For years WISE has been collecting data on a variety of key best practices for the tasting room through our Mystery Shopping program. We’ve compiled the data from over 450 shops in 2022 and one thing that continues to come up as an opportunity for the industry as a whole…
WISE attends a lot of trade shows and conferences. Not only is it a way for us to connect with WISE wineries, it offers us a chance to hear trends and themes across multiple regions. This gives us a 30,000 foot view of the wine industry in the US. Here…
When traffic is down, it’s important to make the most of every single guest walking through our door. While most wineries are hiring friendly staff with strong service hearts, sales skills continue to be an area of opportunity for our industry. Many people worry that selling wine is too pushy,…
Inspiration from one of the World’s Top Restaurants – Don Julio One of our WISE employees, Tristyne, was traveling last month and filling up her ‘hospitality well’. She just returned from an amazing trip to Argentina and came back with some great insights. This trip was full of amazing wines…
The West Coast has been enjoying all this rain – well over 150% of normal by some accounts. In true WISE fashion, there is a lesson to be learned as we typed this to the sounds of the storm outside. A common question on the news reports has been “Will…
Raise your hand if your winery enjoyed a spike in wine club acquisition in 2021. We have heard (and seen the metrics) that many wineries were able to not only keep their club members through 2020, but also saw an increase in acquisitions in 2021 with the increased traffic. Fantastic!…
A group walks in. They are greeted with a splash of wine and as they are seated, IDs are checked. The server comes by to introduce themself and break the ice. Shortly after introductions are made it becomes evident that this is not this groups first winery today. Uh-oh. One…
We’ve been hearing how visitation has been down over the last few months of summer and that has many wineries worried about their wine clubs. Since most members are converted to club from the tasting room, we need the traffic to acquire a lot of club members, but we also…
As we mentioned in our previous blog and content email, traffic is down everywhere. We can only do so much to increase our sales in the tasting room when the traffic is slow. We previously covered how to manage what we can control – our guest experience from start to…
There is a perfect storm brewing. It is time to batten down the hatches! A recurring theme is coming up in recent WISE conversations all over the country. From our friends in the New York Finger Lakes to wineries in Texas Hill Country, from Woodinville, WA to Temecula, CA we…