Last October, I wrote a blog post called “Hire Nice, and Teach Wine,” and last week, I saw this principle work beautifully in action. In a time when every single guest to your tasting room will either help make or break you, it’s even more important to hire nice, teach wine—AND teach hospitality!
Are you suffering from bad news fatigue like I am? It’s one thing after another—COVID-19 hitting us in March. Now, the fires. And the constantly changing rules and regulations for restaurants, bars and tasting rooms.… With so many moving parts, how do we plan for OND—October, November, December—the biggest annual boon to all retailers?
In just a matter of weeks, the nature of the wine business in the US—and the world in general—has drastically changed. Restaurants and bars have been shut down, wineries have closed their tasting rooms, and wine retailers have had to rethink the way they do business. Some have closed altogether, at least for now.
Do you ever wonder why we spend so much money on getting new customers when retaining customers provides more value to our business? Think about the investment your winery is making in customer acquisition (advertising, PR, social media, email, and direct mail campaigns) vs. customer retention (providing an outstanding customer experience for guests in your tasting room, wine club members, and customers ordering wine online). Which direction are your scales tipping?
Most tasting rooms experience downtime during which there are no guests. That leaves you with three options: 1) let the staff sit and wait, 2) send staff home, or 3) have them perform other strategic tasks. I’ll bet you can imagine what Capiche recommends!
Most tasting rooms experience downtime during which there are no guests. That leaves you with three options: let the staff sit and wait, send staff home, or have them perform other strategic tasks. I’ll bet you can imagine what Capiche recommends!
Seriously. That’s how it felt. Maybe it’s because it was our first stop on what we hoped would be a fairly quick series of tasting room visits. We had five wineries on our list and limited time. This would have to be well-orchestrated. Best-laid plans …
Last month we were in Portland for the Third Annual Oregon Tempranillo Celebration. We drove up a day early and managed to visit six tasting rooms along the way. Oh, the things we were told (by the tasting room staff)! Oh, the things we observed!
If you run a tasting room, you need to know about some positive changes related to music. Wine America, a public policy and legislative advocacy organization, has negotiated with ASCAP for new and less expensive winery music licenses.
This month, Capiche’s Chris Cook interviews Anne Breck, former VP for Harry & David’s retail operations and creator of the recently launched Postmark’d Studio.
Following is the inaugural edition of a new series of interviews featuring Capiche clients. We are delighted to introduce Terry Brandborg of Brandborg Vineyard & Winery, based in Elkton, Oregon.
