You Want Me to Pay?
March 11, 2009
We don’t have a lot of expensive habits – until recently, both our cars were 1995 models – but we do enjoy wine. And surprisingly, there’s some good wine being produced in Maryland right now. Not great, but good enough to enjoy without having to spend a small fortune.
If you remember, we had our Mastermind Group meeting in Baltimore a few weeks ago. I had a program in Miami the day before, so I flew directly into Baltimore. Lorie took the car (the new one, of course – it’s fun to drive…and it smells nice!) and drove up to meet me there, with a stop on the way at a favorite local winery. She had called in advance to let them know she was coming, with the intent of buying about a case of wine.
She pretty much knew what she wanted, but they had a few new vintages, so she wanted to sample them to decide exactly which ones she would buy. When they were ringing up her order (14 bottles in all) she noticed a charge for $5.00. When she asked what that was, they explained it was for the tasting fee.
Now, this is a common practice, particularly at wineries where expensive wines are sold, but in almost every case we’ve experienced, the tasting fee is waived if you make a purchase. And if you buy a case, well, it’s not even an issue.
But they insisted that they had to charge the fee because “that’s our policy.” As a minor concession, they reduced the tasting fee to $2.50 when Lorie explained that she really didn’t need to keep the souvenir glass.
Oh sure, she could have made a big stink and probably gotten the fee removed, but it wasn’t worth the time or aggravation on what was an otherwise enjoyable day. There are, however, two great lessons you should take away from this experience:
- Don’t Let “Policy” Get in the Way of Common Sense – It may very well have been their policy to always charge the tasting fee, and there may have been perfectly good reasons for initiating this policy in the first place. But sometimes the process actually prevents you from doing what you know is the right thing for the customer. And this is quite likely one of those situations because of #2…
- Don’t Cut Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face – In that single visit, we bought 14 bottles of wine which cost over $300. We really enjoy their wine, and travel to the area three times a year. We’ve been in this Mastermind group for three years, and will likely stay on board for many more years. For argument’s sake, let’s say it’s five years. $300 x 3 visits per year x 5 years = $4,500. We do like their wine; it is a great value; but we like a lot of other wines too. If we decide that charging us the $2.50 fee was a cheap enough thing for them to do that we say, “Okay, forget them,” then they will have lost $4,500 in lifetime value for a measly $2.50 tasting fee.
Not taking the long view in situations like this is simply bad business. It’s something you want to avoid whenever possible. It creates weak relationships instead of strong ones; it gets people telling bad stories about your business instead of good ones; and frankly, it just makes me mad. Maybe I’d better go and have a glass of wine to help me relax…
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