Hi there,
It seems like when we want certain things to change in the system, we have to ban together to show that some things need to be fixed. Does anyone know of any polls of outstanding issues and how we would rank them? Does anyone get together outside of this forum to discuss pain points with the POS/Admin Panel?
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Great idea. I’d like to know as well. We’re shopping for other options at this point.
The original Facebook “Vin65 Geeks” group was founded with an express purpose to have a unified voice in requesting features, improvements, and even bug fixes. The group still exists and prospers as “Wine DTC Geeks” - please do feel free to use the group for this purpose.
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@Michael.Braga - thank you for wanting to voice your thoughts on making platform improvements. We always encourage user feedback and are always curious to hear your ideas. The best way to log a request is through our feature request form here. We track all submissions internally for popularity and severity and prioritize accordingly. This helps us stay focused by having platform improvement requests all in one place. Thanks!
Hi @Jaz - we are sorry to hear you are considering other options and we would love to speak to you about what we can do to keep you as a client. I know it’s a holiday today - but I will reach out to you tomorrow to discuss. Thanks!
@Jaz I’m starting to look elsewhere too.
I just started in my role as Director of DTC Operations and this is my first time working with Vin65/WD and I have never been more frustrated with their reporting. There is no ability to customize and while Customer Service is pleasant they are unhelpful with specifics. I have been told numerous time to send a “feature request form”. I am not a newbie, previously I have worked with RMS/bloyal, Cultivate, eCellar and 750/Figure, I was excited to sign up for the BootCamps and then disappointed that there is a substantial charge to attend. I am currently working for a small winery that sells Direct via an Allocation model not a club- it seems that we are not the best fit for this vendor. If anyone with a similar model would be willing to share some of your work arounds (why do it in one click when you can do it in five) I’d love to chat.
I agree. I also have experience with multiple systems and the WD reporting is somewhat maddening. I have to follow the trail of system logic before determining how to get the results I need. It shouldn’t be this difficult.
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Everybody has different reporting requirements and sometimes, with WineDirect being a software company, they can be disconnected from the realities of running a wine business. Do you have an example of something you find maddening?
Here are two I just ran into, in Club Member Reports:
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Why aren’t the same columns available for all flavors of club member reports?
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Why do I have to sort through all of the inactive clubs in these filters? (And other places, but…)
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Hi everyone. Thanks for chiming in with your frustrations and challenges. WD is claiming to be the winery’s champion, so I think we need to continue to put pressure on listening to feedback. Providing more transparency with the product road map, and providing better service. We shouldn’t be one step ahead of them. At the end of the day, there are choices out there and kudos to those who might be exploring those options.
WineDirect, like any big company, has no incentive to create a public dialogue with their customers; that would sacrifice leverage and engender accountability.
So while it seems ironic that the winery’s champion™ offers effectively zero transparency and no roadmap to inform their clients’ own business decisions, I wouldn’t expect that to organically improve.
10 years ago, there were a dozen players developing wine-specific sales platforms. WineDirect, through their own savvy and hard work, monopolized the market by creating a superior product. Now you see the same sense of complacency, erosion of quality and customer tension that happens in any industry that is absent of competition.
What I do know is that competition is coming. I also know that WineDirect has a team of smart, talented, passionate people that, when pressed, will be up for the fight. So while I understand the frustrations (and I’ve certainly been vocal about ours), I wouldn’t count WineDirect out just yet.