How Bottle360 makes migrating from another platform easy and as seamless as possible.
As we talk with wineries across the U.S., it makes us sad every time we hear another winery horror story of when they switched from one DTC software provider to another.
Switching to a new winery DTC platform is a big deal. If you’ve had the experience of switching platforms before, it was probably very stressful. We know it can seem scary, but it doesn’t have to take forever or suck hundreds of hours of your time.
Wineries tell us all the time that they don’t like their current winery DTC software, or they know it is too expensive, but it is too hard and time-consuming to switch.
That’s why Bottle360 makes setup, migration, and launch simple and seamless. Our team personally guides you through every step, from moving your data and configuring your tools to training your staff and testing your live environment. We handle the details so your winery can hit the ground running with confidence.
Below are some of the horror stories we’ve heard from wineries and their experiences in migrating to other DTC software platforms. We hope you haven’t had this happen to you, but if the following examples do sound familiar, we’d love to talk to you about how you can switch to better software with winery-friendly pricing without these hassles. Book a demo to find out more. To get an understanding of what wineries pay across major DTC platforms, check out our post: The Annual Cost of DTC Software: A Side-by-Side.
Migrating Horror Story 1
“When we migrated to our current DTC platform, we lost customer information.”
We hear this one all the time. Several wineries have told us that while switching platforms in the past, they have had the experience of losing past-purchase history for customers!
We understand what a big deal this can be, because customers often ask wineries to look up what they might have purchased in the past. And we know wineries frequently pull lists of customers based on past wine purchases for new marketing campaigns.
Several wineries have told us that a platform they went with would only import data from the past 3 years. Like wine that ages for 4 or more years to hit its peak, wineries might want to look at customer data from that long ago for marketing purposes or to see which wines have been selling better over time.
And we’ve had two wineries tell us that they signed off on going live because they felt they had done enough testing. They felt sure all their data was in the system. It wasn’t until after they went live that they realized there were lots of missing customer accounts. In one case, that software company had already deleted the testing area and the winery’s data. For the second winery, the software company eventually found the data, but it took several weeks of going back and forth with the company to get it resolved.
How Bottle360 Handles Data Transfer
At Bottle360, we import all your data, from as far back as your purchase history goes. We not only support you throughout the process of migrating your data, but we also ensure that all of your data from your previous platform is backed up.
We make the effort to work with you during testing to ensure you see all of your data in Bottle360 before you go live. Even if you did discover missing data once you went live, we are just a phone call away to rectify it.
Migrating Horror Story 2
“When we started with [Platform X), we didn’t get nearly enough time with the testing environment.”
One winery told us they had 3 staff members leave within a couple of weeks of switching to [Platform X]. Immediately after going live, that company removed that winery’s testing environment, so they had to train new employees on the live platform while they were still trying to get a handle on it themselves. Not ideal.
Another winery told us that a DTC solution they chose forced them to go live before they felt they had adequately tested it.
One winery told us how difficult it was to schedule most of their staff to be in a training meeting, and during the hour-long training, most of what they tried to show them wasn’t working in the system. And the system even crashed altogether, and the trainer had to re-login several times during the meeting!
How Bottle360 Makes It Easy & Painless
This is why we give you access to your testing environment forever! We want you to feel totally comfortable with it before you do any real transactions, club runs, or inventory adjustments. And it is a great way for you to train new staff members.
At Bottle360 we can move at your pace. If you want to move quickly to get up and running on Bottle360, we’ll hit the ground running. But if you need more time to feel confident about going live, we’re here to help you through everything.
Migrating Horror Story 3
“The so-called specialist we worked with to move to [Platform Y] was rarely available by phone and took forever to respond when we emailed questions.”
We’ve heard from several wineries about bad experiences with other platforms’ support staff and migration specialists. Tales of not being able to get a hold of anyone when they had questions, or having to wait a week to hear back from someone. And other tales of the migration specialist or account coordinator not knowing how certain features worked.
Why Bottle360 Answers The Phone 24/7/365
At Bottle 360, we are proud of our 5-star support reviews, and we offer 24/7/365 live U.S.-based phone support. We want our winery customers to feel heard! During the process of switching to Bottle360, we support our new customers by communicating with them on their schedule. Because our team includes real, hardworking people, the person who answers our phone may not have the answer at hand, but they are dedicated to getting the customer to the right person as quickly as possible and communicating effectively.
Migrating Horror Story 4
“Our previous platform, which we thought was too expensive, refused to give us our customers’ credit card tokens if we continued with switching to a new platform! Bottle360 helped us get them, so we didn’t have to ask all our club members and long-time customers to give us their credit card numbers again.”
A winery that recently moved to Bottle360 panicked when their previous payment processor refused to send their customers’ credit card tokens to Bottle360’s preferred payment processor. Without the tokens, the winery was facing hours of work to contact all their club members and other customers and get new credit card numbers. Man-hours the winery really didn’t have to spare, and that type of activity is always annoying to customers.
That company was just being spiteful because they didn’t want the winery to leave them. Fortunately, Bottle360 was able to negotiate with that company to get the winery’s customers’ tokens.
Why Bottle360 Recommends Their Preferred Payment Processor
Our preferred payment processor offers the lowest rates in the DTC wine industry, saving wineries thousands of dollars a year. And on top of that, they will never hold a winery’s customer tokens hostage. Their responsiveness and the tools they provide us to offer exceptional support are the best in the industry. If a winery did choose to move to a new platform and payment processor, we will help that winery get its tokens moved to the new company. We offer this because Bottle360 is confident our customers will want to stay with us and our preferred payment processor for many years.
Why are we so sure of this? Because our software works the way wineries need it to, we get 5-star reviews for our support, and wineries that use Bottle360 and our preferred payment processor retain an average of 33% more profits!
Migrating Horror Story 5
“We were forced to switch to a new platform. We picked one, and 6 months later, we’re still waiting for [Platform Z] to work!”
Recently, some winery owners and general managers were shocked to be notified that the software system they were using had been sold and would eventually be discontinued by the new company. They would be forced to switch to a new system. We can only imagine how hard that was on them.
We’ve heard from multiple wineries about the chaos they’ve had to deal with for months on end while switching to a new system. Some of them were being forced to change systems due to the buyout, and others were switching in the hopes of finding a better system. In both cases, getting their data moved and their new system up and running was taking too many hours of their time and too many months to get going.
Why Bottle360 Makes Switching Easy and Timely
Bottle360 has no intention of selling the company to a competitor. We believe in our software and in ourselves. And we believe in helping wineries succeed.
At Bottle360, we move quickly to get you set up and trained. We never rush our winery partners, but getting you set up, trained, and live on Bottle360 happens as quickly as you need it to.
Learn why so many wineries are switching to Bottle360.