Robinsons to use mystery visit results to train and develop licensees

The scheme employs regular pub visitors as ‘agents’, paying them £15 to visit their pubs and provide feedback on a range of items such as bar service, initial impressions and roadside appeal, which they then upload online.

The agents choose which locations they are happy to travel to, and how often they wish to partake. 

Robinsons plan to work closely with licensees after receiving feedback, and directly target areas of improvement. The company has a new £3m training centre to implement these changes.

“Working with drinks suppliers is the next phase to develop services and standards courses which can be delivered in the training centre or in the pub,” said director of marketing David Bremner.

“What we get at the end is real feedback from target customers, as the website weights the positive and negative feedback, enabling us to address areas of excellence or concern,”

This means Robinsons can quickly deal with particularly low-scoring pubs. They hope each pub can be visited three times a year by an agent, so they can compare and track an individual pub’s progress. 

The scheme has also provided unplanned promotional benefits for the company, as the agents often turn their ‘mission’ into a social outing.

“Customers going into our pubs as agents often bring friends and family with them, and spend far more than the £15 fee the agent receives,” said Bremner.

Robinsons eventually hope the scheme can grow into an award programme.