Show me the Money…Are you kidding me???
Ok, I want to take a moment and address something that has bothered me a lot about doing a blog. I did not want to do this website until I could do it with interaction from my readers and to really make it more their site than mine. I wanted to do it so that I could encourage great customer service and experiences at wineries. I wanted to do it so that customers could have a venue to praise the great and to have a voice to change the bad. I also did it to give the industry the feedback that they really need to hear both the praise of wonderful staff but also the things that need to be fixed so that they can grow. I have been amazed at the wonderful industry support.
I started this site with very high ideas and set goals as to what I wanted to do. One of my goals was to get the information for the wineries up and ready to be reviewed quickly. I did start off quickly and got three states up but then I started working on Oregon. I have to say that I was sure that I would be able to hit my goals and do what I wanted to do. But I have to say that a lot of websites make it difficult to find even the simplest of information. I had found a few in Washington that had required several searches to find all the information I wanted for my site. But in the Oregon data base I encountered my first stumbling blocks. I was amazed at how hard it was to find out even basic information about wineries in Oregon.
Ok I know I am not going to make friends in the wine bus tour industry with this one but it is something I feel very passionately about and feel it needs to be addressed. I have spoken to several wineries and wine customers about this and they all seem to feel the same, and it is not good! I know we all advocate that wine taster be responsible and have a designated driver if going out for a day. But to be honest most of us in the wine industry groan when we see a bus pull up. Though in defense of some of my friends in the tour industry it is the bad ones that make it hard for the good ones. Some of my friends get the idea that tasting rooms are not set up in most areas for 30 to 45 people to hit the door with no notice and still have the wonderful experience that we want all our customers to have. They are responsible and call a head and work with us to make it a great experience on both sides. That said here is my article.
