Tech Cocktail covered Tips For Vino’s launch in September, and we wanted to check up on Mathieu Choux’s creation. The site offers an online wine class for servers that promises an instant surge in wine sales and better trained staff.
“Guests have an expectation to receive excellent customer service,” says Choux. “That includes knowledge of menu items, specifically the beverages.”
To test out those lessons, the only logical thing left to do was create an account and see what it looks like, on the inside, from the eyes of a potential customer.
I registered for a free account and was immediately brought to the manager dashboard. From this proverbial heart, the user can access study materials while work managers can closely track their employees’ progress. Knowing who has or has not finished their coursework and what grades they received makes it easier to keep all employees accountable for their own actions.
Users read, study, take tests, and track their own results on their way towards becoming wine certified. The lessons are in five macro parts: What is Wine?, Wine and Champagne Service, The Wine Tasting Process, The Classical White Grape Varietals, and The Classical Red Grape Varietals. Each arm is broken down into micro lessons that dote on all the finer points of the industry, like the historical roots of wine drinking, modern fermentation methods, and everything in between.
“Our training program is easy to understand by any server even if they are not familiar with wine,” says Choux. Being easy to use is one thing, but it helps that, literally, the entire field of wine is covered in a succinct and productive manner.
With the free version, I was able to click on any of these lessons and was redirected to a quick YouTube video breaking down the lesson plan. I found the quick descriptions intriguingly complex and entertaining. Wine is an important aspect of the dining process and it is nice to know that users really get an in-depth look at the product.
I was prompted to upgrade to a full account, where I would find lesson plans, but also animations, videos, and reading materials to take the study further. Additionally, every chapter ends with a quiz designed randomly with questions from a large and diverse pool about the material.
If you are interested in Tips for Vino, check them out at Tech Cocktail’s Boise Mixer presented by Cradlepoint.