actual behaviors of clients are understood, which further helps in determining the factors associated with the managerial decisions made (rockpoolbarandgrill.com.au 2018). As stated by Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne (2013), the HR managers are responsible for managing the processes of recruitment, selection and arranging training sessions for them while the departmental manages are associated with the ways the various departments are made functional according to the needs, expectations and readiness to make purchases by the customers in different market segments of Australia (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne 2013).

Considering the fact that there the restaurant aims to understand the orientation of customers for enhancing the apparent services value chain and generate higher revenue in business. The communication of service specifications is controlled by the manager who assigns the line manager and makes sure that the employees of the organization are knowledgeable and informed about the information related to the products and services delivered by the restaurant. Based on the research and development outcomes, it was found that the manager had followed the value structure of the individuals who possessed good buying behaviors and can allocate resources based on the information obtained (Hohenthal, Johanson and Johanson 2015). Their perceptions are basically positive towards the purchase of any products and services and this will further assist in delivering a broader, better and effective service performance. The manager conducts meetings with the other staffs to understand the things that are present in the product or service to influence the clients to make purchases (rockpoolbarandgrill.com.au 2018).

The manager should make the organizational policies and laws readily available and acknowledgeable to the staffs for ensuring that the organizational and quality standards are maintained properly. Larivière et al. (2017) stated that the roles and responsibilities of the managers are also to promote effective communication along with management of training and development needs of the staffs to strengthen their skills, knowledge and expertise. The service delivery has been influenced and this has resulted in customers’ perceptions towards management of value and other benefits offered to the customers (Larivière et al. 2017). The managerial implications also included the research based knowledge and information related to the value structure of the potential customers to whom the services have been already delivered by the restaurant named Rockpool Bar & Grill in Australia (rockpoolbarandgrill.com.au 2018).

The service recovery means the implementation of various laws, rules, regulations and strategies required to provide benefits to the clients in case there have been any kinds of service related disputes due to which the customers have suffered. There could be service failures when any defect is found in the food item while the slow service delivery could also be considered as a major service failure experienced by the restaurant. After the orders are placed, in case the items are out of stock, then it could also be a service related failure whereas the inappropriate behaviors of the staffs and incorrect temperature at which the food has been cooked might also lead to bad food and unhealthy components present. There might also be billing error, wrong orders placed and wrong invoice, which are considered as common service failures faced by the restaurant (Artto, Ahola and Vartiainen 2016).  According to Kincaid et al. (2010), the laws, rules and guidelines set could make the restaurant face penalty due to service failures and this might even cost a lot of money for the business in the form of compensation through free food delivery, discounts offered and coupons provided for reducing the prices of items during the next purchase. Replacement of food could also be possible while in case of no actions, the business might be subjected to risks of negative word of mouth promotions and lack of ability to maintain a proper brand name and image (Kincaid et al. 2010). This would slow down the business functions, lead to customer dissatisfaction and finally result in decline of sales revenue too.

Conclusion

The topic introduced the various important components of a restaurant and how it has helped in managing the service encounter and service recovery through management of both the front stage and back stages. The front stage comprised of the area where the receptionists are present and the other staffs who had welcomed the guests while entering the restaurant while the back stage included the kitchen facilities and the cooking department that were responsible for taking the orders and arranging the food items accordingly. The service encounter and recovery options in case of any service related faults were managed properly with the involvement of manager to ensure that the service quality should be maintained along with maintenance of consistency all throughout the services’ delivery.

References

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