The 10 Pillars of Evoking Positive Guest Emotions in Your Restaurant

The goal of any restaurant is to imprint a positive and lasting experience that makes guests want to return. This impress is rarely created by any one outstanding attribute of the concept whether it is a salad and sandwich shop or a hedonic fine-dining restaurant.

It is typically the sum total of a variety of elements that leaves guests feeling fulfilled and wanting to repeat the experience. Every concept can build repeat patronage by fostering the guests emotional experience and, likely, you understand this intuitively. Most of us can remember a dining experience that evoked positive emotions, even if it was a Sunday outing with our father to get a soft-serve cone at the little ice cream shop on Main Street.

In this article, we review the elements that create a "feel-good" experience for your guests and how to incorporate them into your concept.

Why We Dine Out

Very often "emotion is why we dine out," says Brett W. Horton, a professor in the hospitality management program at Kansas State University. "We go out to eat at Valentine's Day and select a romantic place. We go to a sports bar to be in an exciting, emotionally-charged location to watch the game. We have some of our best memories around food and where we were when we consumed it. Often, that bottle of wine that was outstanding at a local restaurant is not near as good at home because it does not contain the same emotion as when the captain uncorked it and filled our glass with fruit and emotion."