Summers are one of the best times of the year for winery’s with all the summer traffic from tourists. It creates the perfect opportunity for you to get organized and start growing your list of customers. That way, when the holiday season rolls around again, you will have that information ready to go when you’re ready to kick-off your fall calling campaign and start you push for holiday sales.
Make it Easy for Visitors to Join Your Wine Club
One big mistake that many wineries make is not giving visitors ample opportunity to sign up for their wine club. Be sure tasting room employees are asking when a customer wants a case of wine shipped to them. You can even incentivize customers to join. Something like offering free shipping is a great incentive because it means you don’t have to discount your wine.
Capture their Email and Phone Number
Just because wine clubs aren’t for everyone doesn’t mean you should miss out on getting emails and phone numbers from someone who doesn’t want to sign up. Offer a regular newsletter about your winery they can sign up for. You’ll see better results if you create a giveaway for individuals that sign up.
Use Your Ecommerce Platform
While this one isn’t going to happen in the tasting room, it’s important to remember your online customers too. When a customer places an order on your website, are you using their information to reach out to them at a later date? If not you’re not only missing out on an opportunity to sell them wine, but also to simply connect with them. A call can be as simple as calling them to see how they enjoyed your wine.
Have a Kiosk in the Tasting Room
Designate an area in your tasting room to help sign up customers for newsletters and special promotions. Not only will this help you capture more customer information, but it gives visitors a specific place where they can learn more about your winery and can take some of the strain off of tasting room staff.
When capturing customer information, it is important to remember to be creative and give them value. They’re much more likely to give you their information if they can see that they will get something out of it. That doesn’t always have to be some big give-away either. It can even be as simple as giving them more information about wine. At the end of the day, it’s all about creating a great customer experience.