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Customer Experience

Discussing the various ways that breweries can engage the customer in your brand and business.

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Guest Experience: How to Thrive in an Instant, On-Demand World

posted by Craft Beer Professionals

There’s a huge difference between good service and a good guest experience. It’s challenging enough to ensure your guests are greeted in a timely manner, their orders taken quickly, drinks never run dry, and their bill received and closed on time. These service steps are absolutely critical, but do very little to combat a negative first impression. Standards for service are increasing at a rapid pace as patience of our guests wanes, so is it time to pivot our focus away from basic tasks and focus more heavily on our presence with guests?
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A Conversation of Tipping in Breweries

posted by Craft Beer Professionals

Over the past several years, many breweries have reconsidered their service models – searching for the delicate balance that best maximizes the experience for both guests and staff. In doing so, this has also generated more conversations about best practices regarding tipping. In this panel, we will discuss different tipping models, their benefits, their challenges, and how conversations on tipping can result in greater success for your taproom.
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How E-Commerce Can Take Your Brand To The Next Level with Jason Sherman of TapRm

posted by Craft Beer Professionals

Alcohol e-commerce isn’t just a trend, it’s here to stay — but how can beer and hard seltzer brands fully utilize this sales channel and grow their businesses? Join Jason Sherman, CEO and Founder of TapRm, as he discusses the value of having your own customized e-commerce channel and the many ways it can help your beer brand scale.
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Russian Rivers’ Annual Pliny Release Generates Record $6.1 Million Economic Impact

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We’ve seen economic impact reports for the beer industry as a whole, for the craft segment, both nationally and state-specific. But narrowing down to study the economic impact of a single beers release seems pretty microscopic. Unless its Pliny the Younger and the total impact to the local economy is a whopping $6.1 million.

Pliny the Younger, a renown triple IPA brewed by Russian River Brewing in Sonoma County, Calif., is released to the public briefly once a year. Traditionally, the week-long release has been in January, but due to county covid health orders in put in place during a winter surge in cases, RRBC owners Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo postponed the release for seven weeks. The wait – and warmer weather paid off, as record crowds travelled to stand in line for up to six hours to try the beer at one of the two RRBC brewery pubs.

The impact report found that visitors came from 42 states to sample the beer, surpassing the previous economic impact in January 2020 by 20%.

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Lew Bryson on the Details of What Makes the Ideal Bar Top

posted by

After a career traversing bars around the world and sampling pints and drams as a whisky and beer writer, Lew Bryson has a lot of thoughts on what makes the ideal bar top.

The physical bar of any brewery is the anchor of a taproom. It’s the gathering space and where business gets done. Having a bar that is not only an extension of a brewery’s aesthetic but that is also comfortable should be top of mind during any buildout or renovation.

This is something Bryson feels passionately about.

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Taproom Aesthetics: How To Design A Space That Draws In Customers

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When Melissa Romano walks into a brewery taproom, her eyes don’t seek out the tap list. A graduate of the Cornell University College of Architecture and former professional architect, Romano instead stops to consider her first impression of the space. “I think when you walk in the front door for the first time, whether it’s how the staff greets you, or what the doormat looks like, or what’s displayed on a merchandise wall in front of you, your first impression is really going to set the tone for your experience,” she says.

At the recent Craft Brewers Conference, Romano presented a seminar titled “Designing a Taproom that Tells Your Story, Sells Your Beer, and Builds Your Community.” A co-owner with her husband Jason of the Lake Ann Brewhouse in Reston, Virginia, Romano is also a member of the Brewers Association’s Board of Directors, representing Taproom Brewers. And her background in architecture and design provides a solid basis on which to judge the many taprooms she visited before building her own.

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The Importance of Brewery Tours and How to Make a Lasting Impression

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With more than 9,000 breweries in the country there might be some owners that assume everyone walking through the door already knows about the brewing process and what all that fancy, expensive stainless-steel equipment does. Education should never stop and making assumptions is never the right track.

To help forge a deeper connection with consumers, breweries of all sizes should be thinking about regular tours. Even if they are held once a week or once a month, giving drinkers a peek inside the brewery to explain process and equipment can create a lasting impact – so long as it is done correctly.

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Using Social Media to Create a Voice for Your Brand and Better Connect with your Audience

posted by

Social media is ubiquitous in today’s market but brands often employ a scattershot approach to connecting with their fans. Across multiple platforms, each with its own personality and user base, social media management often feels like that thing you know you have to do but want to avoid. To help stave off this social media malaise, we’ve enlisted the help of Emily Hutto, founder of RadCraft, a craft beer co-op that helps brewers, maltsters, distillers, and allied trade partners communicate their products, ideas, and stories to their audiences.

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Selecting the Best Merchandise to Represent Your Brewery

posted by

Merchandise has become so important in the beer industry that some breweries will design and release t-shirts and hats long before the first fermenters are ever installed. To be sure, having the right merchandise can strengthen consumer bonds, raise outside awareness, and add to the company’s bottom line.

The expectations of merchandise have evolved over the years as more brewers are competing for not only tap and shelf space, but customer loyalty. It is no longer just enough to have a brewery logo on a simple t-shirt, trucker hat, or pint glass (although those can still sell well). The major merchandise suppliers have stepped up their offerings and printing capabilities to create a wide selection of offerings that could take some companies a lifetime to work through.

So, when selecting what you will have on shelves and in the online store, look to items that represent your brand and will have form and function for the consumer and look beyond simply using your normal brewery logo.

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After the Medal – How to Maximize Your Brewery Competition Wins

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There is a lot of time, energy, resources and money that goes into making beers for a competition. Then there is the waiting for the judging to commence, and then the nail biting that comes when winners are announced.

If your brewery is selected over all the others and has earned accolades and bragging rights, there is still work to be done. Communicating a win to the larger public is important and can have a great benefit to the brewery’s bottom line, says Paul Leone, the executive director of the New York State Brewers Guild.

It is smart to have a plan in advance. Know when results will be announced and have an idea of what you might post on social media if you win. A few quick hits can get people celebrating your win quickly. If photos are available from the competition, or images of a medal or award can be shared, get those out to the public.

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Maximizing Customer Experience – the Often Overlooked Brewery Restroom

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One of the most necessary rooms of any brewery is often the one that is overlooked. The toilet should be high on the list of architectural focus when planning out a taproom or when considering a remodel. The beer served over the bar top, after all, is only temporarily with patrons.

“For a lot of the original breweries in the country, the ones in warehouse space or garages, the bathroom was an afterthought,” says T. Dustin Hauck of Hauck Architecture in San Diego, a firm that specializes in brewery projects. “The industry has changed and now that room is a representation of the brand and having it done right can attract a diversity of clientele.”

So aside from the necessary equipment, what should be considered when creating a memorable experience during a short stop?

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Patrick Sullivan of Highland Brewing Co. Offers Tips for Maximizing Beer Festivals

posted by

Even amid a pandemic, summer is full of beer festivals. Every weekend the faithful gather at stadiums and local parks, in armories, brewery parking lots, and large spaces to sample beers from around the world or just down the block. Throw in some food trucks and a good band and a fun time isn’t far off.

It is never just as simple as just showing up and dropping a jockey box on a table and getting beer on ice. Proper planning in advance and having a plan for consumer interaction should be the goal of every brewery, in addition to having a good time.

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