Customer experience management strategies in upscale restaurants: Lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic

This study addresses customer experience management (CXM) in upscale restaurants. Specifically, it examines restaurateurs??? perceptions of customers??? changing needs following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, it identifies restaurants??? CXM strategies that are being used now and could be retained in the future to provide memorable customer experiences. A qualitative study was conducted via in-depth interviews with managers of Michelin-starred restaurants in 12 countries. Lexical analysis was used to examine customers??? needs and reflexive thematic analysis to identify CXM strategies. Before the pandemic, customers sought ???immersive??? and ???amazing??? experiences, while after, they craved ???reassuring???, ???sociable???, and ???unparalleled??? gastronomic experiences, as well as an experiential home service delivery. In addition, previous CXM strategies (i.e., customer experiential immersion, engagement, intrigue, and listening) have been superseded by reassurance, conviviality, gastronomic experimentation, and home luxury gastronomic experience delivery. This study provides a model of CXM to support restaurant managers in creating memorable CX.