Handling Complaints

I was traveling recently and the airline, for reasons of its own, did not put my bag on my connecting plane. It took three days to get my bag. As you can imagine, this was very inconvenient and the way the airline handled it caused me a lot of frustration.

However, the important thing is not this or any individual incident; it’s the way each customer is dealt with… Which brings me to the point of today’s blog: How do you handle complaints?

Do you have procedures in place to deal with complaints? Most importantly, does everyone in the winery, who at any time deals with customers in person or by phone, know about these procedures and exactly what they have to do in each case?

They say success is in the details, so create detailed procedures on how to handle each type of complaints you encounter at your winery. What is the procedure when a customer complains that a wine s/he bought from you was corked, or for any other valid (or invalid) complaint?

TIPS:

If a customer is angry or frustrated, allow them some time to complain.  Even if the problem is easily fixable, people still want you to listen to their story before you fix it.

Don’t take anything personally. When the customer says “you” s/he doesn’t mean you personally, they mean you as a representative of the company and the company in general.

An apology or recognition of the customer’s problem goes a long way, even if it’s not your fault.  “I’m so sorry this happened, it must be very frustrating.”

Customers whose problems are resolved in a professional and helpful manner are more loyal than those who have never had a problem.

A Quick Tip

It’s interesting that when I started in the wine industry no one working in a tasting room thought about being tipped by visitors, though it did happen on occasion. These days I am asked quite regularly about whether hospitality employees should accept tips.

I don’t believe a tasting room is a place where tips should be solicited, even with a tip line on the credit card receipt. Nor do I believe that winery employees should expect to be tipped. When a visitor voluntarily offers a tip, an employee should thank the visitor and make it clear that tipping isn’t necessary. However, if the visitor insists, the employee should accept the tip and sincerely thank the visitor. Sometimes visitors want to tip to show their appreciation for the service received.

Wine is a quality product and in many cases not inexpensive. The wine industry should not be the type of business in which customers subsidize employee wages. It would be like seeing a tip jar on the counters at Neiman Marcus or Tiffany’s.

What is done with any tips received is up to the winery. Some wineries combine tips and use them to fund a special treat for hospitality employees, other wineries split them up between the staff or give them to an agreed upon charity. At some wineries the employees keep the tips they are given.

Never expecting a tip makes being offered one even better. So, congratulations to those of you who are offered tips without the visitor thinking it’s expected.

A tip of the glass from me to you!

THE WINE’S READY…WHERE ARE YOU?

“If we make it, they will come” (to paraphrase a line from the movie, Field of Dreams) is a concept that seems to have been internalized by newer and older wineries in all parts of the wine world. Much as I would love that to be true, it isn’t. There is too much really good wine to be found throughout North America and the rest of the world, for the mere making of wine to entice people into your winery.

Believing that once you have made wine people will miraculously appear to buy it goes hand in hand with the belief that making better wine is a viable Unique Selling Proposition. Unless you follow that up with strong marketing and promotion you will find yourself sitting in an empty tasting room wondering where the visitors are. You might as well relax and have a drink – after all you have plenty of wine.

There are wineries that seem to have been amazingly successful because they make better wine, though in most cases these wineries have had a strong PR company or publicist behind them. Yes there are cult wineries, but it takes a lot of work, patience and guerrilla marketing to get there.

By all means put in place the grapes, winemaker and equipment that will allow you to make outstanding wine, however save some money for marketing and sales. I know most people don’t get into the wine business because they have an overwhelming desire to sell something, but shake a leg, it’s all part of the process. If you don’t want to market, promote and sell you products, hire someone who will.

As Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” So be prepared for success and chances are you’ll get there.

Making the Most of Club Pick-Up Parties

A wine club pick-up party is a great way to get your best customers to the winery. So here are a few tips to make your pick up party even more successful and profitable:

1.  Treat your members well.

• Give them reasons to buy wine – as many of these people are your best customers and this is one time where you can offer a special price as a thank you.
• Present information on older wines. Taste through the wines prior to the party and provide tasting notes and age-ability information. Let them know which of your wines are ready to drink and which can be kept in the cellar.
• A little background music adds to the ambiance.

2.  Many of these people are your best customers so don’t skimp.

• Offer them food as well as wine.  The food doesn’t have to be fancy, though it needs to pair well with the wine.
• Let them taste a couple of special wines that are not usually available and offer them for sale.
• If you use logo glasses that members may keep, don’t charge for them, give them away.

3.  Have enough staff on hand.

• You don’t want to have long lines of customers waiting in long lines to pick up their wine or to snag some of the wine or food being served.

4.  Organization is the key to success:

• Make it easy for people to pick up their wine.
• Members who pick up wine should sign for it to avoid future confusion.
• Have an order form listing other wines available for tasting or purchase.
• This is a great time to offer library wines. You may pour them or not depending on inventory.

Your pick up celebration should be a day to remember.

So smile, laugh and have fun – it’s a party!

 

1•2•3 Ways to Boost Wine Club Memberships

I visit many tasting rooms every month and have noticed that in the majority of these wineries I am asked if I am interested in joining their wine club only when I am standing at the cash register purchasing my wine. Once I’m at the register, in my mind, I’m already checked out of this winery and on to the next one, so my answer is always, “No thanks.” Especially if there are other people in line, as I don’t want to hold them up.

The solution: give visitors wine club information early in their visit.  You want to mention the club at least three times before you begin encouraging people to become a member. Keep the first three mentions short, a couple of sentences and focus on the benefits members receive. No selling during these interactions.

#1     Ask if visitors are wine club members (unless you know they are). When they say no, explain a benefit (wine club members don’t pay for tasting).

If you know that your visitors are wine club members welcome them and tell them you’re glad to see them.

#2     As you pour the wines, talk about ones that are going to be in the next club shipment or any wines that are made only for wine club members.  If you happen to have a bottle of a wine club only wine open, let your guests taste it. Make sure they know that the bottle is only open because you had a group of wine club members in the winery.

#3     Once you’ve learned a little about your guests and know that the wine club would be a good fit for them, describe one of the events and what a great time everyone had. Or talk about how your club has morphed into a community of friends, some of whom do other things together.

Now you’re ready to encourage them to become members. If you have had fun with these visitors, tell them so. “Thanks for coming in today, you’re so much fun, you would love our wine club, and… our wine club would love you.” Now tell them the features and the benefits, let them know the shipment schedule, costs, etc.  Tell them when the next event is. It doesn’t matter if they live far away, they will still think that they can come back for the event.

If your visitors don’t join, make sure you get their contact information because they may go home and regret not joining the club and will do so if they receive encouragement from you.

Oh, and one more thing:  If your guests are ready to join at step two, let them.  I have seen winery personnel talk people out of joining the wine club because they won’t stop.

It’s summer, get in to the tasting room and make people’s lives a little better by allowing them to enjoy your wine at home!

Get Your Creativity Flowing

I often hear people say that they aren’t very creative. I believe that they are underestimating their ability to be creative.  Most of us are much more creative than we think we are; we just don’t allow the time to get our creativity flowing.  Here are a few tips to help you bring all those great ideas to the surface.

Ask yourself, how things can be done differently: or why you do things they way you do. It is so easy to get into ruts, doing things the same way every time.  Break out of that rut, start with easy things such as altering some of your routines.  If you do the same things in the same order when you get up in the morning, then change the order.

What can be done differently in the tasting room or with visitors?  Getting out of the ruts moves your brain in different directions and helps you see things from a different angle.

Don’t stop at the first idea:  congratulations, you have your first creative idea, but don’t stop there.  Keep thinking and you may find a dozen variations of that one idea and another half dozen different ideas besides.

Challenge assumptions: are you doing things a certain way because you are following phantom rules that no longer or never applied? Thoughts, ideas, etc. are usually sifted through filters that have been set up in our brains long ago and may no longer be relevant, so push those filters on one side.

Creativity rarely happens if you are stressed, overworked or your mind is filled with other things.  So take time out from your day, relax, find a comfy chair, relax and let your brain wander.  A little practice and you will be overflowing with ideas.

For more tips on becoming creative, drop me an email e@inshortmarketing.com and I’ll send you my list.