What sets you apart from the crowd?

When it comes to buying a pub ‘location location location’ has always been a key consideration and you will often pay a premium for a pub in a town or city centre with a high footfall.

But what happens once you’ve secured that location? You find you’re up against strong competition from pubs and bars that also have a great location.

We are discovering a unique offer can make or break a city or town-centre opening. Offering something different can ensure they come through the door. Also if you hit all the hot spots: the offer, presentation and customer service, you can guarantee they will return.

One of the biggest issues the industry faces is staff turnover, regulars to an establishment will always appreciate good service, particularly if it’s from a familiar, friendly face. So how can you retain your staff?

Whether the offering sets you apart — such as a particular type of food, range of drinks, a microbrewery on-site or sports offer — empowering your staff and making them part of the brand is essential. Often, companies spend significant money acquiring a new site but the capex investment can go to waste in a short period of time — the honeymoon period can be short lived — if the staff aren’t motivated.

Indeed, our experience looking at P&L accounts often shows an upturn in profit after a revamp of a location, only to find that customer retention can drop off quickly, solely due to customer service.

It’s all very well having a wonderful location and a unique and exciting offering to set you apart from the crowd but if your customer service is lacking, you won’t get the customers through the door. The rise in social media and feedback websites such as TripAdvisor and OpenTable can have a great impact on return customers.

To empower your staff and ensure they buy into the brand ethos, they need to be allowed to take the journey of building the brand with you.

A fantastic example I recently saw was through one of our clients: Brewhouse & Kitchen. Owner Kris Gumbrell has set up a microbrewery in five of its seven current locations and each one has a on-site brewer.

The brewer not only looks after the production of craft beer, they run ‘experience days’ and masterclasses for customers to get involved in the brewing process, but most importantly the brewer is on hand, often behind the bar, to chat about the craft beers.

The company is seeing customers returning because of the staff, who know about craft beer — their unique offering.

Whether it’s a busy town or city location or a destination pub, your staff have the ability to make or break an establishment and by allowing your staff to become involved means your success is also theirs — something for everyone to be proud of.

Neil Morgan is director and national head of pubs and restaurants at Christie + Co​