Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/998810
July 2018 WINES&VINES 25 TECHNOLOGY But what happens after that — booking appointments, consumer marketing, campaign- ing and everything else that goes into selling the wine — isn't as seamless a process. "It's tougher for software to be tailored for the DtC part of the business because it's so customized. Everyone has different needs," Crum said. The winery experience is different from venue to venue, and thus each tasting room is tasked with finding a software solution — or combination of solutions — that caters to its specific style of service and sales. Patchwork programming "To be honest, there isn't one piece of software that's superior to others," Crum said. "We've gone through three different DtC softwares in the 13 years since I've been here, and none are perfect." Today, Duckhorn's tasting room soft- ware system is what Crum refers to as a "Fran- kenstein," as he and his team have created a patchwork of several systems to make their day-to-day operations work. For customer-facing software — processing in-person orders, e-commerce and managing the wine club — Duckhorn utilizes WineDirect (formerly vin65). "The most important thing that WineDirect provides is a way to create customer notes," said Crum, who emphasized the importance of documenting customer de- tails, whether purchase history or a favorite seat in the tasting room, during his panel dis- cussion at the DtC Symposium. Keeping these records assists the Duckhorn team in creating personalized experiences for each guest. "It's also how we communicate," Crum said, explaining that the notes they take within the software "speak to" the winery's other brand locations: Paraduxx, Goldeneye and Calera. So guests who visit or buy wine from any one of those locations will receive the same kind of service. When it comes to booking, however, Duck- horn uses OpenTable. "We're the first and last winery OpenTable has on their platform," Crum said. "We were one of the early adopt- ers back in 2004 and, at the time, one of the only wineries that offered a seated tasting experience." Because Duckhorn is an appointment-only venue, seating multiple private parties through- out the winery property, Crum said the hospi- tality team needs to run the tasting room more like a restaurant. What OpenTable provides is a visual layout of the space, detailing where each booked guest is seated. What it doesn't provide are notes on said guests. "We have a person on the team who will spend about half a day going through the weekend's appointments, manu- ally adding the notes from WineDirect into the reservation system," Crum said. While it's a tedious and time-consuming task, Crum said, it helps the front room staff prepare appropriately. Another piece to the Frankenstein puzzle: point of sale (POS). WineDirect does include a POS feature. "Our iPad-based POS provides tast- ing room staff with all the relevant details for club members, return visitors and pre-booked guests, including essential details like club mem- bership status, lifetime value and food or tasting preferences," said Jim Agger, vice president of marketing and business development for Wine- Direct, in an email to Wines & Vines. Crum said that he wishes he could use the WineDirect POS system and that using iPads would greatly assist with both taking notes and immediate, tableside sales. However, Duckhorn created its own customized POS system using Microsoft RMS, which, according to Crum, helps them keep better track of their multiple inven- tories across their multiple brand locations. Despite having to look elsewhere to fulfill certain business-specific needs, Crum said, Wine- Direct's ability to share customers' stories across his hospitality team is the most essential. He added he appreciates that he's allowed to provide direct feedback to WineDirect and par- ticipate in the company's roundtable discussions, alerting the company as to how it can help him better build and maintain his clientele. Single-venue solution Neil Bason, director of hospitality for Goose- cross Cellars in Yountville, Calif., said that he, too, has been through a couple of software providers and that, across the board, the func- tionality is broadly similar. "There will be key areas where one solution stands up better than the other. You just have to pick the one that works for your company," he said. Goosecross recently transitioned its tasting room software from bLoyal to eCellars, and Bason said the key to making that decision was customer support. "The solutions we used in the past were created by folks outside of Napa, sometimes even outside of California," he said. "We wanted someone with a brick-and-mortar office so we can knock on the door and ask for help if we need to." Like Duckhorn, Goosecross runs its tasting experience much like a restaurant, booking groups by appointment and catering to any specific needs. "The eCellars reservation com- ponent is very useful," said Bason, explaining that the booking feature not only pulls up cus- tomer information, but also allows the staff to send reminder and thank-you emails before and after the appointments. "It provides a KEY POINTS Identifying the specific needs of your tasting room will help identify the proper software solution(s). Find a software company that provides adequate customer support. Keeping an organized database of cus- tomers' purchases, visits and preferences will help boost overall DtC sales. The new program Customer Vineyard aims to boost amount of consumer details available to wineries. Duckhorn Cellars (above) is the only winery using Open Table reservations. Goose- cross Cellars (left) uses eCellars to organize reser- vations, wine club informa- tion, email campaigns, sales and shipments. " It's tougher for software to be tailored for the DtC part of the business because it's so customized. Everyone has different needs." —David Crum, Duckhorn Wine Co.