Pub Assessments: The mark of a good pub

In an increasingly competitive industry, it is more important than ever for publicans to find ways of attracting customers into their pubs.

One way of differentiating your business from the crowd is through standards assessment. Awards can say to potential customers that your service is a cut above your competitors', and can help generate new business.

Cask Marque

The Cask Marque accreditation scheme recognises when a licensed premises is serving quality cask beer. It is an independent scheme run by the Cask Marque Trust.

Inspectors visit pubs twice a year and test the beer served under four criteria: taste, aroma, temperature and appearance of the beer on tap. The trust employs 45 qualified brewers with experience in the industry, who will make two visits a year unannounced to sample the beer and make sure the quality is up to scratch.

If the beer passes the quality test the pub is given a blue Cask Marque plaque to display outside the pub, notifying customers that the beer served meets their stringent standards.

Firstly the temperature of the beer must be between 10 and 14 degrees for optimum taste. Alastair Macnaught, operations manager, oversees the trust's assessors. "We try to make the visits in summer and winter, to test the beer in different temperatures," he explains.

The assessors often have decades of experience in brewing and can identify a problem just by looking at or tasting the beer. Alastair agrees it is difficult to standardise the process of beer testing, but the trust rarely has negative feedback on its findings.

Cask Marque tries to work with licensees as much as possible. "If the beer fails then the assessor will go through the results with them and explain fully how they can improve," Alistair says.

In 2009, cask was the only beer to have seen a rise in on-trade sales. Paul Nunny, Cask Marque managing director, says publicans are using Cask Marque to harness this increasing popularity for their business.

"We had a 17 per cent increase last year alone in Cask Marque applications. People wouldn't be applying if it wasn't a respected standard. The plaque is an effective tool to boost business," he says.

Paul admits that the trust doesn't have "a Coca-Cola budget", and this can hinder raising awareness of its work. However, last year the trust conducted a survey where assessors visited both non-accredited and Cask Marque pubs and tested the beers.

They found that 50 per cent of the pubs without accreditation failed to meet the Cask Marque standard, where almost 90 per cent of the already-accredited pubs passed which, Paul says, "confirms the dramatic difference in beer quality that the scheme offers".

And the scheme's increasing reputation doesn't stop there.

According to an NOP survey in 2009, 46 per cent of cask ale drinkers recognise the plaque. This figure could rise with the introduction of the iPhone app Caskfinder, which helps customers find Cask Marque quality-approved pubs in their area. Paul says they had an impressive 5,000 downloads in the first nine weeks.

What's more, getting involved could help reduce costs for publicans. Paul says that, if beer served fails to meet the scheme's standards, assessors will go to the cellar and help pinpoint where the problem lies. Identifying any problems early on can help eliminate any unnecessary costs from technical service call-outs.

The Good Pub Guide

The Good Pub Guide is now in its 28th year, and is annually rewritten and updated to reveal the country's best pubs.

Its editors pride the guide on being completely independent and impartial, which helps solidify its reputation as a pub-goer's bible. The guide features 5,000 of the country's top pubs and bars, with special awards going to a select few, including Pub of the Year and Landlord of the Year.

Fiona Stapley, co-editor of The Good Pub Guide, explains how pubs are chosen to be featured.

"We have around 28,000 people who report to us with a central core who have been reporting to us on pubs around the country for 30 years," she says. "Once we have a positive dossier on a pub, we will organise an inspection trip. Our readers keep us in constant touch with what is going on with pubs they visit locally."

So what makes a good pub stand out? Fiona agrees that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes a pub great, but offers some advice based on her readers' feedback.

"You can spend £250,000 doing up a pub, but if you haven't got a warm welcome for your customers then that pub is not worth crossing the road for," she says. "Another thing the public loathe is dirt. Sticky tables and bar counters, dust and dirty loos are a huge no to both men and women, as are scruffy uncleared tables.

"Pretentious food is another big no. If you are out for a special meal that does cost a lot, and it is fantastic, that's ok. But people really want value for money at the moment."

Building up a good reputation with your customers is the first step to getting noticed for inclusion in the guide. Fiona recommends keeping in touch with the Good Pub Guide team about any developments within your pub.

"We welcome any information from pubs that we keep on our files. Enterprising licensees know that and keep us in touch with what they are doing," she adds.

Being featured, Fiona says, can really boost business.

"We know that being in The Good Pub Guide helps pub trade enormously. We get letters and phonecalls and huge thank-you's all the time, especially for a pub that is off the beaten track," she confirms.

Visit England

The Enjoy England Quality Assessment award is only available to pubs with letting rooms, but is well recognised in the industry. The assessment is done out by independent company G4S, which is an external assessment body that carries out the work on behalf of Visit England.

Quality Assessment informs customers about the quality of the service provided, taking into consideration accommodation, food and drink on offer. Quality assessments range from one to five stars, with exceptional service rewarded with gold and silver special awards.

Inn-owners apply to be assessed for a nominal fee, and receive a visit from a mystery guest assessor who experiences all aspects of the inn according to the standards checklist.

The information is then included on the Visit England website, which is said to be one of the first ports of call for tourists visiting England. So there is an increased number of people being directed to the inn on a daily basis from the site.

Rob McCready is one of the standards assessors for G4S. Rob has been assessing inn standards for over 30 years. He has a rigorous checklist which he uses to assess the standards of all aspects of the service provided - for example cleanliness, customer care, overall service, and excellent food provision.

The assessment process is rigorous, but this is important to ensure that the award maintains a solid reputation in the industry.

"The thing I find that varies the most is hospitality and service. But we carry out a very integrated, holistic approach - and every element has to hit that rating to get the award," he says.

Rob and the other G4S assessors go to the inns as mystery guests, and experience first-hand how the inn copes with all aspects of their stay.

"We come back and give detailed written feedback on how the inn has performed in each category," he explains.

"It gives the customers more confidence when the inn has a high rating so trade should increase, and there are excellent marketing opportunities that come along with being featured by Visit England."

Steve Wilkin runs the Howard Arms in Ilmington, Warwickshire. The inn has had the coveted five-star rating from the English Tourism Council for three years, and he sees this as a good boost for business.

"We get a lot of tourists here as we're near Shakespeare country, and the Visit England