Bite the bullet and thrive on feedback
The truth often hurts, but whatever sort of pub you are running it is crucial to have feedback from your customers if you are going to make it a business success in these very competitive times.
One way to find out what people are thinking is to talk to them. However, not everyone will tell you what they really think and there is only so much time available for one pair of ears. You can expand on the feedback you get by encouraging staff to listen out for comments and asking for it to be relayed back.
They will only do this if you don't go off the rails when something negative comes out, so there is a large element of self-training — training to listen, evaluate and react appropriately.
Having such an open mind helps you to have many pairs of eyes looking at your business to understand what you are doing well and what not so well. You may learn something about a member of staff excelling in the kitchen and needing a pat on the back.
A customer may quietly mention something irregular that is going on that needs addressing before it gets out of hand. Developing a technique that protects the source, but enables you to know more about your business and so drive it forward is key and you may need assistance.
There are various places you can turn to in this situation. Free help is still available from Business Link, although it will soon hand over its responsibilities to another Government agency. Commercial providers will provide mystery visits and feedback schemes, but expect to pay between £50 and £100 per month.
This is a more structured format and a six-month spell of once-per-month visits can provide very interesting information, if you are brave and open-minded enough to listen and learn. TripAdvisor can now be used to good effect if you are IT savvy and prepared to put in time thinking about what you want your entry to say and managing responses to ensure you get a fair press, which is not always a given — even when you run the best pub in the world.
Finally, when it comes to self-examination, think about entering the industry award schemes in a category you know you suit — family pub, community pub, food pub — whichever one you feel is 'your thing'.
Get staff and customers involved in the entry and you will be amazed what everyone will learn about the pub, what ideas will be generated for the future and what ideas you may develop from the other entries you see. You may even meet the other finalists at the awards dinner — what a great way of motivating the team.
Gerry Price is licensee at the Inn @ West End, Surrey.
