On the Romance with Wine Country
Is the romance over between wine country and its visitors? This question was posited last week by Rob McMillan, of Silicon Valley Bank, as he posted an email he’d received from wine country visitors. Despite being long-time, repeat-visitors over many years, the guests expressed a desire not to return in the future due to the poor hospitality they received.
Repeat customers over several seasons told McMillan that they had bad experiences at 12 of 15 wineries visited and were not thanked for being club members at any of the wineries to which they belonged. Further, their reservations for appointments were missing and their transactions reflected requests for generous “suggested tip amounts.” In short, they felt they were taken advantage of and received no gratitude for the business they’d brought the wineries.
Ouch!
Many wine country professionals chimed in with comments about the communique McMillan received:
- Was this Napa Valley?
- Were the customer expectations too high?
- Was this an isolated incident of poor customer service?
Universally, commenters offered sympathy for the guests and support for hospitality staff to improve their service. Scroll through the numerous comments (mine included) on McMillan’s site for inspiring ideas to improve the situation.
Keeping the Romance Alive
We all know it’s work to keep romance alive with our partners in life. The same is true with club members, business acquaintances, and any relationship you wish to keep flourishing, all require an ongoing investment in your gratitude and attention to maintain a healthy relationship.
Small gestures, such as thanking the customer for maintaining club membership, go a long way towards extending the relationship. This effort can be expanded with simple gestures of appreciation, such as handwriting “thank you” notes to guests.
Overstretched staff or other obstacles? Like any valuable relationship, you figure out how to keep the romance alive. If your staff is spread too thin to provide the best service, recruit more hospitality professionals. More often than not, however, staff haven’t been trained sufficiently.
Nurturing the Relationship
Many relationships fail due to poor communication. The same is true between wineries and their club members (or would-be members). Aside from a couple of brief training sessions to explain the spiel the winery wishes customers to hear, have you provided recent training for your staff to communicate effectively with guests?
Have you recently mystery shopped your tasting room to review staff effectiveness?
Is your staff adept at the art of conversation with guests, probing to learn about their wine preferences?
Do your hospitality pros regularly perform trial closes with guests to determine their level of interest?
Rejuvenating the Romance
Whether or not those specific wine country visitors who wrote McMillan can be wooed back has yet to be determined. In the meantime, taking stock of your current customer interactions is essential. Losing even more guests or club members is untenable.
It’s not just a matter of training staff. Are they being adequately compensated for the services they provide? They are your front line of contact with club members and prospects. Long ago hospitality staff were paid little more than minimum wage. Today, many are highly qualified wine educators.
Are your expectations realistic? While many wineries have retooled their tasting experiences to maximize customer satisfaction, are your expectations for wine club conversion and guest purchases realistic? Many visitors are willing to spend for a stellar experience, but they aren’t necessarily all interested in becoming club members.
Keeping romance alive is vastly easier than creating one anew. As with all forms of sales, nurturing existing customer relationships through retention programs will reap far greater success than putting most of your efforts into acquiring new customers. Finding a balance between acquiring new customers and reinforcing existing client relationships is ideal for success.
For greatest success in tasting room service, sales and hospitality, ongoing training is essential. To learn more or improve skills, register for the next Winery Hospitality Sales Training workshop to be held in Napa Valley on March 31st.
