Customer service is many things; it’s an art, it’s a necessity, it’s a balance, and it’s the most important thing that a business can provide to their clientele! Whether the business is a wine tasting room, a restaurant, a retail store, a trade, or a professional services organization, there is nothing more important than providing an impeccable level of customer service. Sure, the product is important, so is the environment and the deliverables, but without customer service people won’t keep coming back, and isn’t that what business is based on? Perception, reputation, word of mouth, and the overall experience that a customer has can and will make or break a business!
As you know, we spend a lot of time in tasting rooms, restaurants, wine bars, etc. and both work closely with customers in our day jobs. You’ve heard us talk about our experiences out there eating and drinking, and we’ve heard you tell us about your experiences. Well, the buck stops here! We’re ready to break it down, lay it on the line, and start talking more about those experiences in detail and we want to hear more about your experiences. It’s one thing to talk about the great times…but what about the bad times? We’ve held back, not wanting to call anybody out or piss anybody off, but if we can put the information out there in a positive and constructive way that generates awareness and improvement, isn’t that a good thing? Nobody wants to hear that they didn’t do a great job, but feedback is invaluable and can hopefully lead to learning and improvement. After all, we want Paso Robles to stand out and be the best!
Here’s some specific experiences that we’ve had:
– We walk in to the J. Lohr Tasting Room in Paso Robles and get greeted as we walk in the door. One of the attendants invites us up to the bar and pulls out a couple of glasses…tasting ensues! We have a great time and buy a few bottles and go back often.
– We walk into the Turley Winery’s Tasting Room, stand at the door and wait for somebody to acknowledge us, not knowing where we should go. After some time, somebody notices that we’re standing there looking lost, and invites us up. We wait another several minutes until they offer us a tasting….we end up sharing a tasting and leave without purchasing anything, even though we liked some of the wines.
Where would you rather spend time? While we think both J. Lohr and Turley have nice wines…we’ll vote to hang out at the J. Lohr tasting bar, and will probably end up buying wine and even joining their club. Why? Because they made us feel more welcome and executed stellar customer service. Now, we recognize that Turley has a great tasting room, and nice wines, but it all comes down to how you feel when you walk through that door…right?
I am a firm believer in people spend their money where they have a good experience, not the one that has the high score wine. In fact I just wrote a similar blog post with a mention of you from one of your experiences.Great minds think a like! 🙂
The reputation you mention is a big thing. There are tasting rooms I’ve never been to because I’ve heard how bad they are in treating people. I also believe that sometimes things can get lost from large corporations. Many tasting rooms (not so much in Paso) are owned by Constelllation Brands, Kendell-Jackson, Diageo, and Gallo, just to name a few. Those are what I call grocery store wines with the giant aisle end caps producing mass volumes of wine. Nothing wrong with any of it……I just feel sometimes bigger corporations can either have a leg up on some aspects, while other things they might drop the ball. Both tasting rooms you mention I believe have big money behind them and likely far removed from the owners and winemakers. One of the many things I love about Paso Robles is when you visit many tasting rooms the owner is there to look you in the eye when they pour your their wine that they produced from their family property. Cheers Matt & Annie, hope you guys have a blast at #cabernetday!
Hey Shawn, thanks for your thoughts! And, thanks for the mention in your similar article!! http://bit.ly/pw2qpk
We have had some incredible experiences, and some horrific experiences and do our best to pay attention and react accordingly. Whether it’s giving a great tip to a waitress that was completely on her game, or letting a manager or owner know about their employee that let us sit waiting for 20 minutes while she talked on her cell phone! It’s really not that hard…after all, we all just want to be acknowledged and treated with respect.
Anyhoo, we’ll raise a virtual glass of Paso Cab in your direction on #CabernetDay! Cheers!!!
I agree Matt, my sister and I went to The Wine Crush in Long Beach, they had a chili cook-off/tasting at 2:00 and we were the first ones to arrive at 1:55, two brothers own the wine shopp, we sat at the bar, than two other girls came in and sat at the bar, then an older couple in their late sixties or older came in, when we left our wine list on the counter and glass we went outside to get some chili the elderly couple took our spot when there was plenty of room futher down the counter rather than say hey were are there I said excuse me and moved our chairs down grabbed our wine list and turned my back on the couple and didn’t acknowlege them or talk to them the rest of the day, we just shook our heads and said how rude is that! My sister and I mingled with the rest of the crowd but never talking to these rude people and believe it or not they were regulars, I heard them talking about leaving for the Pageant of the Masters at 4:30 it starts so it started to get crowded so everyone at the bar went out to the patio so I asked my sister if she wanted to go out there because they moved the wine to outside so we found a table away from this couple and never spoke to them. The wines weren’t to bad; the brothers weren’t that friendly and my sister wanted to join their wine club but changed her mind she still bought two bottles, I didn’t buy any. Do you think I should send the brothers an email and mention it to them I’m sure they would remember, if they paid any attention because the couple was talking to the owner behind the bar when all this happened. Everyone voted for the chile for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place so I did email the wine shope to find out who won the chili but I never got an answer, (and I’m on their mailing list too).
Hi Bev! It sounds like you have strong feelings about your experience at the Wine Crush…and I would encourage you to let them know about it. After all, it’s affecting whether or not you’ll go back there, whether or not you purchased wine, and is why your sister didn’t join their club. Our approach is to always come from a constructive/positive place and hope that our feedback is received well. It seems that good business people would welcome feedback as an opportunity to learn and improve, but it just doesn’t always work out that way, does it??? Cheers!!!
Thanks Annie, I will send the Wine Crush another email this time letting them know how rude the couple was, and too bad he didn’t apolize for their behavior to us later, but he probably didn’t think nothing of it. Since they aren’t responsible for people’s lack of courtesy. Maybe suggest a cute little sign, please share counter space with other wine drinkers, something to that effect, especially since it wasn’t crowded at the bar, go figure?
I like your ideas, Bev! Go with it…you never know! Keep us updated!!
I truly believe a wine server can make it or break it when tasting wines and especially when it comes to purchasing wines. One of my pet peeves is when you are not properly greeted (find your own spot at the wine bar) and once they acknowledge you (in a lackluster way at times) they CANNOT keep the tasting going – leaving you hanging there – just drives me a little nuts. We have been paying more attention to customer service and have started giving more credit to those that deserve it. I am the more vocal one and will place a complaint when not satisfied and most times the situation has been rectified. We both work in customer service and would like a little customer service when we are out and about. We need to work on that if a place does not really feel right to just walk out – we accept it and then complain to each other later on when we should have just walked away. Great post – Thanks for sharing.
Hey Renee! YES!!! Power to the people…hehehe. We’ve been in the same boat as you, a few too many times. I think that’s why we’ve agreed to start talking about the not-so-great experiences. Time is precious, and when you go out into the world, you shouldn’t have to waste energy feeling frustrated for something that’s so easily fixed. A couple of points here and there and it makes a HUGE difference! Greet people when they arrive, after all, they’re here to taste your wine! Engage a little with people, we all like to feel important now and then. Pay attention to what’s going on around you, customers are there to receive some sort of service from you, provide that service with integrity and pride!
Phewwww, okay, climbing down off the soap box….
Great topic! I have been with J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines for almost 10 years now. It’s great working for a large company like J.Lohr that is still family owned and operated. Many of the J. Lohr employees have been with the company for a long time, and there is a “sense” of family. On the days that I work, I try my best to make our guests feel welcome. I treat them like family. Visiting other tasting rooms is something that I try to keep up on, as I often refer my guests to other wineries. The majority of my visits to other tasting rooms has been pleasant, and I most certainly recommend them to my guests. Unfortunately, there have been some not so memorable tasting experiences as well; and needless to say, they don’t get recommended. Customer service is huge! That next bottle of wine you order at a restaurant or purchase at the market, will most likely not be from a winery where you’ve had a bad tasting experience.
Kelly Girl – thanks for the comment!!! You’re one of the reasons that we’ve come back to J. Lohr so many times! You’re one of the best, and you do a great job and making people feel at home and well-taken care of.
Unfortunately, people usually talk more about their bad experiences than they do about their good ones, so the negative stuff tends to propagate faster than the positive. That being said, we LOVE sharing our great experiences with people! Keep doin what you do, KG! You rock!!!!
Kelly Girl! Wow, I could not agree more! Wines that my wife and I loved drinking so much in the past somehow now have a sour taste and we no longer purchase those wines. I’ve never worked a tasting room, but many years in restaurants and can guess it must be tough dealing with so many different people. I would bet you could write your own blog on your tasting room experiences.
Great to hear from Matt & Annie digging your spot and sounds like you’ve got your “A game.” Cheers all!
She definitely does have her “A Game” goin on!!!
Getting the tasting room right is the hardest thing we do at Eberle. We try so hard to have the right number of people to host anyone who comes through our door. Typically on weekends we have 9 and 7 during the week. Since we give guided tours we need 1 person giving tours at any given time. We are far from the largest winery in Paso, but I have always said I would rather have 3 of our people standing around polishing glasses than not be able to greet and serve people as they come in the door, and just when it seems like every thing is going great a bus pulls up and drops 45 people into the tasting room. We get overwelmed and I know our customers are disappointed, but I don’t know what the answer is. We have a 43 foot long serving bar and I have seen it 4 and 5 deep with people trying to get service. I can’t expand my bar and I don’t want to turn people away. I have been told to charge a large fee for tasting and a lot of people would not come. Maybe that is the problem solver, but I just cannot bring myself to charge to taste. I think it is bad business in the long run and works against building a brand and friends long term.
I know that our face to the world is our tasting room and the people that are there to greet and serve the public. We try to be the nicest people you ever meet, but there are days and we’ve all had them. I get complaints and some are real and we deal with them, but my people are also treated to some terrible treatment at times. I am amazed at how rude some people can be when they have to wait 30 seconds for a free sample of wine when we are slammed and it is obvious that we are trying. We really want our customers to have a good experience at Eberle and if you really feel we have let you down tell me or one of our tasting room managers. One of us is always there.
Hey gary, Annie and I have been in there many, many times over the last 5 years and to be honest, we have never had bad service from one of your people…we have however, run into the wine consumer from hell that thinks they are the only important one in the room. I understand the “rock and a hard place” you guys are in as a tasting room, there is no answer to make everyone happy, but places like yours, J. Lohr, and numerous others in Paso do a fantastic job at making each patron feel valued…in my opinion!!
You are awesome Gary, you explained that well, that’s why you have been around so long, your honesty and you make amends when things go wrong (unfortunately I haven’t been to your winery to taste your wines and to meet you yet. but I will). We all need to be educated on how things work for the owner, especially having a bus load of 45 people to have to wait on, that must of been stressful. I wish I could have been around and maybe volunteered to help. My sister loves your wine, so I guess I should order some so I can say hey I’ve tasted Eberle’s wine. Keep up the good work. Thanks! Cheers! 🙂
You go, Bev! Get some of that Eberle Cab and go crazy! You won’t be disappointed!!!
I must say I agree with the comments above – J. Lohr tasting room is always welcome, friendly, inviting! I’ve also had some very good experiences at Eberle and a recent visit to Rotta was also great. But I have had bad experiences at many in the area too. Why anyone would ignore or be down right rude to potential customers is beyond me. That was a smidgen of my first and only visit to Tobin James – it was not all it was cracked up to be if you ask me. I work with the public every day so maybe I’m a little more critical because I expect to get back what I give. A welcoming greeting is key. Smiling and using customers names – also a must. Making a connection with your customers & being human is all it takes every day. Here here to the great wineries out there that are setting the standards 🙂 Not only will you get repeat customers that buy your product but also referrals from your raving fans!
Hi Stephanie! Thanks for the input…and agreed that customer service is pretty easy! A smile, and acknowledgement, even a “hello, I’ll be right with you” will go a long way! Rotta is awesome, another of our favorite places for great service, deep history, and good wine! That’s too bad your experience at Tobin wasn’t great, we’ve had some really good times there. They tend to get really busy and hectic on the weekends, so you never know. Give them another try one of these days! Cheers!
Yes it is hard to get the right balance and we really try at Eberle. That bus with 45 on it doesn’t come once a year, but at least 3 times a week in the summer and twice in the winter. Also limos and wine tours are almost daily and 3 to 9 times a day on weekends. We try to take care of everyone but sometimes it just falls down. Let me know if you’re there when the merde hits the rotating device.
BBQ on Sunday the 4th. 12:00 till about 3:30.
Ha! Great visual on the rotating device, Gary! Would love to come to the BBQ, but have a family “thing” that day! How dare they interrupt our Labor Day fun with family things, right?