A major UK pub chain transforms their customer service with MRI Evolution

A major pub chain overseeing 2500 properties across the country partnered with a major FM Service Provider and chose MRI Evolution to increase efficiencies in their FM operations.

Working within an ever-changing market, the chain manages a rapidly-changing portfolio of pubs and bars, requiring robust processes to ensure a smooth service. The delivery of high-quality maintenance, planning and project work has become a key priority, both to meet the higher expectations for this type of establishment and to carry out a schedule of upgrade and improvement works to existing properties.

Business Challenge

The pub chain’s tenant surveys were reporting widespread dissatisfaction with customer service processes, with maintenance a particular issue. Common complaints related to inadequate triage of issues, meaning that the wrong contractors were being sent to deal with maintenance issues, reducing the number of first-time fixes. This also led to an increase in incidences of properties being forced to stop trading temporarily as a result of maintenance issues. This was frustrating for tenants as well as causing increased maintenance expenditure to the pub due to unnecessary repeat deployments of maintenance staff. Customers also reported a lack of communication around the progress of their maintenance requests.

After reviewing the existing technology platform of 12 years, the FM Service Provider identified several issues with data accuracy and consistency and recognised that this was a significant bottleneck to performance. With a goal to ensure maintenance requests were fixed on the first contact, the team went to market for a technology-driven help desk for planned and reactive maintenance.

The Solution

After an in-depth procurement process, the team selected MRI Evolution to manage the pub chain’s planned and reactive tasks, compliance certification, portfolio and service delivery. After a rapid mobilisation and migration process, the team launched their MRI Evolution implementation in June 2022.

The project had a complex requirement with a high level of customisation, with the need to migrate in a very condensed timeframe due to the expiry of the existing product. MRI Software provided support all the way through the project which ensured a timely and successful delivery.

Customised Data and Workflows

In close collaboration with MRI, the FM Service Provider team developed a series of customised workflows to incorporate a complex triage process, identifying the root cause of maintenance issues to ensure that the correct parts, contractors and jobs are specified, maximising the likelihood of a first-time fix.

The platform was also customised to align different types of service requests against the business’s various lease agreement types, enabling help desk operators to quickly and efficiently identify where the responsibility lies for an individual tenant’s specific maintenance issue without needing to refer back to contracts or lease documents.

The solution also includes a system of prioritisation, ensuring that issues that risk closing a venue are dealt with first, as well as ensuring compliance with licencing laws and health and safety are maintained across the portfolio.

Access to data

For the client, it’s vitally important to ensure that tenancies are sustained wherever possible, as finding and onboarding new tenants is costly. Since many tenants leaving pubs stated that customer service around property management was a factor in their decision to end the tenancy, improving satisfaction in this area was a critical priority.

To improve tenant engagement, the pub chain launched their customer portal, based on the MRI @yourService app. With this portal, lessees can access information on their lease, account status, and maintenance logs on demand, ensuring transparency for customers and increased efficiency for customer service operatives.

With the integration between the customer portal and MRI Evolution, property managers can now access maintenance data, allowing for a more efficient and streamlined management operation, which in turn provides a better experience for customers.

Integration

Thanks to MRI’s open and connected architecture, data collected and managed within MRI Evolution can be accessed via the FM Service Provider’s own Avant system in real-time and utilised within their custom-built reporting and analytical dashboard.

With transparency of this kind, both parties can be fully informed of the business’s status and ensure that risks of non-compliance or poor customer service are minimised.

A collaborative process

Since the launch, the team at MRI have been working in close collaboration with the service providers to ensure that MRI Evolution continues to adapt to the client’s changing requirements.