Make your customers fall in love with you AND your wine!
Winemakers, many of you will spend your entire lives perfecting the fine art of making premium, awe-inspiring, life-changing wines.
Very few of you will spend even a small fraction of this time perfecting the fine art of connecting with your customers.
I understand that in many cases a winemaker cannot be bothered to do a vineyard tour, participate in a Winemaker’s Dinner, or man the tasting room for an afternoon. Your time is not best-spent in these pursuits.
However, understanding the importance of connecting your winery with your customers is vital to creating the loyalty that will have you selling out of futures and retiring in style.
Before I go any further, I have to make it clear that in no way do I think that customer connections are more important than the winemaker’s responsibility to create amazing wine from vintage to vintage. We’ve all seen the phenomenon of an excellent wine receiving an incredible score from a trusted source, subsequently selling the winery out of each and every following vintage. It happens. To quote a winery client of ours who recently received an impressive score from Gary Vaynerchuk, “My e-mail is like a Las Vegas slot machine!”
Not every winery has the opportunity to get their wine to the top critics. Let’s face it, it’s a jungle out there. Your best opportunity to create life-long customers is by maximizing every connection you have with them!
I’ve spent some time on this subject with a previous post, How to make repeat customers through online sales. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. What about the customer who hasn’t yet purchased your wine? Customers who are visiting your tasting room, your website, your Virtual Tasting Room at AW, or any other number of spaces in which your brand is represented, need compelling evidence that your winery is the winery for them.
I will be taking the opportunity to go further in depth with many specific “connection points” that wineries have with their customers, including tasting room connections, online connections and more. My point today is simply this: Every winery, and every winemaker, has a story and a personality that appeals to people on a much more profound level than just what someone enjoys drinking. Tell your story with pride!
Part 2: Three steps for a personal connection with your consumers.
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- Customer Care Series: The Tasting Room Experience I am the Harpy of Customer Service – I...
September 17th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Well put. How about spending a Saturday afternoon in the Tasting Room? You never know who you might meet!
September 17th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Cool post!
Given the plethora of passion and pride that go into a wine, its surprising to me just how ‘flat’ some winery sites feel. Making a connection with wine drinkers is paramount, particularly when that wine drinker has never tasted the winery’s juice.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I couldn’t agree more, that it is critical to correctly convey your branding at each touch point (tasting room, online, events, tours, advertising etc.). Your branding needs to be consistent throughout all “connection points” but similar to what Agent Red said above, I’ve seen far too many wineries that don’t see value in upgrading their website to reflect their wine branding. It seems that many wineries invested in a website 5 or more years back and don’t see a benefit for an online branding face lift.
And then, there are those who get it, they invest in the web and see the rewards.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Thanks for the valuable Information. It’s just so sad to say that in Germany we don’t really get outside to the public with our wineblogs. It’s just a small group of web-enthusiats that really read and comment on blogs.
I mean you can count on two hands the amount of german wineries with a blog.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
@Brent I think that online branding is incredibly important, but there can NOT be enough said for your face-time with customers. Of course, here I am working at a website - but I’m incredibly passionate about making an impact at all contact points, and that includes your first impression with someone when they walk through the doors of your tasting room.
When that same impression can be made in the online spectrum, that’s a great accomplishment that I feel every winery should work towards.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
@Patrick Its obvious that you are ahead of the curve. The majority of wineries in the United States don’t blog, either. There are many reasons for this - sometimes a winery is just a one-man operation without the time or resources to start blogging. Some wineries may not see the value in having a blog.
Blogging is just one aspect of the many ways you can connect to customers online. I’m glad to see that you are taking advantage of it!
September 28th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Love the information. Logical but so often missed by business owners that are trying to juggle 10 paltes in the air! Look forward to more communication.