Central Coast Wine Blogs

Some Random Tasting Room Guidelines

The Trinacria is a symbol of Sicily, but it also looks like a tasting room attendant on a busy day.

Every time I go on a little wine tasting jaunt I notice details.  And not just in the wine.  I notice when a tasting room attendant makes handling a busy room look as effortless as ballet.  I also notice when tasting room attendants drop the ball, fumble and foul like a doomed football game. 

Here are some random bits of advice from my forthcoming book, Managing Your Tasting Room.

First impressions

Smile and greet everyone as they walk in the door.  Make eye contact.  Always have glasses and tasting lists ready. 

If it becomes difficult to keep track of tasters, orders, and requests--just work clockwise.  Always start with the person on your left and move to the right.  You'll still have to multi-task, but if people have wine in their glass, and they can see that you are moving from guest to guest in an orderly fashion,  they're more inclined to be patient.  You can also do the "fade out/fade in".  Continue answering questions from one couple as you edge gently to the right to pour for the next couple and smile at them. 

If someone is really pinning you down with questions, say something like, "That's a really good question.  Let me just pour some wine for our other guests and I'll be right back."  Finish your circle, and you'll be back to him in no time.

Getting Ready for Wine Festival: Managing Volunteers

Volunteers aren’t really ‘volunteers’ in the usual sense of the word. They are ad hoc assistants. At some wineries they are paid—and paid well, perhaps with a combination of cash and wine.  And you might want to warn them they will work hard on their shifts. You'll also want them to have your best interests at heart—on everything from sales to cleanup.

How many volunteers should you have for an event? Not too many, not too few. Depending on your past years’ experience you should have enough people to handle sales and packing comfortably and efficiency, with extra volunteers assigned specifically to food or tours, and one or two extra for go-fers. Go-fers may sound like a luxury, but they often end up being the busiest of your volunteer staff—they will replenish wine stacks, wash and buff glasses, carry clean glasses and supplies to outdoor stations, step in when others need a break, carry food from barbecue to serving tables, relay messages and run errands, and pick up tourist debris.

Understand that you (the owner or manager) may not be able to work effectively during the event—you’ll be busy supervising and visiting.  Even if you plan to man the barbecue or a sales station, odds are high that your time will be taken up by visitors. Therefore, get all your setup tasks done well before the event. The day of the event (or on each day of the event) you should ideally have an hour of peace and quiet before opening in which to relax, review details, and greet your volunteers.

Use lists! And improve or edit the list after each event. If you are not a ‘list’ person, then delegate the list-making to someone who is—and ask that person to keep you on task as well.

Have a prepatory meeting prior to the event. For locals, maybe a wine and cheese evening.  Be prepped for the prep. Have take-away instructions to hand out, and give out fresh sets the day of the event.  For out-of-towners, email them a complete list of your expectations.  Then call them and go over each item and invite questions.

Your volunteers do not need to be very wine knowledgeable, but they must care about your product and your presentation.  The image they project at an event is an important part of your branding and hospitality experience. A loud guffaw accompanied by, "Aw shucks hon, just drink what ya like!" will not impress a lady who is seriously interested in wine. Each event is an important chance to reach a large number of people with an efficient use of time and samples. Make every second count by ensuring that your volunteers respect this opportunity and maximize it for you.

Some things to go over:

Getting Ready for Wine Festival: Handouts!

  
When customers flock to your tasting room this coming festival weekend, whether they buy one bottle or one hundred, you'll want each customer to become an ambassador for your brand—and that means giving them information.

I usually recommend to clients that you craft a postcard handout.  Postcards, unlike full size tasting sheets or newsletters, can be affixed to refrigerators and bulletin boards.  And they're inexpensive to print—make the first side full color for impact, and the back in black-in-white to save money.  With a supply of postcards on hand, you can save your more expensive print newsletters for customers who buy $50-$100 or more.  If you have a spare laptop, set it up in the tasting room so visitors can subscribe to your blog and leave comments while they are there.  (You might want to cover the keyboard with a plastic protector.)

Make sure you've got all the winery contact information on your cards, including your winery blog address and Facebook or other social media identities.  Your goal is to get people to visit your website, subscribe to your blog, become your friend/fan on Facebook, and otherwise subscribe for future contact.  
 

10 Signs Your Business is Failing: And How to Recover

Although we are seeing signs of general economic recovery, the last year has been a hard slog for small winery and vineyard owners.  In an economic downturn, the luxury good, hospitality, and travel industries are often the hardest hit.  Among our associates, chins are held high and stories of silver linings abound.  But industry vendors and salesmen are telling a different story--one of back payments requiring COD status, higher returns, downtrending sales, and equipment foreclosures.

Now more than ever, it's important to have a clear-eyed view of your business' health, ratios and sales trends.  In a climate where bankers are looking at every new loan application with a jaundiced eye, and subjecting renewals to greater scrutiny, it's important to be able to identify and address each of the signs that your bankers will be looking at.  Even if you feel that your sales and bottom line are healthy, you may be surprised to see your business in a different light by applying some of the ratios below.  And if your business really is healthy, then you should be able to present these ratios with pride and explain what you are doing to protect and increase them.

A white-paper article by Debra Ellis of Wilson & Ellis Consulting describes the Ten Hidden Signs Your Company Is Sinking and Some Life Preservers.  We'll discuss each of these ten issues in a little more detail, including what you can do to improve your business health, but here is the list in simple form:

1. Customer attrition exceeds acquisition.
2. Your best customers are buying less.
3. Buyers are not completing the life cycle.
4. Your vital signs are erratic.
5. You have more back inventory.
6. Costs are not aligned with sales.
7. Analytics are trending down.
8. You are avoiding innovation.
9. Employees are unhappy.
10. You have lost your passion.

Managing Your Tasting Room Q&A #1: How can we reduce confusion when there are different people on staff every day?

Coming February 2010:  Managing Your Tasting Room  $25 

Communication is a common problem in tasting rooms where staff rotation is frequent. 

Orders, pick up requests, inquiries and other matters are frequently handled on the phone by a staff person who will not be there the next day, or on the day of the physical transaction. 

One local winery owner complained that although he tries to communicate by sending each person (including his wife) an email—it results in even more confusion.   The recipients thought the emails were 'assignments' and didn't understand the work was basically done, and an order was waiting for pickup. 

Outside of ordinary sales orders, every tasting room has a steady stream of situational requests, like mid-delivery address changes, charity auction requests, and a-friend-will-pick-up.

I have three solutions.

1.  Normal sales orders should have their own 'processing' basket.  Sales rung up but not packed should be fairly evident; but any sale that requires more processing should have a note attached for the next day's employee.  Employees that can't master the art of using sticky notes should be reconsidered.

2. For seamless day-to-day communication on other matters, maintain a sales counter log.  A simple 3-ring binder will suffice.  Or, if you have the capability, a 'Sales Log' on the POS system that every employee is required to read at the beginning of each day.  Employees record open-ended conversations and initial their comments.  Any actions taken (ringing up the order, packing the order, etc.) should also be notated.  When the entire transaction is completed, the employee on duty signs off on the note with his or her initials and any pertinent comments.  This works best for those odd and high-maintenance orders that fall outside of the regular 'ring-and-ship'.

3.  Pick up orders should be clearly marked with 8" x 11" signs.  In wine cellars and tasting rooms, orders and wine cases can quickly become stacked, depleted, and then re-stacked depending on the day's activity.  Don't depend on an unmarked envelope with some paperwork, loosely attached to a case of wine, to survive in the Rubik's Cube environment of paid inventory storage.  Print out a cover sheet in 72 point lettering with:

• The recipient's name for direct sales
• Account name AND shipper's name for wholesale pickup
• Whether the order is 'Paid', 'Invoiced', or 'Payment Required'
• Anticipated date of pickup

No matter how efficient your POS system or inventory software may be, human nature is notoriously inefficient.  Therefore it's best to pull, assemble and CLEARLY MARK each order being held for pickup.  Have a designated spot for pickup orders. 

• Staple the cover page and associated paperwork to the FRONT of the case box. Use 4 staples, one in each corner. This prevents paperwork from being torn loose when boxes are moved or restacked. When your staff is in a hurry, they won't have to shuffle through a wall of case goods; they will be able to view and identify an order immediately. 
• Organize storage with the earliest pickup dates on top.
• If you have a wine club or customer card file system, note the card that the order is waiting in the pick up area.
• Stack your paid, will-call, and weather-hold orders where the public cannot see them.  Ask for identification before releasing an order, and ask for the customer's signature or the driver's signature on a copy of the invoice.

I hope this helps.  Watch for my eBook, Managing Your Tasting Room, coming out in January 2010!