The Benefits of Hub-and-Spoke Technology
In a post earlier this year, we shared how technology can empower wineries with more flexibility and connectivity through a hub-and-spoke model.
The key to the hub-and-spoke model is that all of our systems are talking to one another, and each of those systems is contributing their industry best to the overall experience. This means that as a winery or brewery, you don’t need to sacrifice your customer’s excellent experience or settle for average as a result of your choice of systems.
Hub-and-spoke removes the reliance on all-in-one systems and provides your business the power to control and configure your ideal customer experience.
Here’s how hub-and-spoke supports your business:
HONOR THE CHARACTER OF YOUR WINERY
Each winery or brewery has its own unique recipe for their brand, beverage, and service. The systems you choose as a company are part of that recipe. If you use a platform that provides all-in-one CRM, email, club management, allocations, website, POS, appointment setting, fulfillment, etc. you run the risk of offering a common experience.
All-in-one systems often seek to serve masses. To help everyone, the system is required to average all of the requests and expectations of clients and ultimately ends up offering a common experience for users and their customers.
This leaves you, as a winery, with your hands tied when you’re trying to represent your unique DNA. Given that most of our interactions with customers these days are powered by software, that software needs to serve the unique character of your wine and your people.
The flexibility of connecting the systems that are true to your character is what makes the hub-and-spoke model so powerful. You can choose the marketing, POS, and fulfillment systems that genuinely reflect you and your brand to continue the excellent experience and strengthen relationships with your customers.
Maybe your brand guarantee promises that customer orders are always personalized, but you don’t use email marketing. With a hub-and-spoke model, you can select the fulfillment and marketing systems that support that promise.
See how wineries are using the hub-and-spoke model in their allocations processes in How Technology Can Power the Future of Allocations.
USE THE RIGHT SYSTEMS FOR YOUR BUSINESS AT THE RIGHT TIME
The hub-and-spoke model means that you only have to invest in systems when you need them. Your systems can grow with your winery.
When wineries first start their DTC programs, they often just need a website, an eCommerce system, and wine club management software. But, as they grow, and begin to invest in marketing, open a tasting room, or outsource their fulfillment, their needs grow.
With systems that connect to one another, your winery’s operations can expand to meet your business’ demands and only pay for the systems when you need them.
ENABLE BUSINESS AGILITY AND INNOVATION
Using and connecting a set of best-in-class systems means that if you decide that a system isn’t working for your business—say you want to change your CRM or POS—a collection of connected systems provides you a much easier path to switching.
It’s much easier to change one area of your business than to switch all of your systems. With a connected ecosystem of software, your winery is in a more agile position. Which means that you’re free to try new approaches and new platforms. You also have the freedom to continue to innovate your operations and customer experience.
See the WordPress plugin that Vin Agency created for VineSpring Customers.
The ability to connect the right systems at the right time provides so much freedom to wineries. We’d love to hear how you’re connecting your systems.
Send an email to andrea.steffes-tuttle@vinespring.com to share!
