Dishing up great service all the time

One of the best ways to pull in customers in today's trading climate is to provide top quality food and service, like the Manvers Arms in Mexborough. Jessica Harvey reports

Against the backdrop of the smoking ban, for many pubs, food is the way forward. Attracting customers increasingly means providing the chance for them to eat good, honest, affordable food in pleasant pub surroundings.

This month's Quality-Tracker winner Enterprise Inns' Manvers Arms, run by Neil and Rachel Organ, shows how to perfectly balance a wet-dry split, providing home-made classics to attract both locals and residents from neighbouring villages in search of a meal out as well as a drink.

One area in particular that boosted our winner above the other 11 pubs was the general level of service displayed by its staff, proving that politeness and friendliness are paramount.

Despite 10 of the 12 pubs scoring full marks for the main area and seven pubs offering superb hospitality levels, many opportunities to make the customer feel more welcome or to upsell any extras were overlooked.

The case where the barstaff were more interested in talking to each another rather than acknowledge the customer shows how pubs can fall behind when it comes to hiring genial staff.

Something that Neil Organ has prioritised has been to action his customers' opinions for what the pub needs to do by simply asking them what they thought before raising the standards.

Organ also incorporated the views of his staff and outlines that to make a profit, you need to make a healthy investment first.