06/27/08 Tasting Room Instruction

Tasting Room Instruction. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. They are those always smiling, ever helpful and most knowledgeable people behind the bar pouring that great tasting wine. And it is their job to make sure you enjoy the whole experience. There is a bit of art to the job of managing a wine tasting room and now you can learn it. BALL: We're very excited because we are bringing in a pretty high quality speaker Elizabeth Slater from In Short Marketing out of California. She's just got a wonderful reputation and ability to address some needs that we have in the area of customer service, tasting room management, dealing with people. All those kinds of skills. That is Trent Ball with Yakima Valley Community College Vineyard & Winery Technology who is hosting this special seminar. Ball says these skills are really important to learn. BALL: That is your first opportunity to connect with the customer. And so when they step in, not only are they taking visual cues from your place but then that first customer/employee contact that you have  they can be turned on or turned off or feel invited and then in addition once you've got them there, how do you keep them engaged. And ultimately Ball says you are looking for a sale. He says there are two parts to this workshop. BALL: The morning workshop is specifically for customer service. Looking at innovative customer service techniques and that's really meant for any business. And the second workshop, it's specifically for tasting room management and effective profitable ways for you to manage your tasting room. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.