Greene King reveals new mystery guest policy

Greene King’s tenanted and leased arm has teamed up with HospitalityGEM to produce a guide for licensees on the new service that includes how to interpret new reports and use them to improve their business.

The new, easier-to-read reports are designed help licensees learn more from mystery guest visits and will focus on the pubs that will benefit most from the feedback.

Sites are marked on environment, service, product range, price and communication by using a red/amber/green system and results are combined for a total visit score.

Honesty

Managing director of Greene King Pub Partners Clive Chesser said: “For our licensees to maximise the value of a mystery guest programme, honesty is the best policy. Through HospitalityGEM, we are providing licensees with much deeper feedback than before about their pubs because the devil is in the detail."

Chesser added he was sure licensees will “embrace the high quality of the feedback” and they would work on improving their scores for future visits.

Case study

One pub that has put the new service into practice is the Masons Arms in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, and licensee Sean Driscoll said: “We have had our first survey with HospitalityGEM and I did notice it was a bit more thorough and detailed than we have got before."

He explained he was happy with the report and thinks Greene King's provision of the service is a “good barometer for what the pub is doing and it puts the staff on their toes a bit”.

He added: “Sometimes the biggest things that come up are the simple things, like not up-selling. It was pointed out the staff did not ask about guests whether they wanted desserts or coffees as they took the meal plates away. Nine times out of 10 people may say ‘no’ but you always have to ask."

Driscoll described the information provided as very useful and positive, and said it gives him insight into the pub for the occasions where he isn’t there.

Partnership

Managing director of HospitalityGEM Steven Pike said the company had enjoyed working with the pubco in taking objectives and framing the experience of customers they would like to help licensees achieve.

He added: “We have felt like a partner, rather than a supplier, and this adds to our determination to continually evolve the programme as a useful resource to pubs and area managers.

“The quality and usefulness of our work is everything to us. We look forward to growing our relationship with Greene King Pub Partners and to playing our part to helping them to stand out on the high street.”