Browsing by Author "Veinola, Sari"

An unforgettable, unique and individually felt customer experience can be called a memorable experience. One of the ways enterprises are able to gain competitive advantage is to produce memorable experiences to customers. This has become more and more essential in the success of all kinds of products and services. Service organizations design the customer experience in order to become specialized and to increase customer loyalty. This is also perceived in the restaurant business, which so far has not much utilized the principles of experience economy. The objective of this study is to understand how a memorable customer experience is created in a fine dining restaurant, particularly through food, and how this kind of an experience can be designed and developed to become a competitive asset and means of differentiation of a restaurant. In this study, the characteristics of customer experience and the means of impacting its quality and the depth of the experience are researched. The memorability of an experience is strongly attached to feelings experienced, through which the experience produces value and meaning to the customer. Meaningfulness in a customer experience increases the engagement with the enterprise and produces new visits, which in turn enhances competitive advantage and differentiation on the market. The study is based on the qualitative approach. The framework consists of researches and literature focusing on the nature and development of customer experience. In this research, the restaurateur and the designer of a fine dining restaurant specialized in experiences and originality were interviewed. The secondary material consisted of the social media channels and commenting platforms of the restaurant, the restaurateur's blog, and restaurant reviews both on Finnish and international websites. The restaurant is specialized in vegan food, and wildfood in particular, the aim of which has been to increase the differentiation and feeling of experience of the restaurant concept. Because of this, wildfood specialists have also been interviewed, which has resulted in a versatile insight of wildfood and its special nature as a restaurant concept. In this study, the tools of a restaurant to produce memorable experiences and develop the customer experience are analysed based on the framework. Based on the findings of the study, a memorable experience consists of multisensory individual and personal experiences, feelings and memories and stories built on these, and the feeling of authenticity which is perceived through ethical and ecological food with transparent origins. The pursuit of memorable experiences, particularly through food, works in the restaurant in question as a distinct asset. The speciality of the restaurant, wildfood, is also an essential part of the concept and creation of memorable experiences.