We've compiled a few key focus areas to assist cellar doors towards achieving a greater customer value proposition and consequently, better sales conversion in the cellar door.
MANAGEMENT
1) RECRUITMENT:
○ Hiring the appropriate candidate eliminates several issues down the road.
○ Most (not all) CV’s these days are, for the most part, extremely well-articulated works of fiction.
○ The most effective approach to recruitment in the modern era is to assess the candidate against the values and behaviours which define your company culture.
2) INDUCTIONS & ONBOARDING:
○ The importance of a formalised induction programme is highly advantageous.
○ Establishing a structured expectation of staff performance upon commencement of tenure is the most effective way of creating consistent cellar door service from the get-go.
3) CULTIVATING A CULTURE
○ Purely focusing on the skills around service will not guarantee consistency of output.
○ Management must instead focus on developing a culture within the team where the desired and expected behaviours are reiterated on a constant basis.
4) PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
○ Of significant importance is the implementation of a performance management process for the cellar door team.
○ Team members must have absolute clarity as to what day-to-day success looks like and be measured accordingly.
5) STRUCTURED FEEDBACK
○ Lastly, it is important that management schedule regular feedback sessions with the cellar door team so that individuals are aware of where they are succeeding and where the opportunity lies to improve.
CELLAR DOOR STAFF
1) A SEAMLESS PRE-ARRIVAL AND BOOKING PROCESS:
○ Guests contacting the establishment prior to arrival to make a booking or just to enquire about the experience should enjoy a seamless and convenient experience.
○ An unnecessary number of rings or delayed responses to emails only serves to deter customers.
○ The booking process, if required, should be simple and achievable in an omnichannel fashion (Telephonic, online, email, live chat, WhatsApp etc)
2) AN EMPHASIS ON ARRIVING GUESTS
○ A surprisingly large number of cellar door experiences leave arriving guests to their own devices for too long before assistance is offered.
○ Your arriving guests are always your most important because it is at this point of the customer journey that the overriding perception of the experience is created.
○ A proactive and professional guest greeting and orientation will increase per-head spend and lead to a higher overall satisfaction score.
3) UTILISING AN AGILE APPROACH WHEN CONDUCTING TASTINGS
○ Visitors to a cellar-door experience potentially cover a broad spectrum of wine knowledge and appreciation.
○ Exceptional tasting hosts will first seek to understand before being understood.
○ In order to make a sale, one first needs to connect with the customer which we achieve through dialogue.
○ The best sales-people in the cellar door space (and any other for that matter) will always ask the most questions of their customers.
○ They are collecting the dots so that they can connect the dots.
4) THE ABILITY TO ORDER WINE OR PROVIDE FEEDBACK VIA MOBILE DEVICE
○ Rather than requiring a guest to order from a printed price list or tablet which they first have to figure out how to operate, enable the device they are most familiar with - their mobile phone.
○ QR-code technology, as well as online forms today, enable a far more convenient and seamless ordering process which is safer and puts the control in the hands of the customer.
RCA operates as a training and performance management partner to a collection of wine estates amongst other hospitality and retail brands.
To find out more about how we help business optimise their cellar door value proposition, email info@rcaconsult.com.