Picking day for the club
Your club has three tiers and members can ask for all red, all white or mixed. Some have told you they do not like heavily oaked Chardonnay. Some have been members for years and have already had most of your house favourites. Every month, the buyer chooses a dozen wines and someone makes up the cases on a big spreadsheet, member by member, trying to remember who had the Beaujolais last spring.
It mostly works. Then a long-standing member emails, kindly, to say this is the third time he has received the same Albarino.
Preferences live in too many places
The trouble is not a lack of care. The information needed to make a good case is split between the subscription platform, which knows the tier and the red or white choice; the EPOS and web shop, which know what the member has bought; old spreadsheets, which know what went in past cases; and staff memory, which knows that Mrs Patel hates sweet wines.
- Past case contents are not stored against the member.
- Dislikes are mentioned in emails and never recorded.
- Stock of each chosen wine is limited, so not everyone can have the same case.
- Substitutions made on picking day are not written back.
- New members joining mid-month get whatever is left.
What it costs when cases are generic
Repeats and wines a member dislikes are the quickest route to a cancelled membership, and a club member is one of the most valuable customers you have. Building cases by hand also takes a skilled person away from the shop floor for a day or more each month, and mistakes on the picking list mean opened boxes and repacking.
Generic cases also waste the point of a club, which is that you know the member.
The case planner we build
- Each member's record holds their tier, colour preference, dislikes, and every wine they have received in a case or bought from you.
- The buyer enters the month's selection with the stock available of each wine and any wines that can stand in for another.
- The planner proposes a case for every member: right tier, right colours, no repeats within a period you choose, nothing on their dislike list, and within the stock you have.
- Where it cannot make a good case, for example a member who has already had everything suitable, it says so and suggests a substitute for you to approve.
- Approved cases produce a picking list grouped for the warehouse, labels, and a tasting note sheet specific to each case.
- Anything changed on picking day is recorded against the member so next month's plan knows about it.
| Member detail | Where it comes from | How the planner uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Tier and colour choice | Subscription platform | Sets the shape of the case |
| Dislikes | Member record, added by staff or the member | Excludes wines |
| Past cases | Planner history | Avoids repeats |
| Other purchases | EPOS and web shop | Avoids sending what they already bought |
| Stock available | Buyer's selection | Stops over-allocating a wine |
Choosing the wines stays with your buyer. The planner handles the arithmetic of fitting them to members.
A club that feels personal again
Picking day becomes a review of a proposed plan rather than a day of building one. Members get cases that reflect what they told you, and the tasting sheet in the box matches the bottles. When a member asks to avoid something, staff add it to their record once and it is respected every month after.
You can also see, for the first time, which wines members keep reordering from the shop, which is useful when choosing the next selection.
Signs your club has outgrown the spreadsheet
- Members have complained about receiving the same wine twice.
- Dislikes are remembered by staff rather than recorded.
- Building the month's cases takes a full day or longer.
- Tasting notes are generic because each case is different.
- Substitutions on picking day are not written down.