Reserve with Google
Hair salons, dentists, medical spas, dog groomers and just about every other appointment-based business are all using online booking software to get more bookings and grow their business.
But now wineries are also incorporating wine tasting scheduling software into their business, making it easy for people to book wine tours and tastings at hours that are convenient for them.
Here’s the thing: people want to book online. Research has shown that nearly 40% of people want to book services during non-business hours. Further, ¼ of millennials will only book online at all.
When you offer online appointment bookings, you keep your business open 24/7. That means a lot more bookings than would be the case if you were only offering appointments during normal business hours.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg. With this software, your business calendar is integrated into Google Search and Google Maps. This not only allows your winery to be discovered much more easily but it also connects you to customers who are interested in your products. With this software, you know who your customers are.
As you will see, this is powerful data that businesses like yours can then use to develop deeper relationships with your clients, to build more effective marketing campaigns and above all, put yourself in a better position to sell more.
This blog post will take a look at why your winery needs booking software and some of the wineries out there that are already using this software to get more bookings, increase their profits, automate their business and save costs.
Why Your Winery Needs Online Booking Software
More Bookings, More Business Growth
First and foremost, booking software results in more wine tours and tastings being booked. There are a couple of reasons for this: first, and as we mentioned above, you are effectively keeping your business open 24/7.
If your customers fancy booking a wine tour at 11 pm at night, you want to make it easy for them to do so right then and there. You don’t want for them to book the tasting in the morning when they may have forgotten all about it or changed their mind.
But there’s another way that this software can result in more bookings for your business: enter Reserve with Google. Simply put, your business calendar is integrated into Google Search and Google Maps. Right off the bat, this makes it extremely easy for your people to discover your winery.
From here, you can sell wine, memberships and so on.
But there’s more to it as well. You likely know that today’s customers are finding businesses, services and products by using their smartphones and computers, and Google, in particular.
Reserve with Google now means that potential customers can book your services (in this case, wine tours and tastings) straight from Google. In other words, online booking software not only puts your business on the map (quite literally) but it also increases your bookings by making the process so simple.
In order for your winery to appear on Reserve with Google (and for you to get the Google book button), you have to have a scheduling system that is an official partner of Reserve with Google.
This means that when someone searches for “wine tasting Tuesday at 1 pm” in Google, your winery shows up and not anyone else:
The same is true of the Facebook Book button (that is, this software will add this button to your Facebook page), which will allow your clients from your Facebook page as well.
This gives you a glimpse at how scheduling software results in a lot more online appointment bookings.
Build A Powerful Database Of Clients Who Are Interested In Your Products
The best businesses out there today are driven by data. That is, they dig deep to find out everything they can about their customers in order to give them exactly what they want.
That’s exactly what this software does. Simply put, it connects you to customers who are interested in what you have to offer. You know who your customers are and their exact level of interest. This provides a very powerful foundation to develop even more powerful relationships with your clients and to ultimately sell more.
Let’s give you an example:
Let’s say that you offer two wine tastings: a red and a white. Your customer chooses the red. Right away, this is very powerful information that you now have at your fingertips. From here, you can then send out a survey to find out whether they prefer Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and so on.
Do they have a glass of wine with dinner every night or are they more casual drinkers?
When you know your customers’ unique preferences, lifestyle and so on, you are in a better position to meet their needs. You can sell more wine, for example, when you know exactly what they like. You can use this data to make your marketing campaigns even more effective.
Similarly, you are in a much better position to offer your client a membership to your winery when you know that he or she likes to drink a glass of wine with dinner every night.
Further, scheduling software also provides you with a powerful client management system to be able to track these personalized details along the way.
This is exactly what Stags Hollow Winery in Okanagan Falls, British Columbia is doing. When people find their winery on Google, potential customers can choose the date, time and type of service they want. Stags Hollow winery, for example, offers a classic tasting or a cellar chaperone tasting.
Customers then receive email/SMS reminders of their upcoming wine tour/tasting, reducing the possibility of no-shows. As you can see, this reduces the amount of time that your staff has to spend on the phone as well.
Automate Your Business = Increased Efficiency
You saw how this software automates your business (for example, by automating client reminders, rebooking reminders and so on). In turn, your staff spends less time on the phone and your business becomes more efficient as a result.
More Savings
The automated client notifications don’t just mean less time spent on the phone.
These automated notifications also stop your winery from losing a lot of money by reducing the number of no-shows your business gets as well as by encouraging rebookings (and therefore more business as a result).
The healthcare industry loses roughly 150 billion every year due to no-shows. Scheduling software also allows you to charge for no-shows as well (if you so choose). Not only that, but you can also charge for a booking prior to the actual appointment as well.
Streamline Your Business & Manage It On The Go
Lastly, booking software allows you to streamline your entire business. With scheduling software, you can manage your calendar from one single platform – a platform that’s user-friendly, beautiful and can be customized exactly as you want.
Moreover, cloud-technology makes it possible for you to manage your business on the go, wherever you may be located.
The Bottom Line
Booking software is easy to add to your business. Not only will scheduling software result in more wine tours and tastings, but it will grow your business and make your business more efficient and profitable as well.
Just take a cue from Stags Hollow Winery.
If you want to read more about the importance of booking software for your winery, you can read these blog posts:
- Why You Need to Take Online Bookings
- Why You Need to Start Ditching Paper Appointment Books
- Why Your Appointment Book Is Costing You Thousands
- Why Scheduling Is More Important Than Ever in 2018
Yocale is the premier destination for online booking software today. It’s also free. We also offer a range of various business-related tools – again, at absolutely no cost. Click here to sign up or learn more.
