Looking at your business with fresh eyes
How often do you take a really good look at your whole business? I mean a really good look. Be honest…
Well, now’s the time. After the hustle and bustle of Christmas and (hopefully) a well-deserved break, January is the best time to take a look at your business with fresh eyes and set yourself up for success for 2025.
Understanding the challenges
We know 2025 is going to be a tough year for costs with the rise in minimum wage and NI contributions and Business Rates Relief being capped at 40% happening alongside general increases. But it’s not all bad news. We are seeing more stability in food and energy prices, and there are signs that consumers are increasing their leisure spending.
Before you set your strategy for the year, do the maths on how upcoming changes will impact your business specifically so you can play around with scenarios which might work for you.
Elevating the customer experience
Good Lord if there is one expression that sums up business in recent years, it’s Customer Experience. We wouldn’t blame you for being utterly sick of the phrase.
But, like it or not, all the evidence shows that if people are going to part with their hard-earned money whilst experiencing their own budgets being squeezed, they want to walk away feeling like leaving the house was worth the money.
Especially with so many quality in-home alternatives available (Deliveroo…Dine in for £10…meal kits…cheap supermarket booze…).
So, how do you ensure a good experience? It’s two-fold:
– Make what you’re offering as good as it can be
– Make the customer journey as efficient and smooth as possible
We’ll take them in turn.
What are you offering?
Food and beverages
F&B, like everything else, experiences fashion highs and lows. Are you tapping into what’s hot and what’s not?
The wider experience
Consumers increasingly seek unique, engaging dining or pub experiences in addition to quality food and drink. Can you offer something memorable?:
– The number one most popular outing for the younger generations involves competitive socialising. You don’t have to deck out the full immersive experience, classics like darts competitions and quizzes are enjoying a big comeback!
– Pubs traditionally sat at the heart of the community. Recreate that by hosting community events – especially in your quieter times. Parish county meetings, mums groups, hobbyists all need somewhere to get together.
– Theme nights persist in popularity for a reason. Partner with a local restaurant, guest host an up-and-coming local chef ‘pop up’ style or work with one of our amazing food and beverage suppliers to create a specialist cuisine or wine pairing evening like this one.
– According to Feed It Back, daytime celebrations proved as popular as evening ones over Christmas and the trend looks to continue. Consider hosting live entertainment for brunch or lunch instead of sticking to the usual bands of an evening.
– Fast food is HUGE at the moment and we know there is no shortage of delivery partners to work with. Make sure you follow the golden rules and this could offer a brand new revenue stream.
The customer journey
By understanding all the interactions your visitors have with your business you can optimise each step.
Finding and shortlisting your venue
With 77% of customers checking out your website before visiting, they really do need to be able to find you online!
If you’ve already got an online presence, January is the time to check your accounts over, updating info and refreshing your profiles.
If you don’t, then this has got to be one of your biggest priorities for 2025! You can check out our guide on the basics here and if you really don’t know where to start, our partners at Inapub offer a fantastic starter package from £350.
Once customers have found a few options, they’ll shortlist based on what matters to them in particular so your website and core content needs to cover the full range of selection factors, making it really easy for customers to find ALL the information:
Committing to a booking and the pre-arrival experience
Booking online has taken over from calling to make a reservation as the preferred method amongst consumers. This means that, like it or not, if you don’t offer online booking, you ARE missing out on customers.
In fact, according to our new partners, KuulSeats, (who offer a simple to use platform at an entirely flat monthly fee by the way), online booking sees your revenue increase by up to 20%.
Your online service should also check in with customers ahead of their visit, allowing them to cancel at the click of a button if needed (reducing that 14% no show rate) and making the customer feel like you value their visit. On this though, nothing compares to a phone call to confirm, welcome and double check any special requests or requirements.
Arrival, service, departure and follow up
We won’t cover the whole customer journey here, but you certainly should!. A few things to think about: 
Obviously you know your customers better than anyone, but if sales are down it might be worth trying something new. The key is the ‘fresh eyes’ element. Customer demands and the whole landscape of the sector changes so quickly, you have to adapt if you want your business to weather cost increases.
If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done, You’ll Always Get What You’ve Always Got.
Henry Ford