Unique offers a little extra
Keeping in touch with their tenants and making sure they have the support they need as independent business people has become an increasingly important issue for the giant pub groups - and now the internet is beginning to play its part.
Earlier this year, following some painstaking research, Unique Pub Company launched a new extranet service for its licensees, that is, a private website accessible through the internet.
While the early history of the internet was characterised by companies putting on sites just to have a presence, much more attention is now being paid to making sure that a website is useful, and has a real value for a business.
"We knew that whatever we did, it had to be good and relevant across 3,000 different businesses," said Unique's human resources and communications director Nick Bishop. "We looked at existing portals as a way of reaching our licensees, but in the end we reached our own solution."
Unique put the project in the hands of a software specialist, BYG Systems - not without some apprehension. Nick was relieved when he saw that the result "looks like what we thought we would have, the look and feel is exactly us, and that doesn't always happen".
The worry, of course, was that publicans would find themselves logging onto a super whizz-bang, all-singing, all-dancing website designed by techies for techies. It might look awesome but ultimately it would be intimidating and difficult to use. A busy licensee would immediately be switched off.
Fortunately, BYG was well aware of the the potential problems. "We pride ourselves on understanding the needs of a business before we start any design," said managing director Dr Yoon Yong.
"Our expertise delivers what people really need and no more. The solution is there for the user, not the designer. We appreciate that people need time to overcome their fears of the internet. The idea is to give them something useful, then they will begin to play and explore the possibilities.
"The site also had to reflect Unique. We took a lot of time and effort to research and determine its needs, then we had just four months to design the site and get it live - that's incredibly quick."
Unique wanted the site to be both accessible to the public, so they can learn about the company, and, through the secure extranet, to help its publicans improve their businesses.
The shared home page carries links to news and information about Unique, pub lettings and job opportunities, plus a login for registered lessees and tenants.
Once they have keyed in their name and password, licensees can go through to the extranet which includes:
- Supplyline - a website within a website with details of Unique's distribution and technical services, a searchable database of 200 available products and the latest special offers and promotions
- business support - covering pay and employment issues, flagging up law changes and giving tax guidelines, health and safety, marketing and PR guides and industry issues including, for example, advice for pubs affected by the foot-and-mouth crisis
- events calendar
- three-day weather forecast.
In addition, online ordering through Supplyline is currently on trial and an e-learning package for licensees and their staff is being developed by BYG.
"We have a lot of plans for the future but we are only doing things that will make an improvement to a publican's business," said Nick. "Online ordering, for instance, will give pubs their own order history so licensees can have a clear idea of what they can sell.
"It is a complex business for us, however, because we have such a wide range of products and we use more than 20 suppliers.
"The biggest challenge is giving our licensees the assurance that their order can be delivered on time. It's a question of confidence. We shall trial it to exhaustion to make sure it's right.
"Training is another great opportunity," he continued.
"There are about 35,000 people working in our pubs and all of them need training, but where does an independent licensee go for it? We're only at the ground floor when it comes to answering this question."
For Dr Yong, "the key to our success is at the user interface. If the user feels frustrated after 30 seconds online, it's no good. Some take the view that the more things you have happening on a site, the better. But as far as we're concerned it's clutter. A website is no more than a gateway to what you need," he said.
Nick agreed. "It's like having a bad experience using a pub. You don't go back there. Our site is not flashy, you don't get stuck in loops or get distracted when all you want is a simple piece of information. No one should take more than three clicks to get what they want."
About half the Unique estate is currently registered on the website and between them they make more than 250,000 hits a month.
"Each week a few more licensees are coming online and the hit rate is rising all the time," said Nick. "Some of them love it and they are already telling us not to bother posting stuff to them any more.
"We want to keep the personal touch, though. The internet is just a way of speeding things up and we will continue to deliver more complex messages face-to face.
"It will be good to know exactly how people use the internet. Do they set aside surf-time every day? Why are they going online? Is there a specific reason, such as to find out about employment law?
"When we know, we can concentrate on where people have issues."
- www.uniquepubs.com
Punch raises awareness of taking on a pub
Tenants and lessees form the most vulnerable sector of the pub industry. Turnover is high and while a lot succeed, too many fail - and in the long term that does nobody any good.
One of the main causes of failure is that the people who enter the pub industry through this relatively cheap route do so with their eyes half-closed. While research has shown that most decide to take a pub because of the lifestyle, the reality is that they are about to do battle in a harsh business environment.
The internet, thanks to the sheer amount of information it can easily communicate, is emerging as a way of raising the awareness of that reality among those who may be thinking of taking a pub.
The new Punch Pub Company website - www.punchpubs.co.uk - is perhaps the most comprehensive example.
It begins by explaining the various routes into a pub before detailing just what is required in terms of commitment and finance and what licensees can expect from Punch in return.
It is something that, as marketing director Francis Patten says, the company has always tried to do. "Most of our new licensees are people who take the pub as an assignment from the previous licensee," he said.
"Theoretically, we play no part in that deal, but in practice we help them to ask the right questions.
"The difference now is that we're putting it on a website and being more rigorous about it."
"If a licensee joins us thinking they can tread water they are wrong," added director of training and recruitment Stephen Gould. "It is about working together to create the maximum profit. We can offer them plenty of support but we are not a welfare state."
Exactly what you do get is made clear on the website which includes an eight-point service charter plus 50 service commitments and the service levels of suppliers, which Stephen believes is a first for the industry.
He admits that there