What's the Average Starting Salary in Tasting Rooms?

I used to work in retail when I was a young man. It can be fun when you have a good dialogue with a customer but when alcohol is involved, customers like Miles and Jack in the scene above can make life pretty uncomfortable for public serving employees.

That's when you need someone behind the counter who is confident and knows how to handle those situations. And before that, you want someone who can balance sales and client experience but there is a cost to attract that kind of a person, but how much is that?

Have you ever wondered how you stack up against the rest of the wine business on tasting room metrics?

• How hard is it to attract good tasting room talent?
• How many tasting room members did the average winey loose last year?
• What's the average wine club membership size in Sonoma?
• What's the minimum, maximum and average number of months a club member stays in the wine club in Oregon?
• What are the various ways tasting room employees are compensated in wineries which have average price points between $35 - $45?
• What's the minimum, maximum and average bonus paid to tasting room staffs for club signups in wineries that have at least 1,000 club members?
• What's the average conversation rate for wineries with an average price point of $35?
• What's the average tasting room starting salary in the wine business as a whole?

The answer to the first question is:

For the last question, the answer is:
      Median      $12.00
      Average     $13.42
      Max           $50.00
      Min           $  8.00

... at least that's the result of the Annual Tasting Room Survey after one week.

 

Each year, SVB and Wine Business Monthly collaborate to produce peer metrics for Tasting Rooms. Typically we get 600 or more wineries participating.  If you would like to have the answers to all of these questions and many more, the only way to get them is to participate in the survey. For a time investment of 15 minutes, you will get the complete results with personal identifying marks removed, as well as a deck of charts and analysis.

 

The survey will close Monday March 23rd at the end of the day so please take the survey today and share in the information produced.