David Bruce reveals Sunderland fan vision & the lessons learned from Newcastle United Black Cats' bar fiasco

David Bruce has admitted that Sunderland need to do more to repay the loyalty of supporters as he pledged to overhaul the club's customer service operation.

Bruce, a boyhood Sunderland fan, returned to the club after a long stint working for the MLS last year as Chief Brand and Commercial Officer. With Steve Davison leaving his role as Chief Operating Officer, Bruce has now been promoted to Chief Business Officer where he will be charged with overseeing the day-to-day operations of the club.

A key part of his remit will be to try and drive the club's commercial revenues upwards as they seek to generate more income to invest on the pitch, something which begins with significantly improving the club's offering from recent campaigns. Most important will be to improve relations with a supporter base frustrated by a number of key issues that have persisted through recent campaigns, from the retail and ticketing offering to the debacle that saw the Black Cats Bar decorated in Newcastle United colours for the FA Cup tie earlier this season.

Spelling out his key vision for what he wants to achieve while in post, Bruce said it was about not just recognising but actually utilising the ongoing loyalty of the club's huge fanbase.

"To really own what makes Sunderland special, the heart of soul of the football club and drive that through the whole business," Bruce told The Echo.

"We probably haven't been as good as we need to be in that area - I think everything begins and ends with what makes this club special and unique. We need to define that and then live it through everything we do. What goes alongside that is being really 'fan-centric', that's not an easy shift to make but it's really important for a modern football club to obsess over the customer and the fan. "So it's about making the business so that everything begins and ends with the fan. If you do that then we'll have the chance to connect with fans on a level we've never been before. We've got an unbelievable fanbase that often defies logic, we still had 29,000 coming in League One - it beggars belief. I used to talk about that a lot when I was working in the United States, people couldn't believe it. It's because of that belonging which you just can't buy overnight, the badge of honour of being a fan and seeing yourself in the football club.

"We've probably lost sight of that a little bit and taken advantage of that a little bit - and we can't do that anymore," he added.

"We have to listen, learn and meet fans where they want to be met. It's not a given that fans will come through the turnstile because especially for younger fans, it's never been easier to watch the game on TV and that's going to be even more the case moving forward with the new TV deal etc."

Bruce says that while investment is key to realising his vision, he also wants to 'change the mindset' within the club. He added that the new partnerships with hummel and Fanatics, which will begin later this summer, are a sign that the club is listening directly to supporters.

"It's definitely about investment but it's also about shifting the mindset," he said.

"I've been schooled in the best customer service in the world in America and with the MLS, it was about obsessing over the fan. That was the only way the MLS was going to win because you have to differentiate... it's the most competitive sports environment in the world with five or six major sports. You have to be on top of your game to win and to be innovative, obsessing over and listening to your audience. There is investment needed to do that but it's also about the mindset of the business.

"We've listened and we're learning," he added.

"It's been about taking stock, listening to what fans aren't happy with and what we've underserved. There have been some obvious pain points (retail, ticketing etc) that we know about and we've started to show that action. We've got a really good strategy and a really strong direction that we want to go in but we want to just get to work and show it, show the proof of that change. I think there's been a lot of talking in the past and we know what those pain points are, I think the hummel and Fanatics' deals show that we've listened and have started to take action. We've got really, really good partners and we're going to get an obsession from them - we don't just want any other partner because it's not just any other football club.

"We have a lot of dialogue with fans. We had a Supporter Collective meeting last week and we have four of those sessions a year. We work closely with the main supporter groups, we listen to social media. We're not blind to the football environment, we have a lively fanbase all around the world. We understand key topics, what are the issues for fans? We're lucky to have a really good relationship with the Supporter Collective. I used the Red and White Army survey to feed the conversation with hummel and Fanatics."

Talk of a 'fan-centric' operation will undoubtedly lead to raised eyebrows for many fans after the events in January, when a lack of dialogue over the arrangements for Newcastle United's visit sparked huge frustration. That then turned to outright anger as the Black Cats Bar was kitted out in the colours and slogans of the club's key rivals. Bruce says that the fallout continues to 'hurt' and is a driving force behind the recent changes - his belief that ensuring fans are put first will mean there is no repeat.

"A lot of what we're talking about now, about being fan-centric, is a learning from that," he said.

"If you orient yourself around making decisions around the best interests of a fan, then you make different choices. There's lots been said about that topic and the owner made a statement about it, I don't think anybody felt good about that when they saw it. It hurt a lot and it will continue to hurt, and I think it's a reminder that if we're not focused and considering the fan in everything we do - then you'll lose sight of what's important to you and you might make decisions that aren't appropriate. I think that's a good example of that. It goes back to reinvigorating the club around its purpose, understanding why we're coming into work every day. 

"Our connection to the fan is our business at the end of the day, the thing that we're talking a lot about internally is about the size of the responsibility in working for this club and in servicing the fans. There's no greater satisfaction than seeing a happy fan, to see a positive comment - there's been a lot of negativity and people feel that. If you understand what you're all about as a staff, then I think that outcome is very different."