Asking the Hard Questions The decision about whether to begin an Outbound Hospitality program – that is, initiating calls to your customers – is a difficult one. There is no question that an outbound program is advantageous for many reasons – the best reason is that it is a highly…
The U.S. Travel Association with MMGY Global recently released a report on travel intentions in this season of COVID. No surprise that fewer people will be traveling in the next six months. Factors that have the greatest impact on willingness to travel will be whether there is a decline in…
We have all read the news this week and are well-aware of the effects of COVID-19 on the economy. As a DTC Manager, you may be feeling a bit of panic with the possibility of a weekend of cancelations ahead. We wanted to offer you some ideas to help offset…
In a survey conducted in January through March 2020, there were more than 200 survey respondents from across the United States and Canada giving feedback on tipping. The results? Most wineries allow tipping. When we looked at all respondents, 78% allow tipping. This was even higher in Washington and Oregon…
How many guest experiences are too many? Are we confusing our visitors with too many choices? Consider this simple interaction in a restaurant regarding water: Would you like water? Yes Sparkling or still? Sparkling With ice or no ice? With ice Poured by a left-handed person or a right-handed…
Bribery or Bonus? A fair amount of outrage has grown recently about the topic of ‘bribing’ gatekeepers (by gatekeepers we mean concierge at hotels, other wineries’ staff, drivers, restaurant wait staff or host/hostess, etc.). What you ask??? Are some wineries actually paying gatekeepers to send us qualified customers? Bribery is…
To tip or not to tip…that is the question facing many tasting rooms today. A few years ago, if you had asked us at WISE how we felt, many of our instructors and our leadership would have been against the notion of tipping. We are hospitality – we eat, sleep,…
Friends of ours at a PR Firm, who attend a lot of travel-trend conferences, have shared some new trends in travel that we thought we’d share as many of these are pretty exciting opportunities that are custom-made for visitors to wine country. Here are some of the major highlights that have been reported recently that we can certainly take advantage of.
There is an art and a science to delivering exceptional winery tours, and both are equally important. The science is in the choreography and the content, but the true art is in the presentation and delivery.
We know, in some regions, that traffic control is a real problem. Other areas – like Napa and Sonoma – are often looking for more qualified traffic into our wineries. And of course, when it comes to traffic levels in our tasting rooms, it sometimes seems like it’s either feast…