As part of Reputation’s recent Transform 25 event, customers were on-hand to talk about the changing customer landscape and how platforms like Reputation can improve business outcomes. Representing the charming St. Austell Brewery, Amy Walters, head of pub marketing and guest experience was on hand to explain how technology can have an impact even when it comes to pie-and-a-pint night at a Cornish local.
Where does AI and technology fit in around a brewery and pub operator?
Hospitality is at its heart a business around the human connection. St Austell manages 45 pubs and has around 120 at least tenanted. And then there’s our brewery and award winning beer brands, with a third part as our wholesale business. What’s been really important for us in our kind of journey, particularly through the guest experience, is our positioning. That’s around making sure that the experience and the human connection is still very much at the heart of our experience, but for any business today, that revolves about data and technology,
It’s how we can layer that technology up to make the business improvement, to learn more. So I think we’re hugely focussing on experience, but we are using data and insight more than ever to learn more about our guests and to enable us to tweak the experiences that they’re receiving. To improve them, to make them more aligned to what our customers are looking for.
Do you think the pub is place where customers come to get away from their technology?
I think there’s a huge amount of adoption of technology. You know, from all of our guests that are visiting us and we do have an order and payout for our outdoor seating, which guests can utilise.
But I guess from our point of view in our pubs, we’re not necessarily placing in technology at the heart of the experiences. We used to underpin it and support it.
So, yeah, we talk a lot about getting this black and white basics right and that’s where the data feeds in. And actually, it’s then up to our teams to add the colour, to add the experience because that’s why they’re there. That’s the human connection piece and that’s what our guests want.
We might take a little bit of the interaction out, if they do order through an app, for example, but actually it’s how that team member then brings their order to the table, the interaction that they have that then encourages them to hopefully have another drink with us and stay a little longer.
How can you track those interactions between staff and customer in the busy pub environment?
So last year, we launched a big focus on our guests. We essentially relaunched our guest strategy at the beginning of 2024 across our managed estate. Part of that was articulating what those specific touch points should be. What that enabled us to do was realise there could be up to 99 ways customers could engage with a team member in the pub. We’ve managed to shrink that down to what we consider to be the most important and the most impactful for our guests, and we can then track that through reputation.
So, in terms of looking for key terms on the guest journey on the platform. We can use it to build up data through our mystery visit programme. Actually, you know, what’s really interesting about how we’ve used mystery visits is we’ve moved away from the more traditional, are the toilets clean issues? The more functional bits, so now our mystery visit report is all about how did you feel through your interaction exactly? What was the overall ambience of the pub?
We are using those data points to measure our teams on how they’re delivering that and their engagement with those different ways of working.
How are you using AI in any of these processes?
It’s really interesting actually, hearing about the developments around reputation management from the event today. I think we’re probably still at our infancy in terms of how St. Austell is using that as a businesses.
I know a lot of businesses, you in the room that I’ve just been with are. I guess what’s really interesting for me is using it to glimmer those kind of the bigger trends around what the industry’s doing, what do our guest what do our guests want on a local level, but actually what a guests want on more of, I guess, an international global level? What are the big trends and how we can use that to then inform what we’re doing. But yeah, I’d also probably, in our infancy with that, but it’s something that, you know, as a business we’re always looking at, how we can, you know, support new technologies.
And what’s St. Austell’s history with reputation management?
So, I joined the business in 2021 and I think reputation had been brought in just before COVID, so that was brought in 2020. The first year was pretty much about just getting the basics right. We had a lot of work to do in terms of education within our team and why it was important.
But I’d say over the last two, three years we’ve really hit our stride. We were proud last year, so we ended 2024 with the highest reputation score in Europe for any industry. The Mason’s Arms in Branscombe, Devon had a phenomenal score of 949 out of 1,000.
That’s probably a reflection of how much the teams have engaged and got behind it. But what’s been really important is that we’ve been using it to drive improvement, not just chase the number because what’s really important is the experience that underpins it.
Customers are moving from search AI to plan their days, their trips. How do you kind of get inside of that?
I think it’s about making sure that we’re showing up in the digital world in a really positive, strong way, and I think it’s making sure that we are engaging positively with our reviews, that there’s lots of really rich review data on platforms.
Our teams actively encourage our guests to leave reviews when they’ve visited us. So that’s, I guess, one part of it. And the other part of it is ensuring our websites, our social media, making sure that’s all kept up to date. That’s the basis for the inspiration pieces and stories about why you’d come to the south west for a holiday and where to stay.
Creating that content that that’s there for the AI platforms to write their versions using our venues and feedback from customers for our future guests.
And what sort of trends and data does your AI absorb?
So at the moment, for example, we’ve got a spritz list that’s launched in our managed estate and proven really popular, thanks to the recent beautiful weather in the UK. Another huge major trend in terms of no-to-low alcohol drinks is coming through (subtle promo for Proper Job 0.5 IPA). So that’s an award-winning beer that’s come to that category that we can track its social success.
In terms of our customers, we’re using their feedback data to understand what the guests are looking for so we can bring more of that to the mix. And it’s understanding what’s next in the market. That’s the kind of trend we can look for and make sure that we’re getting on top of.
We’re focused on the guest experience and reputation, which is the connection to the pubs and the drinks, I think the really key thing for us has been using the Reputation platform to drive positive change within the business. I think it’s been a real cultural shift. As I said, it hasn’t been about chasing numbers or chasing five star reviews. That’s not what this is about.
It’s about delivering a really consistent and authentic experience for guests. And that’s what has been at the heart of us then adopting Reputation and using that within our teams. Through our guest touch points what’s key is the importance of those little interactions, so a “hello and goodbye”, for example. And I think you can sometimes underestimate the importance of those initial touch points terms of the greeting and then the goodbye.
And I think any feedback we received around that area has really helped solidify what an authentic pub experience should be and how our teams can deliver that.