Rewarding excellence in UK private companies
Spotlight on The Inn Collection Group
When you’re running a business, how do you hold a mirror up to your brand while you’re busy navigating hurdles and competing for customers? As a leader, how do you find the time?
One way is through the UK Best Managed Companies programme presented by Deloitte. Recognising private businesses and family enterprises as the backbone of the UK economy, we’re helping organisations from across sectors and industries to become the best they can be. That means challenging leadership teams, benchmarking businesses against their peers and spotlighting examples of excellence.
For the past two years, the Newcastle-based Inn Collection Group has been named among our annual winners. With its origins in the North of England and Wales, its goal is to reach right across the UK – without sacrificing the qualities that are loved locally.
Helping the brand travel
Situated in popular countryside, city and coastal spots, the company’s 32 properties range from large inns to pubs at the heart of communities.
As CEO Joe Bernhoeft explains: “Our culture has some lovely Northern aspects to it and we’re really proud of that, but a lot of the population don’t know us at all. To help our brand travel, we need to make it accessible to lots more people.”
Entrants in the Best Managed Companies programme have the opportunity to join a ‘lab’, where Deloitte experts review areas of the business and offer their perspectives. They also receive feedback from an independent panel of judges. For The Inn Collection Group, this helped to reset its vision and values and refocus its digital ambitions to better understand its customer base, enabling the company to provide a more personalised customer experience.
“For us, digital transformation is rooted in two critical aspects: the systems you use and how you leverage your data to talk to customers about the things they care about,” continues Joe. “We have to make those things as simple, intuitive and frictionless as possible for both our customers and our team.”
“We want to be the UK’s most loved collection of inns. The UK: it’s two small letters but it’s a big ambition, so we need to create a culture and customer experience that can travel.”
Joe Bernhoeft, CEO, The Inn Collection Group
Making every stay special
Looking for a pet-friendly getaway in the Lake District? Then The Inn Collection Group has you covered, with dogs warmly welcomed across its locations. But despite this being an important strand of its offering, some customers had missed the message.
The Best Managed Companies process led to the business successfully trialling an AI chatbot on its website to improve self-service – and the vast volume of interactions showed people still had simple queries.
“It gave us genuine insight and highlighted what we had to improve,” continues Joe. “Our customers were asking us questions because we hadn’t already given them the answers.”
Investing in a customer data platform has provided The Inn Collection Group with a holistic view of its guests, from where they stay and when they travel, to their food and drink choices. Data is shaping strategy, informing communication and driving decisions, while all customer feedback is reported and reviewed at leadership level daily.
“Now our customers can expect a much more personalised experience from us,” Joe says. “If we want to be a loved business across the UK, we need to focus on providing lifetime value, not just single visits. We’re giving ourselves the best chance of earning a five-star review every time, which is what we want.”
And internally, mapping front-of-house processes has helped bring together 19 disparate systems to make life a lot less complicated for colleagues too, helping engagement, retention and onboarding.
From the north to the nation
Becoming the UK’s most loved collection of inns means creating a culture that can underpin such a bold ambition.
By refining its vision and values after the Deloitte lab, The Inn Collection Group has helped its people, at all levels of the company, to work towards that one goal.
Greater insights from KPIs and shared objectives are reinforcing a common purpose.
The Best Managed Companies awards programme runs in 45 countries across the world and over more than 30 years, it has recognised around 1,300 companies. It’s an investment by Deloitte in our local economies.
For Joe, the opportunity to be benchmarked against other organisations facing similar challenges, and to connect with them, has been powerful. So has making the time to pause and take stock.
“The validation and diversity of thought from Deloitte’s independent professionals have been hugely valuable,” he offers. “Leadership teams can get caught up in being busy and there’s nothing wrong with that; it’s our job. But you have to be able to lift your head. It’s also important to say well done and thank you to your people.
“I would tell any company considering applying to the programme do it, embrace it and be open to the feedback. The recognition is something to be really proud of.”
From northern roots to national reach, The Inn Collection Group is building a business the public will remember and return to – across the whole of the UK.
“Private businesses, such as those recognised as UK Best Managed Companies, play a vital role in our economy, nationally and locally. They demonstrate purpose, values, innovation, resilience and ambition, helping to drive growth and prosperity.”
Claire Evans, UK Best Managed Companies Leader, Deloitte
