Central Coast Wine Blogs

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.