Venners Consultancy Director, Malcolm Muir, spoke at the Autumn Conference organised by Arena last week and shared some examples of potentially damaging business practices and ways to protect brand reputation.
“As the industry-leading hospitality business solution company, Venners has completed many thousands of stocktakes and compliance audits” explained Muir “and, frankly, some of the results have been frightening. Brand reputation can be affected by so many factors but it’s not just business profitability that’s on the line; staff and customer safety can be compromised by small actions, too.”
The Arena Conference reviewed different aspects of managing a brand, but Malcolm took a step back to recommend some basic compliance actions that can help companies prevent brand damage and make sure a company’s guidelines are adhered to on the front-line of the operation.
Malcolm shared some real-life examples of how some operations are run for both large-scale operations and small, individual venues. Taken from his experience of conducting a range of audits, he covered everything from food hygiene and safety to franchise and royalty, brand reputation and fraud or theft prevention. It made for uncomfortable listening, but the good news was that he also offered advice to give operators the tools to make sure this never happens to their business.
The Arena Autumn Event 2019 delved into the power of the brand in an ever-competitive market and how strong, recognisable brands are pushing boundaries to gain a competitive edge. It also focused on the importance of reputation management and recovery if a brand is damaged in some way.
According to Malcolm his team had witnessed “so many examples where a business has all the right policies in place, but they don’t translate to action in day to day operations and an occasional oversight can soon become an ongoing accepted practice. Introducing some simple compliance and review processes can make sure this risk is minimised to maintain maximum profit potential. They can also help to reduce reputational damage and the possibility of unsafe practices creeping into the business.”
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