In this week and next week’s blogs we are going to take a look into the very different types of people who walk into wineries and what kinds of questions you can ask to each of the different categories of customers described in last week’s blog.
Caution: If you are a person who does not like people much, whether they are people you already know or those you have only just met, working in a hospitality center in a winery is probably not the job for you. If you do like people, working in the hospitality center is both rewarding and enjoyable. It can also be an interesting job for anyone training to be a psychology as you meet all sorts of people
Category One A: Visitors who are not familiar with your winery, wine in general or do not drink wine regularly.
- Introduce yourself and leave time to introduce themselves.
- Ask general questions to assess their wine knowledge as you do not yet know if they are new to wine or wine aficionados.
- Ask them about the wines they drink. If they don’t drink wine find out what they drink.
- If people are new to wine, they made not know how to pronounce the names. Go through the list with them saying the names of the wines out loud.
- Recommend wines to them based on the information they have given you.
- Provide snippets of information that they can impress their friends with.
- Mention that the wine club is a great way to learn about wines they may not have tried.
Category One B: First time visitors who are wine knowledgeable.
- Wine aficionados will usually let you know by using wine jargon or asking about lesser known varietals. Listen to them and let them talk about the wines they like. It will give you a lot of information as to which of your wines they are most likely to like or buy.
- Ask them questions about wine.
- What varietals do they prefer?
- Do they have a favorite wine and what is it?
- What was the first wine they fell in love with?
- What was the most unusual wine they ever had?
Next week will we address Categories Two and Three: Guests who come regularly to see you and converts who will tell the world about your winery, wines and why they love to visit and buy from you.
A tip of the glass from me to you.
E Column
by Elizabeth “E” Slater, In Short Direct Marketing
A recognized expert in the fields of direct marketing and sales in the wine marketplace. Slater has taught more wineries and winery associations how to create and improve the effectiveness of their direct marketing programs and to make the most of each customer’s potential than anyone in the wine industry today.
