A lovely enquiry, forty emails later
An office manager writes: 'We'd like a wine tasting for our team, maybe in November, around twenty people, can you send prices?'. You reply asking for dates, venue, budget and whether they want food. She replies with two of those. The date moves twice. Numbers change from twenty to twenty-six to eighteen. The finance team needs a quote in a particular format. Nobody is sure whether the deposit was paid.
By the evening itself, the presenter has a wine list from one email, numbers from another and the venue address from a third.
Why every enquiry becomes a thread
Private tastings are custom by nature, but most of the questions are the same every time. Because the first contact is a free-text email, those questions are asked one by one, and the answers arrive in pieces. The booking never has a single home, so the latest version of each detail sits in a different message.
- Enquiries arrive without the date, numbers, venue or budget.
- Quotes are written from scratch in a document each time.
- Deposits are requested by email and tracked by memory.
- Numbers and dietary needs change after the quote.
- The wines chosen are not linked to stock, so a wine can run out before the event.
What the back and forth costs
Enquiries that take days to quote go cold; the office manager books whoever answered first. Staff time on each booking is out of proportion to the evening itself. Last-minute changes cause mistakes on the night. And wine promised in a quote may have sold out in the shop by the time the event comes round.
The enquiry flow we build
- An enquiry form on your website asks the questions you always ask: date options, guest numbers, venue (yours or theirs), budget per head, food, occasion and any theme.
- Your tasting packages are set up once, with prices per head, minimum numbers and the wines each includes.
- A quote is drafted from the enquiry and your packages, for staff to adjust and send as a proper document.
- Accepting the quote leads to a deposit payment through a payment link, and the date is held in your events calendar.
- The booking has one record: date, venue, final numbers, dietary needs, wines, presenter and balance due. The client can update numbers through a link until the cut-off you set.
- Wines for confirmed bookings are reserved in stock so they are there on the night.
- The balance invoice is produced from the final numbers and sent through your accounts package.
| Detail | Before | In the booking record |
|---|---|---|
| Date and venue | Somewhere in the thread | One field, confirmed |
| Numbers | Changed by email | Updated by the client via a link, until cut-off |
| Deposit | Remembered | Paid through a link, recorded |
| Wines | Listed in the quote | Reserved in stock |
| Balance | Calculated at the end | From final numbers |
From enquiry to evening without the thread
Enquiries get a considered quote quickly because most of the information is already there. The client sees a clear booking with a place to change numbers. The presenter has one sheet with everything. And the corporate client who wants to rebook for the summer party can be sent their previous booking as a starting point.
A normal week in November might hold four private tastings: a birthday in your tasting room, a law firm's team evening at their office, a supper club that wants food matching and a charity auction prize being redeemed. Each has its own booking record. The manager opens the week view on Monday and sees which are confirmed, which still owe a balance, which numbers are final and which wines are reserved. The presenter for Thursday prints one sheet. Nobody searches an inbox for the venue postcode.
Signs private tastings are taking too long
- Each private tasting booking involves a long email thread.
- Quotes are written from scratch.
- Deposits are tracked by memory.
- The presenter gets event details from several emails.
- Wines promised for events have sold out beforehand.