Paddy Purcell, Head of Customer Data & Analytics, Greene King
Founded in 1799, Greene King is the UK’s leading pub company and brewer. It operates 2,600 pubs, restaurants and hotels across England, Wales and Scotland, of which approximately 1,600 are retail pubs, restaurants and hotels, and 1,000 are tenanted and leased pubs. Its leading retail brands include Hungry Horse, Farmhouse Inns and Chef & Brewer. Its industry-leading ale portfolio includes Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Abbot Ale, Ice Breaker, and Belhaven Best.
Greene King’s goal is to be the pride of British hospitality, famous for outstanding customer experiences. They want to build meaningful relationships with their customers, creating personalised communications that connect in the moments that matter, making every guest feel like a regular.
Greene King aspires to make every guest feel like a regular each time they visit one of their pubs. Sadly, like many retail businesses, they were badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Due to Government-enforced closures, foot traffic to pubs and restaurants was very low to non-existent. Even upon re-opening, restrictions on the numbers of customers took their toll. Ways of working changed drastically.
Greene King had to re-evaluate what it knew about its customers – across all brands. The company needed to gain a better understanding of customer behaviour in our ‘new normal’ world in order to drive better marketing and business decisions.