The technology that continues to revolutionize the hospitality industry is also transforming the operations of restaurants and wine bars. One of the most significant advancements in recent years has been the introduction of digital wine lists.
These electronic menus, often accessed via tablets or mobile apps, offer several advantages over their paper counterparts. For restaurants and wine bar establishments and their patrons, digital menus enhance the efficiency of wine list management and signage. Here’s how:
Easy Updates and Real-Time Management
A major benefit of having an electronic wine list is that you can update it in real time. If you have a traditional paper wine list, every time you change your inventory (like when discontinuing a certain wine or bringing in a new vintage) you have to pay to reprint the lists and replace the old ones in each table setting.
With a digital list, you just have to change the information on the platform and the new information is immediately available for all to see.
Enhanced Customer Experience
An interactive and user-friendly experience awaits customers when they peruse a digital wine list. These menus rival the dine-in experiences that many popular on-premise restaurants and bars have created for their guests.
They have the advantage of being updated in real-time and can thus create a more accurate picture of what’s available to customers. Beyond that, digital menus can offer a true educational experience by providing far more detailed information about each wine on the list.
Increased Sales and Upselling Opportunities
Wine sold through digital means can increase revenue and profits by suggesting to customers wines they might prefer based on their stated or inferred tastes, or on the food they are planning to eat. Many platforms that sell wine use AI or data analytics to recommend wines similar to those previously selected.
Electronic wine lists with these capabilities can also use “upselling” strategies, i.e. suggesting more expensive or better wines than the ones customers are trying to select, making them also effective as sales tools.
Streamlined Staff Training and Efficiency
It can be tough to get the staff up to speed on a large wine list, especially when the staff is new and the wine list is long. But with digital wine menus, wine education can go much farther, in much deeper detail, even to staff completely unknowledgeable in wine.
And with the ability to look up virtually any piece of information at any time, the customer service aspect of the operation can be more focused on the customer and less on the memorization of an extensive wine selection.
Think of All the Ways a Digital Wine List Could Help You Manage Your Menu
Digital lists offer real-time updates, enhance the customer experience, drive sales, reduce costs, and help staff training. A digital wine menu is becoming a basic tool of the 21st-century restaurant and wine bar.
But with the inevitable march of technology comes the exciting prospect of innovation both in the front and the back of house, along with greater conveniences and ease-of-access for customers.
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