The Wine Farm That Couldn’t
It was a Saturday and the decision of the day was to go wine tasting in Stellenbosch – we jumped in a car and drove west. To our amazement, our friend Nikky dug up a dusty Stellenbosch wine route guide from the bottom of her seemingly bottomless Mary Poppins variety of a hand bag… we were set.
We nominated Dylan, as he is in advertising and assured us that marketers are not liars, to select from the wine guide, the best attempt at selling an experience – we found one, it sounded AMAZING, we drove on.
Upon arrival we were not let down by the books depiction and ventured into a picturesque estate.
It was when we sat down to eat lunch that the fun hit the fan.
With a hovering waiter who couldn’t resist from telling us that we needed to eat quickly, as he’d like to go home early, and on top of that we were told that we underpaid by a substantial amount (we were actually overcharged when they added an extra head by mistake). The food was not great.
After this we quickly forgot the great spontaneous day that got us there and left thinking that we had just been to a bad restaurant.
As a marketer they thrived, but as an experience they failed to live up to the expectations they fashioned.
It is very difficult to have a hand in ones staffs’ attitude towards customers, but it is extremely simple to make an effort as a manager/host to go the extra mile to make your customers feel special.
Dylan made a suggestion – our table was 10+ people generating over R1500 in revenue… a good idea would’ve have been to offer our table a complementary bottle of wine to try – costs the estate nothing… they make it, but this gesture would’ve saved the day when it came to customer service and measuring up to the promise that they created through their marketing.
Success is not in the marketing. It’s not in the customer service or from having beautiful location. It happens by combining everything to create an unforgettable experience and then some.
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