Four Leeds venue competitors take collective approach

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Four independent venues businesses in Leeds have come together to offer customers a collective experience.

In a very competitive hospitality sector, with increasing demands from customers for bespoke packages and larger players benefitting from economies of scale, The Leeds Club, The Studio, Horizon Leeds and Northern Ballet all agreed to work together to pass referrals when they are unable to meet with the requirements or dates of a booking in a bid to retain customers in the city.

Sarah-Louise Walker from The Leeds Club explained how the creative approach came together: “It’s so easy for people to think that the only way to secure bookings is to cut costs, but that doesn’t add value and the margin has to come from somewhere. We got together and discussed how sharing information, working together and referring could allow us to compete more effectively.

“A real concern for all of us was turning business away. We realised pretty quickly that giving recommendations for other venues would save our clients time and would allow us to support companies with similar values.”

Alan Gallacher from Northern Ballet said: “Information sharing and cross-referrals will generate more enquiries for each of our venues and will, therefore, see higher rates of conversion, increased income and increased rates of customer satisfaction. Ensuring that the income and business stays in the area will also benefit the visitor economy in Leeds.”

In addition to the referrals, the venues also recognised that a combined approach to marketing could lead to a wider appeal and stronger reach.

Megan MacBrairdy from Horizon Leeds added: “We all have very interesting venues with some great back stories but we are competing for business alongside a city full of well-known chain brands with huge marketing budgets and sales teams. We were keen to get together to see how we could work differently by passing on unsuitable or excess business to the group and how working together we could collaborate on our marketing campaigns.”

Julian Kettleborough from The Studio said each of the four businesses was committed to offering “a very personal and individual service to their clients”, something that “sits comfortably with our culture”.

Walker added: “We took the lead and we made something happen. There is no point in sitting around and waiting for someone to knock on your door, you have to drive change and be sure to push boundaries and do things differently.”

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