Togetherness as a way to enhance memorability – Biometric research on group dining experiences

Abstract

Due to the rising demand for developing memorable and exceptional customer experiences, while recognising the key role of emotions as its constituent, a growing attention has focused on understanding the conditions they flourish under. As the nature of emotions is ambiguous, use of extensive methods such as measuring bodily reactions is needed to complement self-reflective data, which by itself, is utterly inadequate to capture the unconscious side of these events. Simultaneously, the special characteristics affecting group experiences have been left with little attention, even though the social aspect of experiences is often the very reason for engaging in them. Harnessing the human need for belonging into the core of a service offering in the context of shared experiences, an enhanced level of memorability could be reached through togetherness and so-called we experiences.

In this study, these phenomena are approached with psychophysiological measures, adapting biometric research methods to compliment retrospection in order to understand the interplay of physical and psychological reactions. By these means, the paper seeks answers to the relation of togetherness and memorability, while hoping to contribute to the overall understanding of group experiences in the field of hospitality. The research case was built on a technology-enhanced dining experience, where a group was separated by physical distance but reunited over a shared dinner, as dining experiences could be described as one of the key offerings in hospitality, and often marked by social interaction within one’s social groups.

Due to the global pandemic, the amount of data gathered was significantly smaller than planned. However, together with the theoretical findings, the study contributes to the knowledge around the themes of group experiences and memorability. The research concludes, that once sustained, a sense of togetherness will not be diminished by the means of interaction, and that this elevated feeling of experiencing together, the we experience, could be a route to enhanced memory processing due to the social nature emotions. The findings support the view that emotions do play a key role in the creation of memorable customer experiences, but when further assessing group experiences as a construct, the social dimension cannot be diminished, but it is strongly interlinked to the memorability together with the emotions.