Since When Did “Book it online” Count as Service?
A few weeks ago, I had an extremely frustrating experience that left me wondering what’s happened to hospitality.
It was a friend’s birthday coming up, and I wanted to book an area for her drinks. Simple, right? On my way home from a meeting, I popped into the pub we’d chosen to celebrate in. I wanted to book the space and ask for a specific area - the birthday girl’s choice.
I walked in, it wasn’t busy, and asked the person behind the bar if I could book an area.
Her response? “You’ll need to book online.”
I asked if I could request a specific area. “You’ll need to book online.”
I asked if I could leave my details. “Easier to book online.”
Argh. Easier for who?
When did we stop caring about our guests? When did we start watching money walk out of the building? When did we stop providing hospitality that makes people feel special AND grows our sales?
Even if the event had to be handled by a central bookings team or the manager, the person behind the bar could have taken my contact details, asked what the occasion was, which area we’d like, what drinks or food we might want ready on arrival. Maybe even a cake. But nothing.
So I booked the area on line as instructed (birthday girls choice, remember) and instead, I got an auto message last week saying “It’s time to pre-order your drinks and food.”
Double argh.
The pre-arrival stage of the guest journey is a massive motivator. It’s where guest confidence starts, and it’s where we decide if the experience will be worth our time. That initial contact matters. And right now, I don’t feel confident that it’s going to be a good experience because of those first impressions.
Research tells us people want more personalised experiences - so where is that here? And research also tells us that we are going out less, so we feel the pressure to make our nights out count.
Anyone who’s worked with me knows how hard I’ve worked over the years to make sure every guest feels valued and seen. This experience? I’d be jumping up and down about it if it were my team.
Who’s following up on this stuff? Who’s doing the test-and-learn bookings to make sure things are working as they should? Who’s instilling that hunter-gatherer instinct in sales teams - that natural drive to win business and make people feel good while doing it?
And where’s the training for area managers, helping them focus not just on hitting a pre-booked sales target (triple argh), but on the quality of every single enquiry?
I get that bookings and events can be complicated, but effectively telling me that my visit was wasted isn’t great service.
The last business I ran, 40% of our sales were pre-booked, and at Christmas, it went up to 80%. We worked at it. Pre-booked sales are banked money, and they help us run businesses profitably.
So why do we continue to underinvest in this area? I’d love to know.
And yes, I can hear your argument - “but our pre-booked sales are up year on year.” Maybe so. But don’t let that stop you looking for the opportunities that are being missed.
Rant over.
