Progressive Engagement

Engaging visitors in the winery or any other retail business is a sequence that goes through various stages, with the result that visitors feel comfortable and welcome.

Engagement takes you and your visitors through a series of steps that allow you to

Connect • Inform • Entertain • Share the whole experience with your visitors.

CONNECT

Make that immediate and visceral connection with visitors as they walk through the door. Find a way to acknowledge them immediately, always with eye contact and a smile. If possible, interact verbally. If you are unable to speak to them as you are engaged with other visitors, eye contact and a nod or wave.

INFORM

This part is very important: not only do you inform them about your products, but you allow them to inform you about their wants, needs and desires. Once they have done that, you will have the tools you need to present your products in ways that they will appreciate. Be sure your information contains ways that differentiate your products from those of other businesses.

ENTERTAIN

If you can, entertain your visitors, making them laugh, which helps people open up and therefore more easily internalize the information. Or give them factoids they were not aware of, that they can then tell others. You will create reasons for them to remember your brand and to talk about it to their friends and family.

SHARE

Share information with them in ways that make them feel as if they are getting something special. Tell a story about the winemaker or how the grapes were grown.

Sharing is a great way to sell, as it draws visitors into the stories about your products.

If you engage your visitors with sincerity and a desire to be interesting and entertaining, the visitors will leave felling passionate about your product. They will wonder how they ever lived without your product and take memories with them when they leave. They will feel pride in the product they have purchased and feel confident that your product is a name they can trust. They will also buy it again.

Go through these steps every time the visitor (now a customer) comes to the winery, to continue to enhance the connection and solidify the engagement.

A tip of the glass from me to you!