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Tasting Room & Hospitality

The Best Winery POS Software for Your Business

By  WineDirect Team
May 3, 2019

You and your staff work so diligently to create a seamless, high-quality experience for your guests and customers. You don't want to end that experience on a low note where you're having difficulty running a card or making someone wait in line to checkout. Clunky software creates friction during the sales process, causing your team to miss out on opportunities to provide an overall excellent purchase experience. But the right winery point of sale (POS) software will eliminate that friction, and help grow your winery in the long term.

The best POS software for your winery will expand what your staff is able to do for your guests, reducing barriers during checkout and enabling them to add a personal touch to every encounter.

At the end of the day, the best winery POS software for your business will be the one that offers you and your team the flexibility to easily go above and beyond for your guests. Here, we've highlighted some key POS features to look for as you assess your options.

What Features Should You Prioritize?

Don't let any software sell your service capabilities short. Look for the following features:

No Per-User Fees

If your winery staff fluctuates depending on seasons or events, then it will be important for your POS software to be flexible in terms of user logins. A POS system that is accessible via online login ensures that even on your busiest days, each tasting room member will be able to use the POS software in the same way, unhindered by a limited number of user seats and your POS bill won't increase to handle the inflated tasting room staff in the summertime.

Mobility

Your tasting room is a dynamic place. So your POS software should be able to facilitate interactions with guests without anyone being locked behind the bar or register. The best winery POS will be one that your tasting room staff can have at their fingertips as they interact with guests, whether that's on the outdoor patio or at an off-site wine-club event.

Smart Upsells

Your tasting room staff is top notch at putting the customer first, but it can be difficult to keep track of everything they are supposed to offer or upsell to a guest — especially on a busy day in the tasting room. The best POS software will prompt your tasting room staff when they're ringing up an order, giving them useful reminders of discounts or promotional offers. These suggested offers can be tailored to an individual guest based on their contact history. For example, if a longstanding club member comes to the tasting room, the POS will remind your staff to share a club-member exclusive offering that they otherwise might've forgotten. Tasting room staff will then be able to use their discretion on that offer, based on their experience with the guest.

Coupon Application

It used to be that your staff would need to remember or look up coupon codes and add them to the order manually. POS systems were all rigid. But the right POS software will enable you to add coupons to orders with a click of a button, applying the appropriate discount to the order immediately.

Tip Preferences

Choose a software solution that allows you to configure options for tip percentages upon checkout. Your guests should be prompted with the ideal percentages when interacting with tasting room staff during the sale. If your winery doesn't permit tipping in the tasting room, that's all right! Your software should still offer the option — and the option to turn off tipping prompts entirely with a few clicks.

DTC Integrations

The overarching feature to the best winery POS software for your business will be its ability to integrate with your DTC and wine club programs. Having a unified backend connected to your POS will streamline administrative tasks and enable you to provide better customer service. Consider your contact records for your wine club. If before, you were keeping notes in a spreadsheet, then these key details were being wasted in the back room, away from where your tasting room staff interacts with customers.

When your POS fluidly integrates with your customer-relationship management software (CRM), your tasting room staff will have access to that valuable customer information while they're on the tasting room floor. Even if a tasting room staffer is brand new, they'll be able to catch up on the important details for a regular guest who loves Chardonnay and who has had a lifetime value of X dollars as a wine club member. If your goal is to offer a personal touch across every guest interaction at your winery, then an integrated contact record is the best way to centralize customer information and make it available for your entire staff.

How Will the Right POS Software Increase Tasting Room Productivity?

The best winery POS software will be the one that allows you flexibility in the tasting room and freedom from time-consuming, backend setup in favor of more customer-related service delivery. The right POS system will help wineries create stronger relationships with guests and provide exceptional customer service that will ultimately make your tasting room more popular and successful.

You want your winery POS to make your job easier, not more difficult. So, stay away from POS software with complex, bogged down backends. Adapting to a new software shouldn't take you more than a few days of gradual adjustment. If it seems difficult to adapt the software to the way you do your business, it's best to keep searching for a POS that will fit into your processes and make your job easier.

WineDirect's POS system was built to turn your entire winery into a tasting room. We've built our capabilities to help wineries grow their businesses and expand their customer base. Learn more about how WineDirect's POS software could be the best choice for your winery here.

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