Gain Control, Minimize Vendors & Stop Finger Pointing
Ever called for help, and no one answers? Worse, if they do answer, they tell you it’s not their job? If so, you’re not alone.
DtC software vendors in the wine industry tout themselves as the be-all, end-all, do everything provider for wineries by using their piecemeal hub + spoke model, which is to say, by using their ‘core’ system along with third party vendor plug-in’s added, ‘they’ can do it all. If you have this situation already, you know that this approach can be clunky and leaves lots of room for expensive errors.
Just an Example: Sending an Email Broadcast
To send an email blast targeted to your best customers, do you actually need three vendors? With our competitors, it appears you do – check this out:
- Vendor #1: The core system (e.g. The Hub),
- Vendor #2: The mail system (e.g. MailChimp, Constant Contact, Vertical Response, etc.)
- Vendor #3: A third party person/middleware plug-in connecting Vendor #1 to Vendor #2 (e.g. you, your consultant, or 3rd party software connector)
The Problem: When the email broadcast fails to send, or worse, gets botched and goes to the wrong target group with incorrect content, your customers are confused & upset, and will voice this, or worse, quietly not order. Who do you call when this happens – Vendor #1, #2 or #3?
The Answer: You’ll probably end up calling all three, while putting out fires with your customers. There goes your day.
The same goes for other key components: Reporting, Calendar, POS, Multi-location Inventory, etc. – need I go on?
WE HAVE WHAT YOU NEED
All-in-One Software Platform + The Human Touch
For eCellar clients, we are that first call, and the issue usually gets resolved quickly. How? eCellar is an all-inclusive software platform, coupled with highly responsive full-time staff that works closely with you to truly transform and maintain your digital-based wine business. The transformation process that collapses multiple systems into one typically includes:
- Web Site transformation for best consumer experience
- Guaranteed Data Migration & Consolidation from systems that don’t talk to each other into one database
- Onsite Application Training on POS, eComm, Wine Club, Inventory, Email Marketing, Reservations, including Best Practices
- Ongoing Customer Service via phone, email and onsite visits
- User Group open forums, allowing you to join your peers for breakfast meetings at our client’s winery properties to discuss your challenges and successes
If any of the above resonates, and you’d like to work with a vendor that owns their entire application, guarantees data migration, truly offers and supports the aforementioned features and evolves consistently over time, please contact me at paul@ecellar1.com.
See you out there.
— Paul
