This article will provide a brief overview about the concept of hospitality industry and in particular the pub industry, the problems faced by this industry and importance of marketing to ensure customer satisfaction and business growth.

The pub has an incredibly long evolutionary history. In older times, analysts suggest that the concept of this industry was initially known as the tavern. Which was almost always a combination of a public house that served food and drinks and provided accommodation.

However in modern era the terminology of ‘Hospitality Industry’ has diverged into hotels, pubs, night clubs, restaurants, hostels, B&B’s and any combination of these services. Those businesses provide services such as accommodation, food, and beverages to locals and travelers seeking pleasure as well as those who travel due to business reasons. Moreover it is argued that to some extend components of leisure industry such as cruise ships restaurants and to some lesser degree airlines are also considered part of hospitality industry as well.

Though the pub industry is assumed to be in ever lasting demand there are certain problems that this industry regularly faces. These problems may include uncertainty to the costs of even most economic source of energy, increased trend of problems in maintaining profitable food and beverage facilities, comparatively more increase in labor costs as compared to productivity, customer dissatisfaction and more importantly very high competition that potentially induces heavy price cuts to survive.

Keeping these factors in mind, in particular customer’s dissatisfaction and profit reduction, some industry experts asserts that the pub industry historically did not realize the importance of marketing. Some business in this sector, along with neglecting marketing and spreading the word about there business, also have become so focused on increasing profit margins that they forgot the essence of industry; that is, ‘customer oriented service’. Customer services is a vital part of marketing as pubs and night clubs rely heavily on word of mouth marketing to survive.

The success of a pub and how well it manages to attract and keep customers is directly related to the level of customer service provided by that business. Before the consideration of more sophisticated methods of marketing, such as social media, local radio and newspaper etc. Initial focus should be placed on the customer experience.

Once customer services is being handled at a high standard then the business can turn its attention to other proven forms of marketing.

If you are looking for stock taking advice for your hospitality business, Synergy Stocktaking can cater for your needs.

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