Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash
Wine over pouring is a major source of frustration for wine bar owners and managers. There are significant revenue losses associated with overpouring that can cause you to wonder why your margins are so low. Not only does it create significant revenue losses, but it is also an occurrence that can create liability and customer service issues for individuals imbibing on the fine—and expensive—libations that you offer for sale.
There are several methodologies that you begin utilizing to mitigate this problem, including staff training, bar audits, and offering your team the tools they need to meet your goals. Fortunately, technology has caught up with today’s needs and gives you an opportunity to be more accurate in your assessment and mitigating losses in your wine by the glass program by using wine dispensers that track sales against pours.
In this post, we address what over pouring is, how it affects your business, and what you can do to prevent it from happening.
Beer, liquor, and wine over pouring is the occurrence of bar staff giving patrons more alcohol than for what they paid. It is a significant problem for wine bars that results in roughly $10 billion in shrinkage losses every year in the United States.
Wine over pouring may be intentional or unintentional, depending upon the experience level and knowledge of your bartenders. In an industry that gives generously, it is easy for bartenders to justify the occurrence of over pouring by mistakenly believing that your establishment stands to earn even more profit when customers are happy. While that assertion may be favorably true for the customer, the profit increases of over pouring do not outweigh the benefits of keeping those drink levels in check.
There are a few signs and symptoms associated with the identification of over pouring drinks. You can observe staff members to determine if they are using the required measurement tools.
However, these manual methods may not foster a culture where you are actively monitoring staff over pours, which means that you should conduct a more proactive approach to the problem of over pouring and how you plan to stop it from happening in your establishment.
Wine over pouring affects your business in many ways. From revenue losses to inconsistent expectations, there is no good that comes from a bar culture that supports giving customers more than for what they are paying.
Here are a few ways in which over pouring costs your wine bar significantly:
As you can see, the impacts of wine over pouring create several problems throughout your entire establishment. Therefore, it is critical to establish protocols under a wine by the glass program to ensure consistency, safety, and revenue generation. Failing to do so only contributes to the above-referenced issues and becomes more difficult to manage over time.
The good news is that there are practices that you can put into place to help prevent wine over pouring in your establishment. Auditing your problem areas, using the right tools, staff training, and technology systems are excellent, cost-effective ways that you can use to save yourself the major headache and hassle when dealing with the negative effects of over pouring.
Here are a few actions you can deploy starting today:
Better inventory control, ongoing training, and increased monitoring can all be accomplished under a single solution. Doing so will save you the hassle and legwork of deploying a manual program in favor of automated tasks.
By incorporating the preceding practices in your establishment, you can effectively mitigate the damaging effects of wine over pouring. A wine preservation system, like Wineemotion, can facilitate your goals under a cost-efficient solution. When your staff is aware that you can measure their actions with empirical evidence, they are much more likely to forgo pouring that extra ounce when serving customers.
You can stop over pouring problems with Wineemotion systems™. Since 2003, we have established a solid, professional reputation for helping wine and bar owners mitigate the symptoms associated with over pouring. Our patented technology utilizes features that prevent cross-aromatic contamination while preserving your wine for more than thirty days.
Contact the Wineemotion™ team by calling 800.671.3317 or emailing us at info@wineemotionusa.com for more information regarding how our wine preservation system can help you.
About Wineemotion
Wine dispensers by Wineemotion™ USA are the perfect complement to any wine-by-the-glass program. Wineemotion™ is the creation of Riccardo Gosi, the internationally renowned creator of modern day wine dispensing systems that have transformed how wine is sold and served worldwide since 2003. Our patented wine dispenser technology eliminates cross aromatic contamination, preserves wine for over 30 days and increases profit by optimizing your wine-by-the-glass program.