CVBG Bridges Communication Gaps in Growing Business
When ordinary people picture the winery business, their minds usually turn to pastoral fields of grape vines, dark cellars filled with well-worn aging barrels and kindly vintners offering sips of their latest blends to interested tourists who just happen to be passing by. While those images are certainly a part of the industry, there is another side -- one filled with hectic schedules, hastily arranged meetings, calls from demanding customers and the ever-present pressure to perform.
CVBG was created as a corporate entity in 1966 when two long-established French Bordeaux-makers -- The Dourthe company (1840) and the Kressmann company (1871) -- joined forces to produce high-quality wines. Today, the company is the fourth largest Bordeaux negotiant (purchaser of grapes from outside suppliers) in that region, and maintains a line of champagne from the Thenoit properties. Its Bordeaux wines are considered to be the premier varieties around the globe. CVBG maintains and directs multiple properties itself, and has an additional 70 petite chateaux relationships, giving it complete control over the viticultural practices. The company has sales offices that provide local service around the world. In North America its products are sold primarily in fine wine shops and restaurants.
Expanding Operations
CVBG has had a North American presence for four years. Recently, the parent organization has made some changes that will lead into a larger footprint in North America, that include regional offices throughout the country -- one in Chicago serving the Midwest and central plains states and another in eastern Pennsylvania servicing the East Coast. Plans are to have five to 10 offices in the United States in the next few years.
This regional approach is in keeping with the company's philosophy of personalized, local service. But it does present some issues, particularly in terms of identity. When the two U.S. offices opened, each had their own local phone numbers, creating an impression that is not in keeping with CVBG's position in the wine-making world. It made it seem to North American customers as though the company was a very small, local producer rather than the well-respected, France-based global maker of premium Bordeauxes it actually is.
The other key issue with using local phone numbers in the North American offices was availability. Each office has one sales person who spends the bulk of his/her time on the road. As a result, any calls that came into the office would have to wait until the salesperson checked voicemail. Depending on the day and how many meetings the salesperson had, that could mean a long delay in returning the call. If several voicemails had been received, it could take a while to get through the mundane ones to find one that required immediate action.
"Ours is a relationship business," says Mark-Thomas Gavigan, regional sales director, CVBG USA. "When customers call during business hours, it is important that we are able to respond immediately."
With the company's plans to expand the business by adding more people, it was also important that it establish a single phone number that could be used with business cards, collateral materials, point-of-sale materials, etc. rather than having to provide individual numbers for each person. Yet the distributed nature of the business made that a challenge.
Serendipity Strikes
As Gavigan was researching options, he received a message about a new service called my1voice that was being introduced by the same company that provided him with the MyFax Internet fax service he used. my1voice promised to give his distributed company the same type of phone features that previously had only been available to large enterprises, and at a fraction of the cost. He decided to look into it.
"I could see immediately that my1voice would answer all our needs, and then some," Gavigan says. "Not only did we receive a single number for customers and suppliers to call, it's a toll-free number so it's as though they're calling a headquarters building like we have in France. This works with our global brand, which is growing in the United States."
Having a single corporate phone number positions the company well for future growth. Wines are typically displayed on retail store floors stacked in cases with case cards, shelf talkers or other point-of-sale materials. With the my1voice number in place, CVBG is able to print the phone number on those materials, making it easier for customers to know where to call to obtain more wine. As the company grows, this single number may lead to a customer service line rather than sales.
"We're not sure how we will structure it yet," says Gavigan. "But the beauty is we don't have to make that decision now. If we decide to change the operational part in the future, it will be an easy move on my1voice. Customers won't need to be concerned with new or additional phone numbers and CVBG isn't locked into an inflexible phone system.
A Smooth Transition
The biggest question mark in the process was whether customers would start moving away from the old local numbers and using the toll-free number in its place. That question was answered quickly.
"Once the service was turned on, I was waiting for a customer to call us on the my1voice line," Gavigan says. "It happened pretty quickly. I was delighted to receive the first call on it."
Since that time, Gavigan has found that my1voice has done everything he'd hoped it would do. The lines of communications to customers have improved significantly, and they're feeling they're getting world-class service to go along with their world-class Bordeauxes.
CVBG was created as a corporate entity in 1966 when two long-established French Bordeaux-makers -- The Dourthe company (1840) and the Kressmann company (1871) -- joined forces to produce high-quality wines. Today, the company is the fourth largest Bordeaux negotiant (purchaser of grapes from outside suppliers) in that region, and maintains a line of champagne from the Thenoit properties. Its Bordeaux wines are considered to be the premier varieties around the globe. CVBG maintains and directs multiple properties itself, and has an additional 70 petite chateaux relationships, giving it complete control over the viticultural practices. The company has sales offices that provide local service around the world. In North America its products are sold primarily in fine wine shops and restaurants.
Expanding Operations
CVBG has had a North American presence for four years. Recently, the parent organization has made some changes that will lead into a larger footprint in North America, that include regional offices throughout the country -- one in Chicago serving the Midwest and central plains states and another in eastern Pennsylvania servicing the East Coast. Plans are to have five to 10 offices in the United States in the next few years.
This regional approach is in keeping with the company's philosophy of personalized, local service. But it does present some issues, particularly in terms of identity. When the two U.S. offices opened, each had their own local phone numbers, creating an impression that is not in keeping with CVBG's position in the wine-making world. It made it seem to North American customers as though the company was a very small, local producer rather than the well-respected, France-based global maker of premium Bordeauxes it actually is.
The other key issue with using local phone numbers in the North American offices was availability. Each office has one sales person who spends the bulk of his/her time on the road. As a result, any calls that came into the office would have to wait until the salesperson checked voicemail. Depending on the day and how many meetings the salesperson had, that could mean a long delay in returning the call. If several voicemails had been received, it could take a while to get through the mundane ones to find one that required immediate action.
"Ours is a relationship business," says Mark-Thomas Gavigan, regional sales director, CVBG USA. "When customers call during business hours, it is important that we are able to respond immediately."
With the company's plans to expand the business by adding more people, it was also important that it establish a single phone number that could be used with business cards, collateral materials, point-of-sale materials, etc. rather than having to provide individual numbers for each person. Yet the distributed nature of the business made that a challenge.
Serendipity Strikes
As Gavigan was researching options, he received a message about a new service called my1voice that was being introduced by the same company that provided him with the MyFax Internet fax service he used. my1voice promised to give his distributed company the same type of phone features that previously had only been available to large enterprises, and at a fraction of the cost. He decided to look into it.
"I could see immediately that my1voice would answer all our needs, and then some," Gavigan says. "Not only did we receive a single number for customers and suppliers to call, it's a toll-free number so it's as though they're calling a headquarters building like we have in France. This works with our global brand, which is growing in the United States."
Having a single corporate phone number positions the company well for future growth. Wines are typically displayed on retail store floors stacked in cases with case cards, shelf talkers or other point-of-sale materials. With the my1voice number in place, CVBG is able to print the phone number on those materials, making it easier for customers to know where to call to obtain more wine. As the company grows, this single number may lead to a customer service line rather than sales.
"We're not sure how we will structure it yet," says Gavigan. "But the beauty is we don't have to make that decision now. If we decide to change the operational part in the future, it will be an easy move on my1voice. Customers won't need to be concerned with new or additional phone numbers and CVBG isn't locked into an inflexible phone system.
A Smooth Transition
The biggest question mark in the process was whether customers would start moving away from the old local numbers and using the toll-free number in its place. That question was answered quickly.
"Once the service was turned on, I was waiting for a customer to call us on the my1voice line," Gavigan says. "It happened pretty quickly. I was delighted to receive the first call on it."
Since that time, Gavigan has found that my1voice has done everything he'd hoped it would do. The lines of communications to customers have improved significantly, and they're feeling they're getting world-class service to go along with their world-class Bordeauxes.