Well maybe you can’t (or can you?) but dismiss their influence at your peril.

When Hall & Woodhouse wanted to relaunch their children’s menu within their high-quality pub venues they asked Service Monitor to find out what it was that children actually wanted – and what their parents thought too.

Utilising our experienced focus group moderators, a group of parents with children aged from 5 years up to 11 years old was assembled in the Moat pub at Wrotham – 12 parents with over 20 kids between them.

Keeping 2-3 kids entertained for an hour isn’t easy – imagine 20+ sat at tables in a pub (welcome to our world I hear every teacher shouting). However, this was exactly the point – what entertainment would keep them settled and at the table rather than running through the venue annoying other guests!

The group was a great success, with the children giving excellent feedback on proposed menu content (they loved the pies), the types of puzzles they enjoyed and the new ‘Wind in The Willows’ based characters that will form the structure for the new Hall & Woodhouse children’s menu.

The parents behaved themselves, mostly, as well.