JOURNAL 3:

Pre-site visit information and/or research

I found reviews on external sites such as Tripadvisor, online newspapers and asked my friends who used to come there. I also came to the website of the restaurant for more information.

Field notes:

1. Each guest is served with customized experiences and surprising moments from the restaurant’s dream weavers to bring the most special experiences for their important events.

Interviews with the owner of the restaurant:

1. Different expectations in terms of service about a fine-dining restaurant with out-of-the-box and unique experiences: elevator spaceship, personal fine dining experiences.
2. The core and basic human desire: to feel seen, cared, loved, recognized.

Post reflection and Theory Application

In terms of service design, Eleven Madison Restaurant has applied successfully the service blueprinting framework, which is the tool to design how the service process should be constructed. In the case of Eleven Madison Restaurant, its service is customer-centric. First, in terms of physical evidence, the restaurant often has out-of-the-box with a unique design for the whole hotel and each customer’s special moments. With different customers’ personal requirements for their special moments such as proposals, birthdays, celebrations, there would be different designs in terms of meals, dessert, and table settings. This will increase customer satisfaction, their likeliness to return and the restaurant’s reputation through word-of-mouth marketing (Guzel & Dincer 2018). Although it is different from the traditional fine-dining restaurant, I think this is the reason why they succeed in meeting customer’s different needs with authentic experiences, likely to attract young people (especially millennials and generation Z) who will be heavy spenders in the future.

Image 1: A special setting for guest on their special moments at the restaurant (Dreamweaverdiary, no date)

Image 2: Friendly chef went around to communicates with customers (Che, 2011)

The Dreamweaver will contact them for more requirements, showing the restaurant’s willingness to bring the best memories to their customers. When the customer enters the table, they would be served by four staff serving including the captain, server, assistant-server, and sommelier. I think this creates personal experiences since each guest will be surprised based on their own requirements and situations, which has positive impacts on customer loyalty and impression (Jin, Huffman & Lee 2012). The staff is very friendly with a clean uniform and smiling face. During the customer’s meals, they could meet the owners or chef of the restaurant asking for their comments, and have high-quality conversations with them. The time for food preparation is quick since the customers often have observations before so they do not have to wait long. Based on the customer’s situation, the staff will offer help and activities for them during the whole meal. When they finish and go out, there would be thank you sayings from the serving team and the gatekeeper, making them feel they are cared for and supported.

Additional evidence collected