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One of the hot topics in the wine industry right now is customer service. How do we handle paid tours, buses, limos, and our day to day customers while keeping everyone happy, ourselves sane, and our wineries profitable.
Fujishin Family Cellars has never charged a tasting fee for groups smaller than 15. Even with large groups we only charge $3/per person. We charge that fee for one simple reason. For groups that size we need to have another person on staff to ensure that they receive excellent customer service. Many wineries currently complain that large groups come in and drink all their wine and leave. They advocate tasting fees for all visitors, higher fees for medium sized groups, and possibly banning buses and limos altogether.
They are forgetting one exceptionally important thing.... We are in a customer service business. Yes we produce wines, yes we need to make a profit, but realistically our main concern should be our customers. We need to make sure that every person that walks through that front door has an exceptional experience wheather they stepped out of their own car or a 40-passenger bus. When the average member of the public talks to their friends about their experience touring the wineries in any region they very rarely mention a particular wine. They always tell their friends about the great experience they had at (insert name here) winery. It's exceptionally rare that they lead their story about their recent trip to Walla Walla or Napa with "oh, so the other day we had the best chardonnay." What the do lead with is "Last week we were in Napa Valley and we had the best time at V. Sattui." It's the experience that sticks in their minds long after the taste of the wines is gone.
Tasting fees are the new industry standard. I can understand using that model if you are getting 5000 visitors a week and only a small percentage of those tasters buy. If you have those sorts of volumes you could pour your entire inventory out in tastings. We aren't anywhere near those levels in the Idaho industry yet. If they receive something in return for the tasting fee such as a glass or a complimentary gift, maybe. Most of our visitors are regulars or travelers. Regulars don't necesarily need another glass for their shelf at home, and travellers find it difficult to get the tasting glasses home. Many wineries offer to refund the fee if you purchase a bottle of wine. That's great but then you have to keep track of each visitor, the fee paid, and the discount to be paid out. This is a logistical nightmare for our staff really, and it takes away from what they should be doing with their time: Taking care of the customer! Our school of thought is, if you come to our tasting room, you should be able to taste our wines. There is a reason it is called a "tasting room." If our wines are something you like and are priced right you will buy them. If not you won't. We won't be offended if it's not your taste, we won't expect you to leave with a case, and we will treat you well if you buy or not. It's a very simple metric and it works for us.
It should make no difference at all to us what level of affluence our customers have, how they came to us, how they are dressed, or who they know. Every person that comes through the front door of our tasting rooms should be treated like they are our best customer! If we follow that school of thought, maybe in time they will be.....