Some of the best wineries on the planet are using technology to offer convenient booking and payment solutions that work around the clock. Here’s what two brands are saying about
Checkfront, a cloud-based online booking and payment system that integrates with eWinery Solution’s ecommerce solution:
Treasury Wine Estates
Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) is the world’s largest pure-play listed wine company with over 80 brands, over 11,000 hectares of vineyards and sales of 32 million cases of wine annually.
Lisa Barbour, Treasury Wine Estates’ Customer Service Manager, reflects that in the past, the process to book a tasting began with an online form. This created an opportunity in Salesforce to book a reservation. “One of the downsides we experienced was that without a financial commitment from the customer, we could have upwards of 30% of guest bookings resulting in no shows,” she says.
Sometimes a small deposit can make the difference between a handful of no shows and a full tour. Checkfront’s integration with eWinery Solutions is a winning combination that is now used by several TWE wineries, including Chateau St. Jean.
Checkfront snaps into your existing website and is hosted in their secure cloud environment so there’s no software to install, update or patch. “Checkfront, together with eWinery Solutions, is a comprehensive solution that enables any size of winery to offer the convenience of online bookings and payments to their guests,” says Grant Jurgeneit, Checkfront’s CEO.
But Checkfront is more than booking, payments and availability management. You can sell gift certificates, manage bookings on the go using Checkfont’s iOS and Android apps, and much more. “Imagine you have a tour booked and they’re visiting a couple wineries before yours,” says Grant. “They sip some wine, get a little chatty… Checkfront integrates with Twilio so you can send guests SMS reminders of their upcoming tour.”
Lisa and the team at TWE have seen numerous benefits since implementing Checkfont. TWE’s international guests are pleased that they can ensure they won’t miss a chance to reserve a tasting prior to their trip abroad. “The biggest improvement using Checkfront was the 24/7 extension of the winery to the international guests and the resulting customer convenience, says Lisa. “We see up to 80% of our tasting bookings happening online now and expect it will continue to increase.”
Chappellet
Chappellet is one of Napa Valley's oldest family-run wineries and runs a busy tasting room. Open seven days a week for tastings, the winery schedules up to nine special events each day. Chappellet has used Checkfront with eWinery Solutions to manage their online tasting bookings for over two years. Their last season was record breaking, with at least 50% more business over the previous season.
When Chappellet initially deployed Checkfront, Marketing Coordinator Carrie Mullen said, "Customers have the ability to book virtually every type of reservation or appointment possible online, so it’s important to offer that same level of convenience to winery visitors." With Checkfront, Chappellet’s customers can book an appointment whenever they want, on any device, via their website or Facebook.
Allowing customers to book their own appointments has helped Chappellet cost-effectively grow their customer base while decreasing lost opportunities as a result of missed phone calls or emails. Checkfront has also simplified Chappellet’s booking process because customers can also cancel or reschedule at their convenience.
“In the past, customers were left to use forms,” says Chappellet’s Tasting Room Manager, Jonathan Henson. “We had to rely on guests and concierges to call or email back and forth to make a reservation. Now, we can control everything, from available events and dates to minimum and maximum number of guests, right from our own website or Facebook.”
Jonathan continues, “Checkfront is a remarkable tool. It works really well for the wine industry and is more flexible than what we had used in the past. Our tasting room staff love Checkfront and our guests say booking is an intuitive process.”
Take a closer look at Checkfront’s eWinery-friendly
online booking software and sign-up for a free trial account.
