This includes all operations linked to sales, as well as all actions involving staff having direct contact with customers, such as delivery, customer support, after-sales service, etc.
The front office, as its name indicates, is a department which is considered to be on the front line facing the customer. The front office is therefore a major issue in terms of brand image for a company.
The front office manager’s mission is to transmit and manage information and data concerning their market. Business, trading, and speculation are all job categories that make up this part of a company.
The opposite of the front office is the back office, which handles administrative tasks in particular.
However, some definitions differ from the front office in marketing. One definition sometimes used sees the front office as the place where the decision-makers of a company or organization sit. These personalities come to the front and their decisions will dictate all the actions of employees.
Another definition of front office is to consider employees as being in direct contact with customers, but this time in the physical world of work. Front office employees in a physical company, be it a hotel, restaurant, department store, etc., are therefore not only those who have direct contact with the customer, but also those who will define the brand’s image and reputation directly with consumers.
In addition, in IT, the front office refers to a software architecture. The front office is therefore everything that is visible to internet users: websites, ecommerce sites, applications, etc.
This corresponds to the opposite of the back office also in IT, i.e., all the private elements managed by companies to organize their software or their website in order to make the front office as accessible as possible.
