Customers should not have a reduced customer experience because your pub isn’t prepared, you need to ensure that you’ve hired sufficient staff and provide training for staff to better deal with customer queries.You may wish to consider providing incentives to staff to keep them working to the best of their ability and treat customers well and keep them well informed of the situation at all times. Take advantage of this opportunity by focussing your efforts on providing first class customer service and nurturing customer relationships; you’ll more than likely turn those customers into ones that not only return, but recommend your business to others.
Music To Mine Ears
Simon Lorriman from Open Ear Music had this to say on LinkedIn: “Something no-one has mentioned is music. Get the music right and your customers will stay longer and spend more. Get it wrong and they will leave and tell their friends/family which is negative PR.”
“For a lot of businesses I speak to music isn’t really on their priority list but when they think of all the investment and time spent getting the business right in all aspects from location, name, design, interiors, food/drink offerings, branding to staff training and a customer leaves/doesn’t return because they got the music wrong, then it is on the priority list.”
Top Tip – ‘Inappropriate, noisy or irritating music will see 44% of customers leave a business, and 38% of those will never come back’ (Source: J. Lusensky, UK Consumer study).
You need to understand how music impacts on the customer experience and their ensuing spending to help you avoid an inferior music selection over “the holidays” Open Ear Music run an Anti-Bad Xmas Music campaign by giving away free playlists of current and classic Christmas music known to work in bars, cafes and restaurants. So even if you don’t opt for one of their streamed music packages you could at least adopt one of their free playlists and avoid irritating your customers with “inappropriate” music.
And Finally …
The ‘holiday season’ can be the busiest trading period of a pub’s calendar and with so many people in the pub (many who seldom visit at other times of the year) the potential for difficult situations to arise is greatly increased. Make sure you have briefed your staff on how to minimise or deal with ‘trouble’ if it occurs. See the separate article on Managing Conflict In Your Pub.
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