From Plate to Palate: Elevating Customer Experience Management and Satisfaction : A case study of Swedish fine dining restaurants

Abstract: Customer experience is a broad topic that can cover several different branches,fields and industries. Various researchers have done significant work into thetopic, yet it still has gaps of fragmentation and an overall understanding on howto manage it. This research focused on customer experience within the finedining industry with the purpose of identifying how fine dining restaurantstackle customer experience with the goal of creating satisfied customers. Inorder to answer the questions at hand, the research took the approach of a casestudy to better understand the Swedish customers at fine dining restaurantsdisregarding other countries or cultures. With the help of three main concepts,the Five Aspects of a Meal model, the service blueprints, and the fine diningclues and messages, the authors found out that several aspects such as tangibleand intangible factors such as food quality, atmosphere, and service quality, areat the core of creating a desirable customer experience. In terms of customersatisfaction, the guest feedback and other forms of criticism is critical for finedining restaurants due to the importance of listening to the customers which canresult in creating regular, or loyal, customers.