We've discovered certain contradictions in core service design ideas including quality, intensity, and

variety. We can start to reconcile them by distinguishing between the "front stage" and the "behind
stage" of service delivery. A focus on the service encounter entails a clear difference between the
customer-provider interactions that are part of the service encounter and the activities that precede
it to make it feasible. The former is known as the "front stage," while the latter is known as the "back
stage," and they are separated by the "line of visibility," which is so-called because any activities or
services that are not visible to the consumer are considered to be behind the line.

The placement of the line of visibility in the chain of activities that handle the materials or
information needed in the service encounter is a critical decision in service design made by this
framework. The design of restaurants is a classic example of this concept; fast food outlets, gourmet
restaurants, and "entertainment" establishments like Benihana, where meals are prepared at the
customer's table, can be contrasted in terms of the line of visibility that separates food preparation
and delivery [8]. Indeed, Benihana boasts that it gives "an experience at every table," emphasising
the concept that it has stretched the line of visibility back as much as possible to enlarge the front
stage.

The Front and Back Stages of Hotel Check-In

When we originally looked at the four possibilities for checking into a hotel, we focused on the
service encounter at the front desk. When we revisit each scenario with the front/back stage
distinction in mind, we can see how back stage actions and information play a significant role in the
consumer experience.

Scenario #1: After the customer gives his last name, we can assume that the receptionist checks up
the customer's name in a back-stage reservation system or on a check-in list retrieved from it, which
shows the room allotted to the customer.

Scenario #2: At first look, we might have attributed this intense and highly personalised check-in
experience to an empowered employee's desire to please the customer's exceptional recall.
However, it's improbable that this exact staff was on duty when the consumer praised room 321 or
inquired about baseball tickets months ago. Instead, it's more likely that the receptionist is retrieving
institutional information on the customer's room and entertainment preferences. Employees at
hotels that pride themselves on providing excellent service are trained to record and retrieve this
type of information in order to improve the client experience during front-stage interactions.

Scenario #3: It is clear that, despite the front-end efforts of the receptionist, the poor quality of this
service contact is clearly driven by the failure of a back-end procedure. When the consumer
interacted with the online booking service at the front stage, he thought his self-service hotel
reservation was successful, but the reservation was not successfully transmitted from their back
stage to the hotel's back stage.

Scenario #4: Some components of the customer's check-in experience quality perception are based
on front stage features such as usability, attractiveness, or responsiveness of the check-in
application. However, as we can see from the comparison of scenarios #1 and #3, quality would
suffer without an effective backstage reservation system. Perhaps the assignment of room 321, the
customer's favourite accommodation, is the consequence of the back stage knowledge management
system we inferred in scenario #2.