I enjoy a glass of wine now and again but, like most casual wine drinkers, these occasions for imbibing are usually accompanied by the sense that I’m missing an essential part of the experience. Why should this bottle be paired with this meal? Should I really be tasting the flavor tones mentioned on the label? How does this winery’s product vary from year to year? I’m fortunate to have a friend who is currently enrolled in a course of study dedicated to viticulture and enology and he, naturally, has become my go to source on questions of this type. But there are certain circumstances in which such consultations are impossible. I’m at an important dinner meeting, for example, and can’t sneak off to place a call. Or, my friend is doing something other than standing by to receive my questions. What’s a well-meaning wine ignoramus to do?
Thanks to an impressive acceptance of technology, diners at Atlanta’s Bone’s–and an increasing number of restaurants across the country–no longer face this conundrum. Here’s Kevin Sack reporting in The New York Times on how the use of iPads at restaurant tables have led to increased wine sales:
Once patrons make sense of the touch-pad links, which does not take long, they can search for wines by name, region, varietal and price, instantly educating themselves on vintner and vintage.
Since their debut six weeks ago, the gadgets have enthralled the (mostly male) customers at Bone’s. And to the astonishment of the restaurant’s owners, wine purchases shot up overnight — they were nearly 11 percent higher per diner in the first two weeks compared with the previous three weeks, with no obvious alternative explanation.
[snip]
“I felt like they had given me the answer sheet to the test,” said Bradley D. Kendall, a Bone’s regular who recently used the iPad to select a 2005 Corté Riva cabernet franc for $102, about 25 percent beyond his usual range.
Mr. Kendall, 43, described himself as a bit of a wine poseur. He has vacationed in Italy and Napa Valley and has a cellar at home, but he cannot remember a label from meal to meal. He knows just enough, or perhaps just little enough, to become suspicious whenever a waiter recommends a vineyard he does not know.
“In the back of your mind,” he said, “you’re always thinking: ‘O.K., is this some kind of used-car special? Did they just get 200 bottles of this?’ ”
But Mr. Kendall said the ratings he found on the iPad — by the wine writer Robert M. Parker Jr. — carried credibility. He decided that the price of the cabernet franc was justified by Mr. Parker’s award of 92 points out of 100. “I found a bottle of wine that I never would have tried, and it was wonderful,” he said.
This Mr. Kendall is, in certain ways, the model customer. He knows his budget and he’s looking for a quality product, but he can’t justify purchasing the higher priced option because he feels insecure in his knowledge base. This is a potential customer looking for a reason to try out what your company has to offer. All you have to do is educate him. Using iPads is an ingenious way to accomplish this in a restaurant setting, once you have already garnered the customer’s attention. But providing the educational resources most consumers now look for before making a purchase or signing up for a service is easily accomplished through your company’s website. People seek information. It’s up to you to give it to them.
How are you educating your customers?
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