-
Pages
-
Categories
-
Archives
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- November 2023
- May 2023
- January 2023
- October 2022
- July 2022
- May 2022
- February 2022
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
Customer Service
Dixie Huey, of Trellis Wine Consulting and Allan Wright, of Zephyr Adventures, teamed together to present the top ten customer service suggestions. These items were general enough to apply to tasting rooms, touring companies, travel organizations as well as writers. The presenters started with number 10 which was to know your ethos. This includes your brand and logo.In self reflection our brand was rather obtuse the first couple years of Wine Trail Traveler’s articles. We eventually acquired a logo, from a designer, and now there is a feeling of identity. The logo helps define our brand.
The 9th suggestion was to put the ethos into action. For tasting rooms, staff should all be on the same page mentioning a number of significant points that builds up and defines the brand. Tasting room staff should evaluate how they greet customers and how they use a guestbook. The most time consuming suggestion was to follow-up a visit by emailing or calling the visitor and thanking them for coming to the winery. The 8th item was to seek feedback. This would include looking at the items mentioned above and deciding how to quantify them, collect data and act on the data. One can also create surveys and analyze the data from the survey. The tasting room staff along with other winery staff should meet, discuss and seek ways to constantly improve.
The 7th listed item was to learn from mistakes. Allan talked about the need to fix mistakes. Complaints should be taken seriously however action on a complaint may or may not be justified.
The 6th item was to keep a database on your customers. This database can be used to determine the most frequent customers as well as the customers who spend the most. If you have people sign up for a monthly newsletter, send them a monthly newsletter.
Allan’s 5th item was to recognize repeat customers. That’s is why it is important to keep a database. It was suggested that repeat customers receive invitations to special events . They can also be given discounts on future orders.
Dixie’s 4th suggestion was to seek outside best practices. She said, “Look at the competition. What are they doing?” We have traveled to enough tasting rooms to identify some excellent practice that it would be nice for other tasting rooms to adopt. We have also observed spies, however they are usually known. If you pick up information from visiting other tasting rooms, going on other tours, or observing other travel organizations, share that information with your staffs. Ask your staff how you can use that information to provide great service.
Allan’s #3 suggestion certainly addresses one of my annoyances. The suggestion is to answer the phone and return phone calls. In a like manner, answer emails. I’d like to add that one should also check their junk email folder daily to see if legitimate emails were filtered into it. We have not visited hundreds of winery tasting rooms because they don’t return call or answer emails.
Dixie’s #2 item was to engage everyone. She suggested that tasting room staff make phone calls to their best customers and most frequent customers thanking them. This practice should be done by the entire staff including winemaking staff and vineyard staff. As a teacher, we were asked to call parents on a regular basis to tell them how well their child was doing. This was a change over the typical calls from a teacher that usually had something negative to discuss. The parents appreciated the positive phone calls.
The #1 suggestion was opened to the audience. So I’ll give my two cents. If you are producing a quality wine, serve it in quality stemware. We have had a discussion with a few winery owners who want to serve their wines in plastic cups. One even uses nice plastic cups while others use the plastic cups people receive at their doctor’s office for a urine specimen. What does plastic say about your wine? The ISO glass stemware is better than plastic, but not by much. The entire winery staff should have a discussion about the stemware used to present their wine to visitors who come to the tasting room to sample the wines. What message do you want to give a population that is growing in wine knowledge?
These suggestions are valid for tasting room staff, tour operators and travel organizations. You can probably add others and change the order of importance to best suit the needs of your company.
Cheers
Terry