Learnings from the off-trade

We bid a fond farewell to our Senior Insight Manager, Laurence Brown , last week as he moves on to new pastures. KAM was his first foray into the wonderful world of Hospitality so we asked him to reflect on the last two years, including what he thinks the hospitality industry can learn from grocery retail and the importance of stepping outside the industry bubble once in a while...

1. "We take this industry for granted?– both hospitality and grocery retail are such important sectors to everyone in the UK and the work that goes into getting them both right and attracting as many customers as possible is so unseen. We all visit supermarkets, but from working on 特易购公司 Clubcard in my former role at dunnhumby , I got an insight into why certain products are where they are, why something is on promotion and why customers get sent the discounts that they do. This is no different in hospitality, where although the reliance on data may be different (will come on to this), the care and passion for providing a brilliant experience to customers has been so evident to me. Whether those efforts are focused on the décor, the menu or the brilliant staff training, the time and effort to achieve success has been great to see from so many of the clients we have worked with in my time at KAM Insight . We, within hospitality, know this, and we reward this through the many events and awards, but I’d like the wider population to understand just how hard people in hospitality work to give us all the experiences that they do.
2. Decision making (data vs no data)?– this has been the biggest difference between retail and hospitality for me and if any of you have been unlucky enough to get caught talking to me at events, I apologise for that 5 minutes of data-chat, and you may want to skip to point 3. It was the first thing I noticed when I joined KAM; the number of decisions made by hospitality businesses based on little to no data; decisions made because “this is how it has always been done”. Coming from a world of customer-led decision-making (essentially loyalty card data), which was the key pillar to everything at 特易购公司 , to a world where it carried little weight was somewhat surprising. There are three obvious reasons for this; (1) a lack of data to make decisions with, (2) there are many pubs, bars and restaurants as opposed to a few big grocery retailers, so getting a full picture of the customer is more difficult and finally (3) the lack of expertise in the form of insight or category teams. I would, however, say that I believe this has started to change in the last few years. The level of interest in making decisions using data from the likes of Rosa's Thai , Greene King , Hall & Woodhouse Ltd , Arc Inspirations Manahatta and NQ64 Arcade Bars LTD , to name just a few, has certainly increased and that can only be a positive for the sector. A big thumbs up to the likes of Victoria Searl at DataHawks , Olivia FitzGerald at Feed It Back , Mark Bentley at Hospitality Data Insights (HDI) , Karl Chessell at CGA by NIQ and many others for championing this too!
3. Understanding the customer?– The third difference that I noticed between retail and hospitality is linked to my point around data- in hospitality, the focus is on customer demographics rather than behaviours. Don’t get me wrong, brands within grocery retail also look at demographics, but they focus more on behaviours. Questions like what shopping mission are they on, how often do they visit, what else are they buying, where else are they shopping etc are far more important than the age/geographic location. Looking at the data from a behavioural perspective allows retail to understand customers in more depth- if they like having barbecues, if they only use this shop for a top up or they love making cocktails, say. These details allow communication and offers to be far more impactful than just knowing the age of a customer, or when their birthday is. This doesn’t mean these elements need to be ignored, but looking at customers through a behavioural lens could help venues move away from saying that their venue is ‘for 25-35 year old young professional’ for example, to understanding the occasions that the customer visits for, the group size or favourite drink and food combo!
4. The human element?– When I joined KAM in early 2022 there were still a lot of references to the impact of Covid and lockdown, and although I had missed going to the pub and eating out, I certainly hadn’t appreciated the magnitude of the effect the pandemic had on those within the Hospitality sector. In grocery retail, we were swamped and from a professional side, inundated with requests to understand what was going and on and who was buying what products. When things got back to ‘normal’ one of the positives for me was the appreciation of the role of human interaction in a positive hospitality experience. As grocery retail grows online channels, scan and shop, and self-serve, the human interaction we get in other walks of life is all the more impactful. There is no replacement for brilliant service in hospitality, it can make (and break) a great experience. This is something I've seen in KAM Insight data, with the growing importance of staff recommendations and staff being an integral reason why people choose a venue over another (and decide to come back.) Without a doubt, people are what make the experience and the sector what it is.?

The people are what I have loved most about hospitality, so much so that I am deciding to stay in the sector. Going to all the events/trade shows at the start it was clear to see what a brilliant industry it is to work in, given the friendships and willingness to share best practices (another huge difference between grocery and hospitality) with each other."

More KAM Insights...

KAM infographic | Staff Impact

Staff can play a vital role in influencing what guests choose to eat - 1-in-3 guests like hearing staff recommendations (across all ages) but not many are giving them! Check out our latest infographic from?our Plan to Plate research , done in partnership with? Paytronix / NFS Hospitality .

Presentation | Learnings from Beyond?Hospitality

At our recent Low+No event, Lou Pollitt , Category & Insight Director at?Lucky Saint? shared what we can learn by looking beyond the UK on-trade when it comes to delivering a great alcohol-free offer. Well worth a listen . All panels from the event are available via the KAM?Knowledge Hub .

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