A new campaign to raise service standards in British pubs has been launched by The Publican.
The Publican People Charter aims to improve customer service in pubs and bars in a bid to boost trade, tourism and, ultimately, profits.
The Charter recognises that staff attitude plays a big part in customer satisfaction.
A happy workforce can boost business in terms of repeat custom but it can also reduce staff turnover - saving substantial amounts on recruitment costs.
The emphasis of this campaign is to improve conditions for staff and shake off our industry's current identity of being low payers and poor employers.
Many large pub companies and brewers have already pledged support for the campaign, including Fuller's, Laurel and Charles Wells.
By signing up to the Charter, pub companies and individual licensees are pledging to look after staff by giving opportunities for training, striving to make all staff part of the business and having a company culture focused on providing the best customer service and making this a number one priority. Each pub company and brewer will sign up to a Charter that is tailored specifically to them.
Laurel's spokeswoman Maureen Heffernan said: "Laurel is hugely supportive of this campaign as we believe that customer service is the ultimate differentiator between good and bad operators.
"We applaud The Publican for highlighting this important issue across the whole industry."
Simon Emeny, retail director at Fuller's, said: "Good customer service is good for business yet it is often no more than head office rhetoric. I commend The Publican for leading the industry on this.
"We will be getting on board and looking to raise the standards in our own estate, and I hope others will too."