Partner Article

Opportunities for hospitality businesses in late 2016

Back in early 2016 the British Hospitality Association published their annual report into leadership in the hospitality sector and, as you’d expect, there was a lot of uncertainty prior to the Brexit vote. But we’re now in a post Brexit world, and I don’t think things are any clearer.

Just last week news sites reported that there may still be an MP vote on the final Brexit decision, which will follow in the wake of the negotiations that are just starting to take place. If this is the case, we may be facing many more months of uncertainty as to Britain’s future. The question that leaders have to ask themselves is how they can best navigate this uncertainty which looks set to continue far beyond its use-by date.

Working harder at growth

One of the points raised in the report was the recognition that ‘growth will be more gradual and harder to achieve’. With economic uncertainty set to continue, hospitality businesses can’t expect people to suddenly start splashing cash again.

Another interesting trend to look at alongside the growth issue is that of diminishing brand loyalty. The leaders of big hospitality businesses feel threatened by smaller, local businesses that are in a position to innovate and offer customers a more personal experience.

Both of these trends tie into the perception that customers are spending more money less often. This means that it’s more important than ever to make yourself appealing to one off customers and to do what you can to encourage people to return. This does mean that businesses will have to work a little harder, and will have to make sure that they’re not dropping the ball when it comes to customer satisfaction.

Embracing tech

I mentioned customer satisfaction because it has never before been more important. Gone are the days when an unhappy customer could do no more than tell their friends about their bad experience with your business - now the whole world could see a bad review that the unhappy customer posts online.

Online reviews are not a new thing for the second half of 2016, but the extent to which they are visible online is increasing, even to the point of featuring prominently in search results before the customer has seen anything else.

Hospitality businesses can help themselves in a couple of ways. The most obvious is to really push a customer-first culture that encourages staff to make sure that every individual customer is valued and given the best service possible - most businesses should be doing something like this already.

Hospitality businesses should also be encouraging happy customers to leave good reviews. If there’s a place on your website that customers can post reviews and you can respond to them, that’s ideal, but really you just need your customers to write somewhere. That way, their positive reviews are the ones that will appear in front of potential customers.

Technology undoubtedly represents a challenge to the hospitality industry, as many leaders in the report said, but it’s also an opportunity to grow customer loyalty and attract new customers at the same time.

Offering a personal experience

The enduring takeaway from the report is that bigger businesses are worried about smaller, local businesses undercutting them. If people are looking to spend more money less often, they want that experience to be as special as possible, and smaller businesses have the flexibility and the personality to do that in a way that many chain restaurants can’t. I think that small business owners should see this time as a chance to gain an advantage over bigger rivals with some smart, entrepreneurial thinking.

For all hospitality businesses, it’s crystal clear that the customer has to be prioritised. This is old news, but it’s still true. With customers spending money more carefully and sharing their experiences in a very public way, businesses of all sizes need to consider how they treat the customer, and how they keep their customers coming back. If your business can get this right, then even in the tough environment of late 2016 it could be set to succeed.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Charles Reilly .