Helping Hetty and Betty

Hear from Hetty and Betty about their experiences receiving support from York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub.

Video transcription

Overall, I’d say it’s been a really positive experience with the Growth Hub, from initially contacting them, to them getting in touch with us, to taking us through the journey. And overall the service, the support, has been brilliant.

When the lockdown was announced our initial thoughts were worry, how we were gonna get through this, how we were gonna support our staff, how were we gonna keep the business going. We’re custodians of 90 years of history, we had no choice but to adapt to survive. And that was the mindset really that we had as we went into it. Whatever it took, we were gonna come out the other side of it.

Hetty and Betty is a fish and chip serving cafe right in the heart of Whitby. The cafe itself has been here since 1928, and we’ve been Hetty and Betty since 2018, serving tourists and locals alike. Because our major customers are tourists, marketing was always something that we did when we had the chance to do. So I wanted to improve on that and I started to look around for courses and that’s really how I kind of found the Growth Hub.

Once the course began, I realised there was a lot more to this than I’d realised and I knew this course was gonna be helpful in lots and lots of different ways, not just for my own training but in other ways that we could implement it. The course content involved learning things, but also a lot of it was about making us think about our own business and putting together our own content. Rather than just give us a standard, “This is how it is,” it was, “This is how it works, now adapt it for your business.”

The major benefits that we’ve had from it have been that I was able to take the knowledge that I’d gained and then impart that to my staff. But it also went into the staff training in regards to customer service, in regards to how staff adapt to each customer’s individual needs whilst they’re on the premises. And it just enabled us to give a more robust service to all of our customers.

So when a customer comes in, it’s see them at base value and trying to think what they’re gonna want, what they’re gonna need. And then from there, we can work around that. Since the training’s been going on, I can see myself being more comfortable with customers. It’s gonna make everything a lot easier for customers and the people that work here. Everyone’s just getting a better experience.

Overall, I’d say it’s been a really positive experience with the Growth Hub, from initially contacting them, to them getting in touch with us, to taking us through the journey. I would definitely recommend the Growth Hub and recommend that people really start to look at what they can offer. And the support that they give you, the courses that are on offer, it is something that will benefit your business as you go forward.

Learn more about Hetty and Betty on their website.

View more business support resources from York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub.