Quality - time to get it right

You're a typical licensee, so you're working hard - probably never harder - but you're making no more money than you used to. In fact, despite those long hours, your standard of living is actually getting worse. The rising bills for utilities and staff, the cost of compliance with the endless red tape, and the smaller crowd in your pub are all taking their toll. And you start to wonder just why it was that you took the pub in the first place.

It's at times like this you need to take a hard look at what you're doing, and what you can do to force those GPs northwards again.

In our opinion, and it's shared by a number of big names both inside and outside the trade, the most important thing you can do is raise the quality of your operation. In these highly-competitive times, the customers you want spending money in your pub are too often being persuaded to spend their cash somewhere that's operating to higher standards. Where staff are friendlier, smile more. Where the decor is nicer, more relaxing. Where

the food tastes better, is more interesting. And where they're getting great value, even if they're paying a bit more than they would in your place.

In short, your customers are too often getting a better quality experience elsewhere.

So what are you going to do about it? How are you going to drive up the quality in your pub? It's hard enough coping as it is... how do you start to turn things around when there are so many pressures just getting through the day?

The MA is very conscious how hard it is to drive up quality. Which is why we're launching a new campaign to help you. It's called Drive For Quality, and it's all about inspiring you with ideas and helping you with advice.

It starts today, and we don't think it's going to go away for a long time. Raising quality is a never-ending process, so we intend to stick with Drive For Quality for as long as we can come up with information that will help you improve your pub and make more money for you and your family.

To kick off, we've asked some experienced business people, from within and without the trade, what they think pubs need to do to raise their game. Their replies make fascinating reading. And they've helped us create our Quality Manifesto for the trade, which we'd love every pub to sign up to. Or put it another way, we don't think there's a licensee who can really afford not to.