Back to Basics: The wow factor

Related tags Customers Alcoholic beverage Public house

We have all watched the shambles going on at Heathrow's Terminal 5 with a mix of disbelief (how can they have made SUCH a mess of it?) and...

We have all watched the shambles going on at Heathrow's Terminal 5 with a mix of disbelief (how can they have made SUCH a mess of it?) and embarrassment (after Wembley and the Millennium Dome, why are we just not able to build things right?).

Weeks later there were still more than 5,000 bags which hadn't been reunited with their owners. There were stories of couples going off to get married with their wedding dresses and morning suits being left in a hanger in South West London.

And it's probably going to get worse for BA, not better - customers caught up in the T5 melee may choose never to use BA ever again and the rest of us are sitting on the sidelines planning holidays but vowing to give T5 a miss. I wonder whether bookings at BA are down on a year ago?

There are a number of lessons the pub industry can learn from this debacle. Firstly, it was outrageous for BA and BAA, the airports authority, to blame each other for all the technical problems. Whoever's fault it was, there were thousands of customers stranded without overnight accommodation, with their hold bags being sent off to… well, goodness knows where.

If two members of staff in your pub fail to turn up, don't expect any sympathy from customers who want fast, efficient and courteous service. Putting it frankly, customers couldn't care less about your problems - you need to sort them out and keep operating, business as usual.

Have contingency plans. Deal with problems as they arise. Don't blame anyone else other than yourself and focus on continuing to deliver the things that are important to your customers.

Secondly, put yourselves in the shoes of the couples going off to get married. I'm sure they will have had a great wedding abroad (they will have found a way around the missing wedding dresses) but will they ever forgive BA?

Similarly, how many people come to your pub for a great night out - whatever their definition of 'great' is? Are you and your business going to help create some of those magic moments to complete their great night out, or are you going to sour it by not creating a warm and inviting atmosphere?

Think about how you are going to wow these customers.

What opportunities do you have to help create that great night out? Do you do any advertising? Probably not. Why not? How are those living or working around your pub meant to know what it offers? I reckon the average pub only attracts 10 per cent of those living or working around their pubs on a regular basis. That's shockingly low.

Do you make it easy for customers to book a table? Can they book their favourite table even if they only want to drink? If not, why not?

The biggest competitor to your pub is not the supermarket, I'm afraid - despite what everyone in the industry loves to say. Your biggest competitor is your customers' front rooms. Sales of computer games, flat screen TVs, music systems and comfy sofas have rocketed in recent years. Is your pub able to compete with your customers' front rooms? If not, you're in serious danger.

Do you think you offer good value for money? I can tell you that most customers do not think you do. Only 40 per cent of people interviewed in a recent pub customer study said they had received good value for money.

Does my food and drink arrive looking like I want to devour it in less than 30 seconds? Food penetration - the percentage of customers buying food - in pubs has fallen by 25 per cent in the last two years. Why? Standards elsewhere have improved but as far as pub grub goes only 50 per cent of customers who had a meal in the pub said it was good value for money.

What happens if customers complain? Do they feel you take their comments on board? Word of mouth is five times more powerful than advertising. If customers get awful service, they will tell their friends. If they get great service, they may tell one or two.

BA and pubs are both in the game of serving customers to make a profit. BA's profits will slide and I hear that over 1,000 pubs will go out of business this year. Why? Because, crudely, the on-trade has quite spectacularly ignored the single most important group of people for too long: their customers.

Footfall is down. Profits are down. And an economic downturn will send more to the wall. That's a shame, because they probably had as many good opportunities to succeed as the pub down the road that is prospering.

The difference is, the licensee in the pub down the road decided to move with the times, listen to customers and start acting like a retailer rather than a publican.

That's a big difference…

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