Buying wine involves a certain degree of trust by the customer in his/her wine retailer.
A quick definition of "trust"
As succinctly described in The nature of trust from the Slow Leadership blog, "trust" boils down to four key elements:
- Meeting obligations to protect others' interests (not just your own)
- Acting with honesty and integrity
- Openness
- Keeping promises
Applying the elements of trust to wine retailers
Here are 10 ways wine retailers can develop that trust and the resulting higher sales derived from it:
- Offer consistently fair pricing (including market comparables) so customers feel comfortable buying repeatedly without checking prices elsewhere.
- Provide professional wine ratings and reviews, good and bad, from well regarded sources to enable fully informed decisions. See yesterday's post.
- Reward loyal customers with priority buying access (in an even-handed manner) to scarce, allocated wine and enable any customer to earn such privileges.
- Guarantee the wine you sell against flaws such as cork taint or heat damage.
- If you sell pre-arrivals or futures, guarantee delivery.
- Ship wine only in appropriate weather conditions.
- Store wine in climate-controlled conditions at all times.
- Resolve customer disputes fairly with a long term view of the customer relationship.
- Allow customers to verify their transaction history to ensure charges and credits have been accurately applied.
- Only buy wine whose provenance you believe to be 100% sound.
As a wine collector or enthusiast, what else can wine retailers do to develop your trust?
