Standing Out - Getting Right What Most People Get Wrong About Wine
By Brian Mitchell
*Co-authored by Evan Mitchell, Senior Consultant, Mitchell Performance Systems* A great many restaurants worldwide manage to remain in business while playing lip service to the importance of a third dimension, the performance of front of house staff, especially with respect to handling the wine list with diners – giving advice, making recommendations, matching to tastes, and creating a wine dialogue that is engaging not patronizing. Rather than being targeted as an opportunity to be tactically exploited, this area of the business is so often taken for granted. An attitude that’s expensive in many ways. Lamentably, standards in this area are universally mediocre. So any establishment that masters this personal dimension, and it’s far easier than many think, will register strongly on the customer’s judgmental radar – and reap the benefits across the board. **The Third Dimension of Restaurants** A restaurant business can be viewed operationally and strategically in terms of three dimensions. The first dimension comprises the products it’s selling – the dishes on the menu, the drinks on the beverage list. Dimension two is made up of the physical trappings and accoutrements, all of which come together in one word – ambience. These first and second dimensions dominate the thinking of restaurant management and restaurant critics alike. This leaves the third dimension, the restaurant front of house, as somewhat of an ugly duckling. The people side of any business is almost always the least interesting to management. It’s not that they don’t view it as important. But it’s not the soul of the place, not the reason they started the business, and it’s difficult – in fact, often a pain in the neck. The consistent lack of experience (the inevitable consequence of high turnover), the relatively young age of staff, the communication issues endemic in a shift operation, these combine to make the third dimension in restaurants an ongoing problem to be managed, rather than an opportunity to be capitalized on. So, what is the opportunity, and how can it be used to advantage? Let’s go to the dining floor, and a common, recurring situation. The customer, ordering for the table, knows exactly the sort of wine they feel like ordering – a pinot (“I’m sure it was a pinot…”) they had with friends last week, lots of cherry fruit with spice. But they couldn’t in a pink fit tell you if it was a Marsannay or Santenay from Burgundy, a pinot nero from North East Italy, German Spatburgunder, Californian or from Oregon, New Zealand’s Central Otago, Australia’s Yarra Valley, even Chile or Argentinean (“I’m pretty sure it was a pinot…”) They don’t know what questions to ask – and it’s not their responsibility anyway. That’s down to the waiter, and this is where we see the problem remaining a problem (getting bigger) or taken up as an opportunity. In sales parlance it’s called “qualifying the customer”. It’s as old as selling, and perhaps its most essential component. Qualifying the customer, by asking the right questions, the questions designed to clearly identify their tastes and preferences, ensures they get something like what they’re after. When handled with aplomb it takes all of the intimidation factor out of discussing wine. It gives the customer a sense of ownership of the eventual choice. It instructs them without patronising them, puts them at ease, inspires deep confidence in the service staff, enhances their overall experience, and keeps them coming back. Oh, and it also ensures more sales, better spend and bigger profits. That’s the opportunity – to maximize sales, and save or increase that customer’s business. It’s a no-brainer, and the fact that it’s not difficult to handle makes it even more frustrating that so few restaurants do it well. Stepping sideways for a moment, acknowledging that not all readers will have a background in sales… Tactical questioning is as old as Ancient Rome. The great orators of the Roman Senate, men like Caesar and Cicero, built their reputations and careers on it. Two 20th century pioneers brought it into the world of selling. E K Strong in 1925 with his classic distinction between Open and Closed questions, and Neil Rackham in the 1980’s with his sophisticated SPIN method of questioning in major account selling. Our own work with leading Consumer Packaged Goods companies in the US gave it a major focus, with tactical questioning skills taking up as much as half of a two-day workshop – because that’s how important it is. Open questions are great in a situation where the salesperson has plenty of time to explore the nuances of a customer’s needs. In front of house hospitality however, that’s just not how the world works. Questions need to be more targeted, asked “on the run”. They need to be designed to guide the customer by providing simple options that play to their two most important considerations – what do I want it to taste like? What do I want to pay? **The Dangers of Not Knowing Enough** Poor wine recommendations are given equally by inexperienced staff, and by extremely experienced staff – by those who don’t know much about wine, and those who think there’s nothing they don’t know. Consider the inexperienced staff member asked for advice in a situation in which they cannot (or choose not to) fall back on the expertise of a sommelier or manager. Waiters are often asked for wine recommendations by customers. This is an indication of the authority front of staff have, if only they knew how to use it. But the typical response is to dig through their mind for the last wine they tasted from the list they thought was “nice.” No doubt it was, or it wouldn’t be there, but so what? What if that wine was an over-the-top in-your-face zin, but the customer was really after a delicate pinot experience. What if the wine was a bright and cheeky Beaujolais, but the host of that table had in mind a thumping take-no-prisoners hairy-chested business-deal-sealing red? Notwithstanding, chances are the recommendation will be accepted. It’s presented, opened, poured to taste, tasted… and rejected. And it must be taken back. This wine has been recommended to them, not chosen themselves. It’s an entirely different situation to when a customer makes their own selection and then decides they “just don’t like” the wine, which has no faults. Establishments vary in their policies to the latter situation (and insightful wine servers can head off a poor choice to avoid this happening too often… by qualifying). But a recommendation that does not meet the table’s expectations is going back. If the place is lucky, they have a som, manager or experienced member of staff who can hand-sell that bottle by the glass, ensuring wastage is minimized. But that’s not always the case, and even when it’s achieved, while a loss of profit might have been averted, there’s still the damaging loss of credibility, not just to the waiter in question, but to the establishment as a whole. **The Dangers of Knowing Too Much** The flip side, where the error comes from the knowledgeable and experienced staff member, can be even worse. Wine waiters and soms who see themselves as wine Yodas, rather than as professional salespeople, are frequently dazzled by the notion of ensuring that everyone drinks “what they should.” In these instances, the failure to ask questions to qualify the customer doesn’t happen because they don’t know enough to ask the right questions, it’s because they don’t think any questions are necessary.They are so intent on having the customer experience whatever’s on-trend at the moment (in the last few years it’d be gruner, then off-dry rieslings, and lately orange, oxidative wines from Jura in France, and amphora-fermented “natural” and minimal intervention wines from Old and New World wine regions), that they’re not concerned about what the customer might actually feel like drinking. In these cases, the best thing that can happen, if the customer doesn’t like the wine, is that they send it back. Much more dangerous is the situation in which they feel cowed or intimidated by the recommendation and its must-ness (“this is what you really must have”), so they meekly accept a wine they don’t like, then resent the hell out of the experience and the establishment. They’re never coming back, and they’ve got the hoariest of war stories to tell all their friends, to make sure they never darken your door either. We’ve heard countless stories of this type, generally from establishments with international reputations – when the customer’s expectation is high, their disappointment is proportionally bitter. **Qualifying is Oh So Easy** Whether your staff are largely inexperienced, or highly knowledgeable (or, more likely, a mix of both) qualifying customer tastes in wine is extremely easy to do. So there’s really no excuse for it not happening. To add to the ease, it’s highly structured. It’s a pattern that staff can follow in every situation, one that’s guaranteed to ensure the customer gets exactly what they are after for exactly what they’re willing to pay. And importantly, it’s incredibly time-and-effort efficient. Your front of house staff are busy doing eight things at once at any moment, so you really need on-the-fly effective selling. - *First Question* (when it’s clear the customer is a little at a loss with the list, or may need some guidance to ensure they get the best out of their evening) – “White, red or rosé?” Simple, eh? - *Second Question* – glass or bottle? (An enormous amount of time can be wasted on the assumption that a table wants a bottle, when the guest is simply reflecting on a single glass for themselves. Even worse is when you’ve described a wine to lip-smacking appeal, they really want that now, and… oh, you’re just after a glass? I’m sorry, that wine’s only available by the bottle. Ah, the disappointment.) - *If the answer is white* – “Would you like something light and crisp, or something richer and more textured?” A simple, non-intimidating distinction, and one that must narrow down what they feel like drinking. - *If the response is light and crisp* – then think riesling (from Germany, Alsace or the New World), Muscadet, Sancerre and associated savvies, Chablis, Mediterranean whites (coastal verdicchio, Sardinian vermentino, Sicilian cataratto, Campanian greco, Piedmont arneis or cortese, Santorini’s assyrtiko), you get the drift. - *If richer and more textured* - then chardonnay from the Old World and New, or perhaps a viognier from Condrieu, Alsatian gris, a rich and spicy gewürztraminer, even a pear-and-honey Vouvray. - *If rosé* - “Would you prefer something pale and dry, or a wine that’s more fruit-driven?” - And for red* - “Do you feel like something light and bright, medium-bodied and smooth, or big and rich?” The same approach can be used in every situation in which a customer’s tastes need to be qualified. The difference then becomes how much knowledge each individual front of house member brings to the table. The experienced and knowledgeable staff can pretty much run their own race at this point – the greater risk with them is that they won’t bother to qualify customer tastes in the first place. Once they’ve done that, well, they’ve got the knowledge to take customers in a whole array of directions. And the situation is still remarkably easy with less experienced staff members. All they need is three or four “go-to” wines that represent each of the categories they’ve explored with the customer. Each wine in a category, say “light and bright red”, should also represent a different price point. These wines should be described, briefly but clearly, in a concise wine bite – the customer will get the drift extremely quickly. (An earlier HBR article of ours, Want to Motivate Gen Y Floor Staff, outlines and illustrates the wine bite technique.) “A light and bright red, then? Let me take you through some options I particularly like. This Sicilian frapatto has juicy red berry fruit and a nice touch of spice. This cab franc from Chinon is beautifully fragrant, with tight dark fruit that goes on forever. A lovely Burgundy here, red into dark fruits with intense gamey savoury notes. And this Beaujolais from the village of Morgon is all cherry and chocolate.” The customer will follow your moves around the list, never failing to take in price, without the subject of filthy lucre having to be explicitly raised between you. Now they know what they want, and they’re happy with what they’re paying. And if they’re tossing up between two wines, you can always give a little extra prompt towards the dearer wine – emphasizing, of course, its outstanding value for money given its quality. “Go-to” wines of staff can be provided by management – reflecting margins and relationships with wine suppliers. They can be tweaked as changes are made to the list. But the essential structure of the qualifying process never alters. **One More Thing That’s Almost Never Done** Restaurant wine servers are in a gifted position compared to many salespeople – they’re on the spot to see how the patron likes the product. But before glass touches lips, there’s one more opportunity – and, unfortunately, one that is not taken up nearly as often as it should be. There’s the option (no, call it responsibility) of influencing the customer’s appreciation of the wine just that little bit more, inclining them towards liking it even more, by reinforcing the sale. Nothing intrusive or grandiose, just a mention, while opening the bottle and pouring to taste, of why this wine is such a great choice. It might be how well it’s going to match the food ordered, a comment on the wine’s rarity or special appeal to give the customer a pleasant flush of in-the-know distinction, a little anecdote about the estate or winemaker, a prestigious award or score the wine has recently landed… The right few words at this point can tip the customer’s liking over into full-throated enthusiasm. Their choice of wine, which they “own” now, isn’t just giving pleasure to the table, but the customer’s stakes have been raised in the eyes of the rest of their table. That’s priceless PR. **The Costs of Differentiation** Restaurants, like any other businesses in a highly competitive marketplace, rely on differentiation to prosper. Distinguishing your establishment by tinkering with the first or second dimensions is expensive. Doing it by lifting professionalism in the third dimension is ridiculously inexpensive. When floor staff don’t qualify their customers’ tastes in a professional way, they risk wastage, lost profits, lost credibility for themselves and the entire establishment, and in the end, lost ongoing business with the added insult of bad word-of-mouth. On the other hand, helping the customer articulate tastes they’re incapable of explaining themselves, and thereby ensuring them a cracking wine experience, is a small investment in a very large pay-off of service over-and-above expectations. And that pay-off continues, into the next bottle of wine, and the glass of dessert wine, the finishing glass of post-prandial cognac, and every future visit of that table and all the others their recommendations are going to send into your establishment. Management is never going to lose sight of the first dimension of their business – the dishes and drinks on offer are their raison d’être. Nor will the second dimension, atmosphere and ambience, be deliberately neglected – it’s too visible, it plays to natural egos, and customers and critics are punishing on this point. The third dimension, the personal face of the business – the most inexpensive way of standing out from the crowd? Well, that’s your choice. ![alt text][1]
*Evan Mitchell co-authored this article. Mr. Mitchell is Senior Consultant of Mitchell Performance Systems (MPS). On graduating from the University of Sydney with an Honors degree in English Literature and Psychology, he worked as a waiter and sommelier in major fine dining restaurants, until joining MPS as a designer and consultant. He spent a number of years working on sales productivity strategies for leading US consumer products companies. He has co-authored three books on wine and numerous articles on the dining experience, and given papers at major conferences. He leads the brand creation activities within the MPS associated company Love & Wine. He also heads up the research efforts of MPS in developing marketing strategies for the broader Millennial generation consumer market. [1]: http://www.hotelexecutive.com/images/business_review/260b8_Evan_Mitchell_Co-author.jpg
