While wine club retention has been a hot topic for a number of years, it’s never been more critical than in 2020. Between closed tasting rooms and minimal traveling, it’s a given that wineries have struggled to find new club members. This makes retention that much more important for wineries. Fortunately, the answer is simple: create more value. Any way your winery can think to add additional value for your customers will help curb attrition.  When customers see lots of value, they’re more likely to keep their membership and continue to enjoy your wine. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.

Improve Communication

Good communication is crucial to a wine club’s success and it’s one of the simplest ways for a winery to add value. A simple call every so often can go a long way to ensuring you have the most up-to-date shipping and billing information too. But a call can also help a customer feel more connected to your winery. That’s especially true right now when people aren’t traveling and many are just stuck at home. Giving them a call is a nice reminder of the times they enjoyed at your winery and it can also be a great opportunity to sell them more wine too!

Get Serious About Personalization

Are you keeping good customer records and giving customers personalized offers? If not, it’s a perfect time to start. When you know what a customer likes, you can make sure to you are creating an experience they’ll likely to enjoy. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be complicated. Finding a CRM that will allow you to keep good customer records can help you streamline your  efforts and help you to start giving your customers a more personalized experience.

Go Above and Beyond

Nordstrom is well known as being one of the best companies when it comes to customer service. Their employees are always willing to go the extra mile for a customer and it’s clear that providing the customer with an excellent experience is ingrained into the company culture. Start off by encouraging your staff to be creative in finding new ways to create a better experience for any given customer.  It’s not all up to the sales staff though. How about sending them a card on their birthday or offering them a personalized experience when they come into your winery? Any action your winery can take to go above and beyond will be a win for customer retention.

Create a Retention Plan

Do you have a plan in place to reward long-time club members? Putting one together is a great way to reward your most loyal customers. Be sure your customers are aware of how they’ll be rewarded too. When customers see how they will be rewarded above and beyond their wine shipments, they’ll be more likely to keep their membership active and stay engaged with your winery.

I hope these tips have helped you start to brainstorm new ways to improve your wine club experience. If you’re interested in creating a unique calling experience for your winery, we’re here to help. Get in touch to learn more!