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Perception of quality and creating that warm and fuzzy feeling...

This is a short reflection of the two sides of satisfaction: perception of quality and emotional reactions.


Perception of quality:

According to professor Margareta Friman expected quality and satisfaction are connected. For example: if there is an expectation of high quality, like a 5-star restaurant, it usually also leads to high satisfaction. Also expectation of low quality usually leads to lower satisfaction, according to Tore Pedersen. In our restaurant we have a challenge. Previously, there used to be another restaurant in the same location. This restaurant didn’t have a reputation of high quality. So when we opened a new restaurant in the same location, unfortunately low expectations on quality kept following us. Guests visiting the restaurant are all happily surprised to receive high quality service and food. They say that they did not expect high quality from us, mostly because of the old restaurants reputation. Still we have difficulties to persuade new guests to visit us, and even guests that have visited us to return. So we believe that even though the guest has been satisfied with they visit, it takes a long time to build up a reputation of high quality. Thus, satisfaction is something experienced over short time. Quality is something acquired over long time.

Emotional reactions:

According to Wilson & Gilbert (2003) our emotional reactions are based to past experiences. But instead of replaying past emotions, people often recall the details of an experience and have emotional reactions to these memories. These memories of the past experienced can be biased, so the feelings from their memoires might actually be different from the feeling they originally experienced.

Positive emotions lead to: purchase decisions, loyalty and wellbeing, says Lars E Olson. In our restaurant, if we can affect positive emotions it will lead to more visits, loyalty to our restaurant and wellbeing for our guests. A win-win! So now we have to figure out: what brings positive emotions to our guests, so that they will link these emotions to our business? Creating a welcoming ambience, great service and quality of course, but what else gives our guest this warm and fuzzy feeling? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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