Loyalty bonus

Maggie Pattinson tells Ewan Turney how a loyalty-card scheme helped increase barrelage seven-fold inside two years at the Crofters, Holbeck, Barrow-in-Furness,Cumbria

How I got here

I was born in a pub and have worked in them most of my life. I've also had experience of working in a Whitbread hotel.

Although managed houses tend to look similar and don't demonstrate the real flair a tenant can bring, the processes they use in terms of stock control and rotation are a useful reference point for tenanted houses to learn from. My husband Geoff came from a farming background.

We moved to the Crofters in November 2005. It was very run-down. The last tenant had been here for 17 years and had not done much work to the place during that time.

How I turned the pub around

In the last few years the pub only opened from midday to 1.30pm and then from 5pm to 7pm. I heard all sorts of stories, such as the rumour about the previous tenant turning the pub's lights off while he went to have his tea.

On our second night we lit the fire and three couples came in to check the pub hadn't caught fire - it was so long since the the open fire had been used. One customer claimed he was charged £20 to have the fire lit on Christmas Eve.

We gave the place a good clean and put out fresh flowers and candles and had a bit of a refurbishment. Suddenly we had people flocking in because they had a decent pub to visit at last. We had to spend £12,000 on restocking to make it actually look like a pub.

The back bar display was a mess: it was full of glasses, but a pub doesn't sell glasses. I attended one of the MA/Diageo Every Serve Perfect courses and learnt a lot.

Many of the old-timers asked me for a gin and tonic in a stemmed glass. I had to suggest that they let me do it my way - and if they didn't like it they didn't have to pay for it.

When I served it in the right glass with a big wedge of lime, they loved it.

My loyalty card scheme

When we arrived the prices were really cheap and we needed to raise them by about 14% but we were afraid of a backlash from the locals.

So we introduced a loyalty card which gives customers 10% off the price of drinks. They are proper cards which are swiped on the till. Customers can accumulate points - one point for every £1 spent, which translates into 1p off. In the first month we gave a free loyalty card to every customer; now we charge £10 for each card. We gave away 100 free and have sold 600 more. In quieter months, such as January, we may do another promo and give out free cards.

The beauty of the promotion was that to get a card people had to fill in a form which told us lots of useful details: what they drank and liked to eat, whether they had kids, what sports they enjoyed watching, when their family's birthdays were. Every week our computer texts or emails people to remind them of their wife's or husband's birthday and offers a free bottle of wine if they celebrate here.

My family-friendly environment

We have a great outside space which won the MA award for Beer Garden of the Year. We have outside seating for 300 and 12 patio heaters and our garden is a major attraction.

We also have a massive barbecue, hog-roast equipment and a beach-bar type shack where we serve cocktails and smoothies for kids.

We have done everything we can to make families comfortable. I didn't realise that when you have children you are suddenly excluded from having a good meal unless you want microwaved food.

On a sunny day you never see the kids as there is a climbing frame, sand pit, Wendy house and a huge garden where they can play football or baseball.

Even in the dining room we have crayons and board games to keep them occupied. It is nice to see families relaxing and playing a board game.

My family fun-days

We hold three or four family fun-days a year. We always tie in a charity because it helps to give something back and helps the pub get free publicity. A fun-day here features a barbecue, a bouncy castle and stalls, face painting and other attractions, including a demonstration from the police or fire brigade.

Our Hawaiian party over Easter took £12,500 and raised £2,000 for charity.

My World Cup campaign

We try to do different things here at special times such as the 2006 World Cup. We knew the pub would be full for England games but getting people in for other matches was more problematic. So we devised a passport scheme where customers were given a stamp every time they came in.

Two lads who came in for just about every game won a VIP night at the pub with a steak meal, free drinks, free pool, free jukebox and taxi ride home, and they're still telling people about it.

We also had World Cup girls wearing England bikinis and offering table service for a £1 tip. We installed big screens outside and we gave all their tips to a kids' charity.

My sports teams

We have four pool teams, three darts teams, a football and two junior rugby teams, all under the Crofters name. We look after them and pay all their fees for matches and league entry.

We also buy players' kits, and may raise the money for those by holding a race night: I get a good bar take, they get their kit and everyone wins.

That way, we give something back to the community, and they also hold their fundraising events here and bring in the opposition.

My staff

We have some great staff, but it is bloody hard finding good staff with a brain. I had a couple of Slovakians and have a couple of Russians. English youngsters see it as a stop-gap job.

If I tell one of our Eastern European workers to do a job, it will get done, but I have to keep repeating myself to the English staff. I like people who are polite and have good manners.

My training régime

I aspire to training standards set by the Living Room bar chain. Hats off to MD Tim Bacon - whenever I go there I chat to friendly, knowledgeable staff with real personality. I want to have the same - the staff are a triumph.

New employees spend a week shadowing all members of staff, from kitchen to bar. We are one team and I don't tolerate a jobsworth attitude from any employee.

Our system also helps people to appreciate others' jobs - then it's down to the managers to do the one-to-one training.

My Pub

Tenure: Thwaites three-year rolling tenancy

Barrelage in 2005: 1.5 a week

Barrelage in 2007: 10 a week

Turnover: £8,000 a week average

Rent: £24,000 a year

Meals per week: 600 average

GP food: 57%

GP drinks: 52%

Staff: 14, five full-time

Awards: Northern Hospitality Pub of the Year 2007, MA Beer Garden of the Year 2007