Does your brewery have a theme song? I’m not 100% saying your brewery needs a theme song, but I am saying that in just a couple breaths your team needs to be able to successfully share who you are.
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I bet your brewer’s setup cost quite a pretty penny, and that they’re regularly investing in quality control measures to put out the best possible beer. If you’re not treating your taproom with the same level of respect, then you could be serving your guests that buttery popcorn-esque experience without evening knowing it.
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As brewery owners and managers, you need to continue to excite your audience about your unique experiences, just like you do with your tap list. You can’t just take a well-received event and overdo the frequency. You must do it in moderation.
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On a dreary Sunday in early October 2022, my wife and I took our son to his very first monster truck show. As you can imagine, it was crowded, loud, and a sensory overload on many levels. With that said, there was something special about watching his excitement and awe as these oversized vehicles flew through the air. I even had more fun than expected.
As I was putting him to bed that night, I asked him, “What was your favorite part of the monster truck show?” I had expected him to say the fire-breathing robot that ate a car, Tiger Shark, Gunkster, or one of the other silly name trucks, or even the fairly intense laser light show. But no. He didn’t recite any of the truck names. He didn’t comment on any aspect of the over-the-top spectacle. He said the popcorn.
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Through data, you have the power to better understand guests’ expectations, maximize the workplace for your staff, and help create brewery experiences that equally make beer drinkers crave more of your brand and increase your employees’ satisfaction.
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How much staff do you have in your taproom? How many of those are rockstars? You know, those who crave building relationships with each guest that walks through your doors and bleed your beer out of their veins. These rockstars consistently see higher tabs, know their guests on a first-name basis, and are simply motivated to be awesome. Working hard isn’t something they think about, they just do it.
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Breaking the ice. Whether in an elevator or taproom can be tough. We all don’t have the gift of gab or natural ability to strike up a conversation with people we don’t know. However, by using context clues from our surroundings you can better build relationships with guests.
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As taproom managers and owners, it’s important that you understand why your staff is working at your brewery. Unfortunately, in most cases, these questions aren’t being asked. By not asking these basic questions, we are preventing ourselves from understanding the “why” and ultimately unable to successfully answer the “how can we best motivate our team” question.
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How do create the ultimate taproom experience? You maximize the three aspects that come together to create a memorable taproom experience. The ultimate taproom experience exists at the intersection of: Quality Beer, Memorable Atmosphere, and Engaging Staff
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I'm currently reading Atomic Habits by James Clear and his philosophy encourages you to make little, positive changes that ultimately make a big difference. If you're looking to lose weight, you're not going to drop 50 pounds overnight. The final destination of losing 50 pounds is the result of single habits (i.e. going to the gym, eating healthier) that you make consistent parts of your daily routine.
What changes do you want to make in your taproom?
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86% of brewery staff are not encouraging guests to sign up for your mailing list or loyalty/rewards program.
This is a huge missed opportunity to not only turn that guest into a regular, but to stay in touch. In many cases, your POS can even do the work for you.
How can asking this question and using the data help you see more success?
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As brewery owners and managers, you were forced to find new ways to engage with your guests to maintain their relationships (and ultimately their dollar). You never stopped being experts at talking to strangers. Nothing against you, but your interactions with guests are only a small portion of the interactions taking place at your taproom. The more spontaneous and organic encounters are those happening between your guests. You were interacting out of necessity.
It was unnecessary interactions that weren’t happening.
How is your brewery re-facilitating connections between guests?
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As the world starts to get ready for the new-new normal, you may ask yourself, should I be offering flights? The answer? If you feel comfortable with it, yes.
Why? Guests spend 25% more on visits when your staff suggest a flight.
There is both the financial and relationship value in offering flights.
We’re in the relationship business. Take the time to invest in your guests.
Are you back to offering flights?
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Is your taproom leaving money on the table?
45% of taproom staff are not asking guests if they would like another drink.
45% of taproom staff are not offering recommendations.
80% of taproom staff are not encouraging beer to go.
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You’re selling more beer to go. Bottles, cans, crowlers, and maybe even a few growlers.
I am excited to report that taproom staff are getting better at encouraging beer to go.
From a prior, pre-pandemic study, we saw that only 19.5% of brewery staff were encouraging guests to purchase beer to go.
While a much smaller sample set, from March 2020 to March 2021, we analyzed 555 unique brewery visits, and see that brewery staff are now encouraging beer to go 10% more than before the pandemic.
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It has been two months since I last conducted a study on consumer habits. Since then, temperatures have dropped in most of the country while access to vaccines has increased. While it is unknown how long the impact of the pandemic will be felt, it at least appears the end is in sight. Now let’s look at some numbers.
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Social distancing. Masks. Contact-free. These are all buzzwords defining the current taproom experience.
Most states still have restrictions on capacity. Others have limited individual party sizes. Effectively, all these regulations have reduced the number of guests that can visit and therefore have reduced your taproom revenue.
While keeping our distance has become the norm in 2020, everyone who chooses to visit your taproom for on-premise consumption is accepting that some sort of interaction will occur. Even during the shortest, COVID-era encounter, you have the ability to build connections with your guests (see the 30 Second Conversation). In this article, we will show the financial value of engaging at a high level and why it is vital even more so during a pandemic.
A few extra bucks from each visit could be the difference between closure and survival.
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In a Craft Beer landscape that has looked a lot like a rollercoaster throughout 2020, it is ever so important to put your focus on running a successful business. I could fill this sentence with all the buzzwords of the year, but instead, let’s take a dive into some data.
I conducted a study to get a better gauge of current consumer attitudes and spending habits. This research includes 1342 unique submissions. 53.3% of respondents identified as male, 45.7% as female, 0.6% as non-binary, and 0.4% preferred not to say. The average age of respondent is 42.0 years old. All data was collected December 1 to 6, 2020.
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It’s the holiday season, and in the true spirit of 2020, it’s necessary to think outside the box about the merchandise items you plan to offer your loyal fans. Brewery guests nationwide are already being more intentional when planning which taproom to visit and will be just as selective when considering if they will purchase additional Winter merch. You need to not only WOW them with your fantastic beers and customer experience, but also offer them a lineup of a seasonal swag they can’t say “no” to. We’re not talking your standard hats and hoodies. Think of that mind-blowing gift you opened on the holidays when you were 10. Yea, that kind of gift.
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Two-thirds of 2020 has been spent trying to survive a pandemic. We are still trying to figure out what works best, and each day we are continuing a path of unknown. Unknown how long the pandemic will continue, unknown how long we will operate with restrictions, unknown how our customers will behave. But as brewery owners and entrepreneurs, we do not give up.
As the weather begins to get colder, it’s even more important that you are maximizing every customers' on-premise visit. Many of you have been fortunate enough to have your communities come behind you in overwhelming numbers to support you thus far. We cannot take their purchases for granted and need to continue running our best businesses possible to beat the cold.
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