Connecting with customers in an era marked by a pandemic and rapidly shifting business landscape has never been more crucial – but there are ways to do it effectively and an innovative new company may have the blueprint for success.
RedChirp™ is arming the wine industry with the ability to do real time communication with customers using a platform they know and love – texting.
“Wineries waste a lot of time and energy on phone tag,” RedChirp Founder, Jennie Gilbert points out. “Most people won’t pick up a call from a number they don’t know. Not only can you send 10 texts in the time it takes to make just one call, but people also read and respond to text messages quickly.”
Gilbert cites research that shows 59 percent of consumers reply to text messages sent with RedChirp within two minutes, with an impressive 92 percent replying in less than five.
Text message communication also lets wineries provide a more delightful customer experience by replying to their customers almost instantaneously.
“Eighty one percent of consumers in competitive situations are likely to do business with the first person that gets back to them,” Gilbert notes. “RedChirp leans into that reality by not asking wineries to work harder, but by instead giving them tools that make it easy to reply faster with the staff they already have in place.”
One great example is how RedChirp has revolutionized web chat. Now there’s no need for staff to log in and monitor it. Winery teams can go about their business and RedChirp will text all the right people, and escalate those requests if necessary, whenever customers on their website want to text.
RedChirp knows who’s working and who isn’t, so team members will never be bothered on their days off or in the middle of the night. RedChirp handles all the traffic control so it’s impossible to step on each other’s toes, and it provides complete visibility into every request and every resulting conversation.
Replying to web chat requests is easy; just click ‘Reply’ and start typing. RedChirp users will immediately be texting with their customers from their local and persistent RedChirp phone number. Consumers can reply whenever it’s convenient for them. And the best part? These text conversations can continue as long as everyone needs them to — even hours or days after the consumer has left the winery’s website.
Wineries of all sizes and in all regions are having success reaching their customers, strengthening relationships, and selling wine with RedChirp. RedChirp’s bulk texting capabilities make it easy to reach out to many members at once, saving administrative time while still making each customer feel like the message was personally crafted just for them.
Lacey Wetmore, Cellar Club Coordinator at Sokol Blosser, used RedChirp’s bulk texting feature to resolve delinquent club pickups.
Repeated calls and emails were being ignored, but just two text messages cleared up 88% of outstanding pickups within one week.
Wineries have been finding all kinds of ways to communicate better with RedChirp bulk text messages.
- Charles Krug texted 110 members with expired (or soon to expire) cards on file before their September shipment. One text cleared up 20% of updates within just 24 hours.
- The team at Cuvaison texted 118 people with declined transactions and just a few hours later reported this one text had already saved them from having to make 41 phone calls.
- Ahna Jotter at Hess Persson Estates texted all members that had not yet opened emails about the upcoming club shipment a “last call” announcement for making changes. She received dozens of happy replies with requests to change shipping addresses, update credit cards and — best of all — add more wine.
Many wineries have used RedChirp to make sure their members are in-the-know about promotions, private sales and new releases.
While it’s harder than ever to get emails past spam filters, consumers consistently see and read their text messages right away.
Ray Marcinkowski is the DTC Ecommerce Director at Hess Persson Estates and an enthusiastic RedChirp user.
“Well over half of our website traffic is on a mobile device, so being able to connect with customers on their desired platform has been fantastic,” Marcinkowski reports.
For more information about how RedChirp can assist wineries with sales, club communications and relationship building, go to: redchirp.com.
