Customers have been asking for a ‘Case of the Month’ for a while but I’ve always resisted as I’m not a fan of a one-size fits all approach – it’s not how we treat our customers in the shop and in a virtual world bursting at the seams with case ‘deals’ on wine I wanted to retain our uniqueness.
The point of difference when you visit our shop is the personal service. Usually I (Cat) am here, but on Sundays it’s Thom, Emma fills in where she can. We know what you drank last week, chances are that one of us recommended that wine to you and we have ideas of what you should try next.
A conversation with another business owner on a quiet rainy day got me thinking. He commented that buying wine is difficult, choosing wine for a dinner party doubly so. His words ‘sometimes it’s just easier to buy a bad, safe wine from the supermarket than think about it’ got me thinking – what if I could do that work for you? What if that dinner party wine was already in your wine rack at home?
This isn’t an entirely new concept; I’ve been regularly putting boxes of wine together for customers for many years. One friend simply sends me a text ‘more wine, 8 white, 2 fizz, 2 red, usual amount, I’m home on Friday’ – he trusts me to know what he will like and will request old favourites when he fancies them. He doesn’t use my website as it’s not personal enough, I hope this may change his mind!
How does this all work? Well, we do want to get to know you – initially we’ll want to know what you’ve enjoyed in the past (or indeed what you’ve hated so we can avoid those!) and ideally we’ll want to hear back from you on which of our wines you’ve particularly enjoyed once you’ve tried them.
This is designed to mimic the conversations we have with our customers every day, with the advantage that you don’t have to leave your sofa to build a relationship with us. Your comments will help me to tweak your next box. As the name suggests – every box will be bespoke!
We don’t expect this process to be time consuming. However, we know that this may not appeal to everyone, so we have also created two pre-mixed case options;
- Seasonal cases – a selection of wines we’re drinking tailored to the seasons, expect lots of big reds in winter and a selection of refreshing whites for our long, hot(!) summer days.
- Party cases – A selection of our most popular wines from the shop, food friendly but equally happy served up to your friends at your next social gathering.