We sat down with Matthew Brown, MD of CH&CO, where they use Clientshare Pulse to manage the Quarterly Business Reviews process at the business.

As an organisation deeply invested in its clients' satisfaction and operational excellence, CH&CO has recognised the value of adopting a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) platform, Clientshare Pulse, to streamline its operations, enhance customer relationships, and drive data-informed decision-making. In a world where what we consume is becoming ever faster and more disposable, CH&CO are determined to take a more thoughtful, mindful approach to the food experiences they source, prepare and present.

This case study delves into CH&CO's strategic implementation of Clientshare Pulse and its impact on the company's overall performance and customer engagement.

How do you use Pulse within your role?

I predominantly use the Clientshare dashboards and reports. I’m set up to receive alerts, so any requests to speak to senior leadership from the client side will automatically ping into my inbox and alert me to it at the earliest chance, which is invaluable.

Do you know what process was in place for QBRs before Pulse?

Our old QBR methods were unstructured. Before Pulse we relied on people physically visiting clients and providing feedback. Whilst I do think there’s a place for still doing things the traditional way, personally, I believe both are the right thing to do. Frequent visits and face time are absolutely essential and will always inform what we do. Pulse gives us additional information in a structured way to enhance our perspective and ensure we capture the thoughts of our clients locally, as well as uncovering any consistent themes for us to work on or celebrate and continue.

What's the biggest challenges that Pulse help you with?

There’s quite a few challenges Clientshare have helped us with: trying to get closer to clients and ensuring our teams are thinking about retention elements within contracts in conjunction with the day to day operational elements. The main benefit of Pulse is that it gives a consistent client feedback measure, in addition to the Net Promoter Scores.

Pulse gives you the ability to get right to the centre of things with the four CSAT questions that gets sent along with every review. If you make sure that those questions reflect your core values and what you're trying to achieve, they will consistently tell you whether you're moving in the right direction, unequivocally and objectively.

Pulse ensures you easily and consistently reach multiple stakeholders on the client side. It makes you less vulnerable if you understand the thoughts of a broader group of stakeholders, making you less reliant on what that individual might tell you and how you may interpret it.

Has Pulse helped you uncover specific issues or problems with clients?

After receiving particularly negative feedback from a client, I was alerted by Pulse instantly and could see what had happened, allowing me to take immediate action. 

It’s dismaying when you receive negative feedback, however the way Pulse requests it gives the best chance it will be unequivocally honest. Clientshare’s alert system gave me the opportunity to immediately pick up the phone to that client and arrange to visit them the next working day. As a team we put an immediate improvement plan in place and managed to extend that contract. Clientshare undoubtedly gave us the speed of reaction required, and without it things would unquestionably have become more fraught at best!

On an occasion whereby we got some glowing feedback on Pulse, the client singled out individuals for praise, which gave us an opportunity to reward the entire team, so they know these scores matter and we could demonstrate to the client that it was their feedback that's led to that recognition.

Have you been able to use Pulse to identify new advantages?

When you get a change of supplier manager on the client side it often results in either a fresh agenda or set of priorities, Clientshare allows you to leverage an entire track record of feedback and explain to the client how you intend to pivot.

With Pulse, you can showcase that what you have done during the contract is delivering against the expectations of the previous management. It's not just somebody saying it, Pulse gives you a set of objective measures that prove it, so this allows you to ask for time to make relevant changes.

How does Pulse help with account health visibility?

Pulse helps Regional Managers see the scores of a particular area of the business, whether it’s location or personnel, and know where improvement is needed. It gives you an accurate yardstick of metrics like client completion rates and NPS/CSAT scores.

For a new Regional Manager, Clientshare Pulse pinpoints where to focus, ensuring you rectify any negative-scoring accounts by acknowledging to a client that we are listening, and we are here to help. I’ve found your biggest fans can come from an adverse situation so Pulse can really help turn detractors into your biggest advocates.

How does Pulse help with new growth opportunities?

Pulse ensures that Quarterly Business Reviews are a chance to be strategic, discussing items of increasing priority. It's an opportunity to celebrate your success and discuss more macroeconomic factors and business challenges.

Crucially, Pulse allows you to take information from more than one source. Far too often we have just one point of contact and if either that point of contact has a view that's different to most of their business, or they then move on, it leaves you relatively vulnerable.

Clientshare has allowed us to ensure long-term serious client relationships with masses of value, where you're genuinely meshed and collaborative. It’s critical to have relationships with multiple stakeholders, to corroborate the viewpoints for growth opportunities, and Pulse does just that.

ABOUT CH&CO

Food has the power to make people feel good, and that goes beyond what’s on the plate. Great food experiences lift the spirit, bring people together and fuel emotional positivity and physical wellbeing.

This is CH&CO's motivation across their areas of expertise, which includes event catering, workplace cafés and restaurants, corporate fine dining and hospitality, visitor attraction catering, pupil and staff feeding at: state and independent schools, university cafés and restaurants, hospital staff and visitor restaurants, hospices, livery Hall catering, venue sales, event management and production, reception and concierge service. They are also committed to operating in a responsible and sustainable way and they proudly hold the top-level three-star ‘Food Made Good’ rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

CH&CO holds a Royal Warrant for catering services to HM The Queen.

Learn more about CH&CO