The Grapevine

Something For Nothing: How Giving Can Be Great Wine Shop Marketing

September 14th, 2016

You know what people love? They love when someone does something nice and unexpected for them. You should do that for your customers. [level-members]

Of course you’re already doing that as part of your regular, everyday, fantastic customer service. But you’re doing that as part of a transaction. So people expect you to be nice  – you’re getting paid to be nice, basically.

If, however, you do something that doesn’t benefit you in any way, that somehow feels different to many of the people you will come across in your shop.

So, be helpful!

For example, you can offer to educate folks on ways they can buy wine at auction. (Here’s an article you can offer to your shop visitors and online friends on that topic.)

Clearly, you don’t benefit from helping them buy wine somewhere other than your shop. In fact, you could argue that you’re taking business away from yourself. But that’s shortsighted thinking. Over the long term, you’ll win more fans by being selfless than you will by being guarded and self-interested. And if auctions are one of your specialties, there are dozens of other ways you can offer value to your customers that brings value back to your shop in the form of good will. [/level-members]