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Bar and Entertainments Survey 2007

 

 

7.17pm, Thursday 29th November ***UPDATED WEDNESDAY 2ND JANUARY 2008***

James Bates

Venue & Marketing Supervisor

 

Thank-you to all of you chose to complete the survey that I published via our Facebook group and website. Over 100 people completed the survey (somewhere nearer 200 started it) and it has proven to be an invaluable tool when investigating what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. There were so many comments we will unfortunately not be able to respond to each and every students points individually but we hope that this summary will answer the majority of qualms and queries.

 

Food offering

We are aware that our food offering has diminished from that available a few years ago, this is due however to the fact that when we were operating a catering outlet ourselves it became financially unviable and was losing the Students' Union a lot of money. The college caterer, Scolarest, took over in September 2006 and now with the closing of the GreenRoom during the day since the introduction of the smoking ban pizzas seemed to be a simple, quick and tasty alternative. There have been several requests as to keep the GreenRoom open as an alcohol-free and quiet space during the day in a common-room type environment and this is now in operation. WiFi is available in both bars as long as you are a member of the college network and have sufficient security software installed on your computer to satisfy the College IT Departments requirements.

 

Drink Pricing/Product Range CHECK OUT OUR NEW BAR TARIFF - CLICK HERE

Generally the feedback on our pricing was excellent (an average of 8/10 were satisfied with our prices). We do try to make sure that our prices are the lowest around (indeed they are in terms of standard prices throughout New Cross) and although prices have gone up since September 2006 these were new products which replaced discontinued ones. This specifically relates to draught products, i.e. Red Stripe (£2.60) replaced the inferior Stella Artois and Staropramen (£2.40) replaced Grolsch (£2.20). These new products were introduced with the new Carlsberg Supply Deal that was Negotiated by NUSSL (NUS Services Limited) who control where we can purchase from and which products we may choose to stock. This means that although some prices have gone up they are for far superior products than those offered previously (for example, I challenge you to find anywhere that charges just £2.90 for a pint of Hoegaarden). We hope you like our wide selection of Niche imported beers. We are always on the lookout for new ones to try. We have also expanded our spirit range and there were requests for an increased shot range too so we are already looking into that... Currently we stock Aftershock (all flavours), Sourz (Apple and Cherry), Tequila Gold, Black and White Sambuca, Absolut (all flavours) and have introduced some higher quality spirits such as Disaronno Amaretto and Morgan's Spiced Rum.


Don't forget we do a range of in-one-glass cocktails for something a bit different.

 

We are also looking at the possibility of installing an Ale font as this has been requested several times. We used to have ale and bitter on draught however it was discontinued by us due to low demand and hence wasted stock. Ale has a very short life once the the cask is pegged so without a high demand you can end up with beer that has poor "Condition". This does mean out-of-date or anything like that but means it loses its distinguished flavour and quality.

 

Customer Service

One other area you were very pleased with was our level of customer service generally. This is something that we feel has significantly improved over the last twelve months and continues to do so. Often the one factor that can distinguish a 'students' union' and a GREAT Students' Union is its staff and we provide a continuous scheme of training for our staff and high visibility of supervisory and managerial staff to ensure that service standards are maintained at all times. Please note that if at any time you feel let down by our bar team you should feel welcome to approach either Wil or myself so we can address your concern. We can always improve so appreciate your comments.

 

The Union As a Live Music Venue

Generally you thought you we had a good entertainments calendar, however there were a lot of requests for more Indie (yes, really. click image below to see for yourself), Rock and Bhangra.

Click to enlarge

This is something we would love to investigate, if there are any particular Bhangra artists you would like to see here (please, be realistic as to who we could afford) then drop an email to w.fincher@gold.ac.uk

There were also requests for Jazz which we are hoping to cater for throughout our Live Tuesday events which will be happening every Tuesday afternoon between 3pm and 6pm.