Reviews, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly...

As a hard working publican who is extremely proud of my pub and my staff, I am not one to rest on my laurels. When we first opened The Thatchers Arms it was to be the kind of pub that we would like to have as our local or to stumble across on a country walk. We don’t have any signs telling customers what they CAN’T do, we don’t have any staff (or customers for that matter) who glare at newcomers, and we always try to give people the opportunity to provide us with feedback, positive or negative. We continue to work hard and adapt, listening to our customers and hopefully improving all the time.

In general we receive good reviews on various local & national review websites. So when we receive a poor review I am naturally concerned. It often saddens me that the person who is complaining to potentially thousands of people didn’t bring the matter to my attention first. Our website is well publicised and easy to find, as is my email address and telephone number. I am the first to admit that nobody is perfect and anybody can make a mistake, but I just need to be told when we do. I am friendly, approachable & reasonable, so why do people become so reluctant to complain to my face, but feel perfectly happy to put my business, my livelihood, into disrepute over the internet.

Without being big headed, we do not often receive complaints from customers. In the past when I worked for a large pub co, the day to day running included dealing with customer complaints. I am now lucky to have excellent front of house staff and passionate chefs which means complaints are a much rarer occurrence. When we do receive poor feedback from customers we prefer to be able to deal with the problem straight away, a drink, a dessert, a free or replacement meal and sometimes just an apology and acknowledgement of their grievance is all that is needed. We will always listen to any problem and will try to accommodate any (reasonable) request to rectify it.

I don’t want to make the same mistakes over and over, and I certainly don’t want anybody to leave disappointed or unhappy. We can’t please all of the people all of the time, but we will certainly try, if only we knew what they wanted!

If you are a pub customer reading this I have spoken to many other licensees who feel the same. Before you submit that review form, just try sending us an email instead, or if you get the chance try to talk to us during your visit if you aren’t entirely happy. Gone are the days of the grizzly old landlord sat at the end of the bar, we are enthusiastic entrepreneurs eager to please. We don’t bite, honest!

Mitchel Adams