Getting Folks Back to the Tasting Room

Some are ready to come back out wine tasting now any way they can. Some will not come back until things get back to the normal of a few months ago. Then there is what's probably the largest group of folks in the middle that will maybe come back, depending on certain conditions. It may be if they feel safe. It may be if they think it will still be fun.

image from noozhawk.com

As tasting rooms started reopening they have seen pretty decent traffic. These are the people that couldn't wait to get back to their wine tasting "hobby."

Winery visits are different now. You have an appointment meaning if you're early you'll sit around and wait. If you're late you'll be stressing about it. You're greeted by hosts wearing masks while you also are wearing one and reminded of the potential danger. Are they even smiling at you? Then there's the list of instructions about what to do and what not to do. If you don't follow someone is not going to be happy. Maybe not much interaction with the winery staff. How do you go about buying wine?

So, anxiety up, happiness down. That's no way to go wine tasting.

What's a winery to do?

• Simple, easy to understand instructions to follow. These should be similar to other wineries. No reason to add anything new to confuse people. 
• How do you treat someone that forgets their mask? Have masks for them? Train the staff to treat them nicely and not assume they're doing it as a protest.
• Find out if it's their first time out since the reopening and spend some time explaining what's different.
• People are going to be early and should have somewhere to wait besides in their car or in the hot sun. It they're late don't let that be a problem. Have enough flexibility in your schedule. If a winery is new to tastings by appointment the biggest mistake they can make is schedule them too close together to where you have to cancel people who are 20 minutes late or you have to rush tasters because you have another group coming.
• Use outdoor tastings where possible because I believe most will feel safer in that environment. At least I know I would.
• Spend lots of time chatting with the group (at six feet away).
• It should be easy to buy wine. Is it contactless? Maybe you want to make it really easy to have their wines shipped with one dollar shipping or something similar.
• Have masks with smiley faces for the staff? Or at least something cheerful. Maybe with a wine theme. Maybe you sell them.

You'll need some creativity to come up with things that make guests feel relaxed and happy with their visit. Yes, it's going to be more difficult to do this, but if you're a tasting room manager this is why you get the big bucks.  :)  Good luck to everybody.