Which brands really stood out in 2017? Who are the operators connecting with an increasingly demanding and promiscuous consumer base? MCA director of insight, Steve Gotham, takes a look at what the Eating Out Panel can tell us about the best-in-class operators and what they are getting right.

It is the time of year to look back, take stock and shine a light on those operators who are standing out and doing certain things better than others.

By naming and praising the following operators, I hope an opportunity is presented to benchmark against best practitioners and just maybe, help raise industry standards. I should add these awards are entirely unofficial, but are independent and derived from MCA’s Eating Out Panel. They are based on 85,000 UK consumer ratings of their lunch and dinner occasions over the year to November 2017, and as such, equate to a substantial and authoritative data set from which to identify star performers.

Certainly, there are no prizes for saying how 2017 will be remembered as an increasingly tough year with the highly undesirable confluence of weakening consumer demand and rising cost pressures putting a severe strain on profitability. One essential response is greater attention being paid to retaining, if not enhancing, customer loyalty. At MCA, we can assess and analyse customer loyalty in at least a couple of ways. The easiest is to use the surrogate measure of Net Promoter Score, though we can also approach it on more of a deconstructed basis that takes its lead from one long-standing definition of customer loyalty. That loyalty is simply about great food, served well in attractive surroundings. However, if I am being picky, given the challenges within the consumer economy and with more selective consumer spending, it is only right to include a value-for-money award dimension too.

Adopting a minimum qualifying consumer sample size of 50 to ensure robustness, I am delighted to highlight the following award winners:

Highest Net Promoter Score – Miller & Carter

M&B’s steakhouse brand was the deserved winner with a NPS of 57. This was the second year running the brand has achieved a dinner score over 50 and is the only eating-out brand to do this. Special commendation should also go to Ask Italian and to Bill’s for seeing significant NPS improvements year on year.

Highest Food Quality/Taste Rating – smaller chains: Café Rouge and Farmhouse Inns; larger chains: Nando’s

It is difficult to pick out a clear winner on Food Quality/Taste because there is a lot of competition and very close ratings at the top of the leader board. This explains the decision to split the award in two, and have a category based on smaller chains with a minimum consumer response of 50, and a separate award for larger brands with a minimum sample of over 500. Tied in first place at dinner with scores of 8.8 out of 10 were Café Rouge (Casual Dining Group) and Farmhouse Inns (Greene King), while very close behind with 8.7 was Nando’s. I suspect the former two brand winners might surprise a few readers, but perhaps are worth a reappraisal visit at some point soon. The Café Rouge business has certainly been the focus of much greater management attention in recent years. Regarding Farmhouse Inns and, without wishing to take anything away from its honest approach to great traditional pub food, it is likely to benefit to an extent, from some kinder marking from its more provincial customer following. By contrast, one just has to sit back and admire Nando’s for being consistently good at what it does and for keeping its youthful audience impressed.

Most Friendly Customer Service Award – local pub; Commended – Sizzling Pubs and TGI Fridays

I will be honest and say that I have been caught in two minds on this one. The winner from a highest rating perspective is the local pub. For sure though, this is influenced by the deep reservoir of consumer goodwill towards their local that might just remove some sharper objectivity. Personally, I am getting slightly disappointed by the diminishing occasions when I am bid a farewell from pubs these days. I can understand it more in food-led pubs, but in wet-led? So this has resulted in my decision to include a couple of admired friendly service chains, and here, praise should be bestowed upon Sizzling Pubs and TGI Fridays.

Fastest Customer Service Award – Greggs

Great customer service is clearly not just all about engagement and friendliness, particularly at lunchtime, when speed and efficiency are more important. Putting the fast-food giants to shame, the winner here is Greggs. With votes in from 2,500 consumers, Greggs’ highest rating shows it is on top of this critical business competence. What’s more, this is accompanied by a friendliness rating that places this northern charmer in joint 10th highest position among branded operators.

Most Attractive Atmosphere/Environment Award – Bill’s

Benefiting from its roots as a produce retailer, Bill’s has skilfully kept alive a sense of its founding virtues with its differentiated and merchandise-led, interior designs in its restaurants. In the process, Bill’s has been a leader in helping to blur foodservice/retail boundaries and has shown what an attractive cross-fertilisation can achieve, particularly, in older and more architecturally interesting buildings.

Best Value-For-Money Award – Toby Carvery and Wetherspoon

Despite this award being open to all operators across the foodservice landscape, pub chains dominate the top honours. Toby Carvery and JD Wetherspoon lead a chasing pack of rival managed pub businesses that includes the likes of Brewers Fayre, Crown Carveries, Fayre & Square and Marston’s. Clearly not all of these brands have long-term futures (or particularly strong profit margins) and this underlines the challenges of balancing top and bottom-line growth in volume-led businesses. However, without a clear sense of value for money, consumers will take their money elsewhere. Brands that maybe have neglected this in the past, but which are taking corrective action and which are receiving significant customer recognition for doing so, include All Bar One and Frankie & Benny’s. Both brands might have more work to do, but in terms of year-on-year highest climbers, look no further.

So there you have it, many congratulations to all the winners highlighted and commended. No prizes I am afraid, just industry kudos and perhaps, some internal backslapping. Of course, the focus thus far has all been about consumer research and recognition; next time, the scrutiny will shift to stand-out companies within MCA’s other insight products, in particular our Operator Data Index and Menu Tracker.

However, whether the term ‘winner’ is most appropriate for the operator putting their menu prices up/down the most, or indeed, expanding outlets at the fastest rate, is more debatable. Either way, it will certainly be valuable insight.

■ Steve Gotham is MCA’s director of insight

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