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All this week, my class has been discussing the idea of a customer experience. Products, as most people know, aren’t just about the physical products themselves. Rather, it’s about the experience the product can enable, empower, or enhance for the user. Thus, when it comes to the creation of products and services, having the experience in mind is crucial. To me, it’s such a simple concept, but so difficult to implement. It’s so easy to say, “I understand that my product or service has to serve a bigger purpose than just exist,” but it’s difficult to integrate the product or service into the lives of a consumer. I think that’s why companies who are consistently successful at this concept (companies like Apple) get this brand of innovation. This kind of consumer-placed label or conceptual framework allows the company to get away with a lot. Take, for instance, the iPad. To me, the concept of the iPad is great. It serves a niche market, is certainly useful, is relatable for wide audiences, and is just downright cool. But, in its first edition, I was disappointed (as I am by most first generation Apple products). However, everybody still wants an iPad, and I don’t blame them. The amount of prestige and the message having an iPad sends out in a social environment is great, and Apple takes advantage of the fact that everyone thinks their products are innovative, cool, and a must-have. People think they’re so fantastic that they are willing to look past the flaws (where’s the webcam? where’s the USB port?), and that’s a huge win for Apple.

In this blog post, I was asked to write about and deconstruct an experience that was particularly meaningful for me. While most of the class discussion that has occurred deals with products, my intuition told me that I wanted to talk about one of the best dining experiences I’ve ever had.

I hope that I can convey why this particular dining experience was so memorable. The best place to start is to say that I am talking about a time last year where I had dinner at an Olive Garden. There are elements about this Olive Garden that I remember vividly that certainly helped contribute to my experience. Specifically, I would like to focus on five key tenets of why my dining experience was so great.

Initially, when I went to this Olive Garden, it was at the end of a very long and exhausting speech tournament. We were in a different city (I can’t recall where, exactly) eating dinner after a long weekend. Now, speech tournaments in a nutshell are incredibly exhausting, in a physical, emotional, and mental sense. We are physically drained because of a lack of sleep, while we are emotionally drained from emotional performances and mentally exhausted from having to have intense concentration throughout the weekend. The Olive Garden experience I had consisted of what most would say was just a great dining experience, but I believe it was my specific context and environment that made it truly meaningful.

Second, the restaurant was able to seat our entire team (25-30 or so people) right when we got there, which was a huge breath of fresh air after an exhausting weekend. I sat with three of my teammates at a small booth and they all happened to be seniors. This brings me to second belief that the company I was with enhanced my experience. The conversation was great and I always laugh a lot and am in a good mood when I am with my teammates. I was immediately at ease and in a good mood.

The third tenet is that the server was awesome. He anticipated our needs before we even knew we had them, was always on top of bringing us things quickly, and understood the appropriate times to check on us. Plus, he was just a cool guy. The ability to juggle multiple tables during a busy night is a skill that I have always admired, and he had that ability on lockdown.

In addition to his sheer skill, the server gave off a genuine vibe. What I mean by this is that he seemed to truly be enjoying what he was doing and it made for a very relaxing and enjoyable evening. I think that I specifically chose the word “genuine” because it didn’t seem like he was working so hard for a tip. Instead, it really just felt like he wanted to make sure we got fed delicious food in an appropriate timeframe.

Speaking of delicious food, my fifth and final tenet deals with the fact that the food was fantastic. Now, I don’t normally think very highly of Olive Garden past the soup, salad, and breadsticks (because seriously, the soup, salad, and breadsticks at any Olive Garden is out of this world), but everything I had that night was absolutely delicious. The food was fresh, hot, and flavorful (I’m getting hungry now!). Plus, it just hit the spot.

I think that this combination of elements made for a great experience. I think you can look at this experience in a few ways: first, you can think of the food as an actual product, but the experience itself made it much better. This is certainly not a new concept, as dining in a restaurant usually entails a significant experience. However, you can also look at Olive Garden as a service. Because they take the time to seat guests, cook and provide food, and wait on customers, the restaurant business is really a service. Whatever way you look at it, I had a great time.

This experience really relates back to what we’ve been talking about in my class. I think this is a perfect example of showing that the extra effort you put in when considering a customer’s experience can really pay off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tip that big go to anyone from a group of four people. We all tipped well above 25% and even went through the trouble of asking for our server’s manager to tell him that our server was great.

In the end, the experience really does make or break the product or service. So, it is important to consider and take into account the experience in the design phase. Well, with that said, I’m off to Olive Garden! Well, by Olive Garden, I mean I’m off to class. But, I’m still thinking about those breadsticks and I hope you are, too.