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3 June 2008

Hawke’s Bay Cellar Door Experience “Exceptionally Good”

Mystery shopper research has rated Hawke’s Bay wineries as “exceptionally good” in providing customer cellar door experiences that the researchers say would be the envy of any city retail association.

In reporting the findings to the 29 participating wineries, Customer Care director Melissa Wilson said that the high overall rating showed visitors to local cellar doors were enjoying the experience and consequently would be making repeat visits and referrals to others.

“The overall results are absolutely fantastic and for a first time exercise, provide a very high benchmark to progress from.”

The research was conducted in March this year and involved two separate telephone calls and personal visits to each winery by different ‘shoppers’.  The shoppers judged each cellar door over five separate aspects including telephone service, cellar door and staff presentation, service experience, information and merchandising and developing loyalty.

The research project is one component of Project Enhance, an initiative to ensure cellar door experience standards are high across the region that has been developed by Hawke’ s Bay Winegrowers Inc., Hawke’s Bay Wine Country Tourism, Hawke’s Bay Inc., and Convivium.

The group has produced a Winery and Tour Operator Toolkit that includes information on the wine region, sales strategies and other reference material for cellar door staff to use to improve and increase their wine and sales knowledge with a view to enhancing visitor experience and increase wine sales.

“Hawke’s Bay has never lacked passion and enthusiasm for our wines and we need to ensure we continue to translate this into a positive and enjoyable cellar door experience with   good presentation, merchandising and people skills,” said Lyn Bevin, Executive Officer of Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Inc.

The mystery shoppers were all females aged between 20 and 63 years, with a mixture of locals and non-Hawke’s Bay residents.  As experienced mystery shoppers they were required to complete a comprehensive questionnaire following their cellar door experiences and this information was then collated and analysed by Christchurch-based Customer Care executives.

The analysis revealed that collectively the wineries scored highest in their cellar door and staff presentation closely followed by telephone skills.  Providing better regional tourism information and improving merchandising presentation were the aspects the research revealed had the biggest opportunity for improvement.

The mystery shoppers commended the top four wineries for showing genuine interest in them as customers. 

Individual results for each winery are not revealed publicly but participating wineries can purchase their own specific reports to see how well they fared against the collective averages.

“This is an opportunity for cellar door staff to gain something from the report information and there is always the opportunity to improve,” Ms Bevin said.

Helma van den Berg of Clearview Estate Winery and Jo Smith from Ngatarawa Winery were both keen to share their respective reports with their cellar door staff.

“We have confidence in our staff and invest heavily in our cellar door personnel but it is good to have an objective, independent report to endorse that, says Ms van den Berg.  “It will be useful to use the results as part of our staff training.”

Ms Smith endorsed that comment.  “Winery cellar door staff work in isolation from other wineries so while we think we’re doing things right, this will give us reassurance and possibly guidance on where we can improve.”

Zepelin spokesperson Kevin Williams said that using the Toolkit and results gained from the survey would help to “raise the bar in customer service” for the collective good of the Hawke’s Bay wine and tourism industries.  “We want people to know that they receive great service when they come to Hawke’s Bay so they will want to come back, and tell their friends.”

For further information contact:

Lyn Bevin
Executive Officer
Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Inc.
Phone 876 3418 or 027 621 7891

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