If you’re like most wineries, your wine club is one of the most important drivers of DtC wine sales. The perfect way to guarantee sales, the reality is that wine clubs can also be difficult to maintain.
For many wineries, the more successful their club is, the more time and money it costs to run and wineries are forced to choose between slowing their club growth or facing even higher costs to hire a club manager. But there is an alternative. Streamlining your admin costs and cutting the time it takes to complete a club run with wine club software can make even the most unwieldy club manageable.
So if you’re struggling with your wine club and recognise these signs, it might be time to consider the world of wine club software.
You don’t know what’s happening in your club
Don’t know how many members you have or how long people stay on average? Most wine club software will help you keep track of things like club growth and your average membership time as well as order size. Not only will this make it easier to understand the success of your club, it can also help you identify the effectiveness of new marketing or approaches as well as give you a quick way to identify some of your most valued customers.
You don’t want to grow your club any larger
We’ve spoken to wineries who don’t actively try and grow their club members, simply because they feel as though they don’t have the time to dedicate to a larger club and can’t afford to hire a club manager. Missing out on this recurring income can have a significant impact on your direct wine sales, lowering your profitability and even impacting on stock control.
You take more than a day to complete a club run
There’s no denying that a traditional club run can take a lot of time. From confirming orders, following up expired credit cards, organising shipping and reciepts, the more members you have, the longer this process is. However, wine club software will include automation and integrations that cut the required time substantially.
You’re processing payments one by one
Another time consuming element to running a wine club is the actual taking of payments. If you currently need to do these payments individually for all of your club members, this is another thing that wine club software can make easier. By introducing batch payment, you can simply click a single button to charge all of your customers in one easy go.
You have to chase up declined or expired credit cards
Failed credit card payments don’t simply cost you time, they’re also a huge contributor to wine club attrition. By streamlining this process and giving you smart ways to contact customers, wine club software can help you lower your attrition rate and save you time. In fact, the best wine club software out there will even auto-update cards for you!
You have to organise shipping manually
While you might still have to pack your orders, organising shipping is another thing that wine club software can help with. Most software will include inventory for packaging items and will also integrate with couriers to make the creation and printing of shipping labels far smoother.
Your customers can’t customise their order without calling you
For wineries that run clubs where members can pick their own selection, it can be frustrating to force customers to call you or wait for you to call them to make this happen. In contrast, a lot of wine club software will allow them to change their order online and even send out emails to remind them to do so. You should even be able to set a standard order that can be sent if a customer fails to make any changes.
You can’t easily identify club members in your cellar door
Club members are some of your most important customers and they deserve special treatment when they visit you. However, the bigger the club is, the harder this can be to do on sight. However, most wine club software will either include or integrate with a CRM, giving all your staff the opportunity to identify them and give those special benefits.
You struggle to send club members emails
As wine club software integrates with a CRM, it will also make it easier for you to contact just your club members without more time consuming admin. Whether this is for an exclusive newsletter or to invite them to special events, these emails can help customers value their membership even more.
Your club manager is too busy to build relationships
Club managers unfortunately do spend a lot of their time completing the necessary admin around wine clubs. However, at its core, this role should be about building relationships with your customers and inspiring loyalty to your brand. If your Club Manager is struggling to find the time to do this, wine club software can help create that extra time.
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