A customer at a taproom asks whether anything on the board is suitable for somebody avoiding a particular allergen. The person serving is nineteen, it is a Friday, and she gives the answer that seems most helpful rather than the one that is documented.
Nobody involved did anything malicious. The answer was still a guess about something that matters.
The checklist
Publish these and nobody has to improvise.
1. The ingredients per product
Listed properly, including anything used in production that remains in the finished drink. Customers assume drinks contain two or three things.
2. The allergen position per product
Stated plainly against each item, with the producer's own documented information rather than a general reassurance about the range.
3. The process information that matters
Fining agents, filtration, adjuncts and anything used during production. It is what determines whether a product suits certain customers and it is almost never published.
4. The vegan and vegetarian position
Per product, because it varies within a single producer's range. Customers asking this expect a specific answer and receive a vague one.
5. The shared equipment position
What the production environment handles and what cannot be guaranteed. The same honesty that a kitchen needs, as in allergen questions bakeries must handle carefully.
6. What free from actually means here
The distinction between made without an ingredient and produced in an environment that excludes it. Customers hear the first and assume the second.
7. Seasonal and one off products
Specials and limited releases frequently have different ingredients and the information lags behind the product. It should be ready before the drink goes on sale.
8. The non alcoholic range
Its own ingredients, its own allergens and its own process. Customers choosing it often have a reason and deserve the same level of detail.
9. Sulphite and preservative information
Where it applies, stated per product. It is the most common specific question a wine producer receives.
10. What is on the label versus what is published
Labels have limited space and a website does not. Publishing the fuller information online, and pointing to it from the label, serves customers properly.
11. Training the people who answer
Everybody serving should give the same documented answer or say plainly that they will check. Improvisation is the risk, not ignorance.
12. What to do when you do not know
Say so, offer to find out and give a route. A customer told honestly that somebody will check is better served than one given a confident wrong answer.
13. Trade customers need it too
Stockists, bars and restaurants must pass the information on and cannot do so if it is not documented, which is the ground in trade and stockist enquiries for craft drinks producers.
14. Club and subscription members ask in advance
People receiving a case want to know what is in it before it arrives, as in club membership and subscription questions for wineries.
15. Anything specific to a person goes to a person
A question about an individual's allergy is never answered from a general page, and anything automated should hand over immediately.
Getting started
Publish ingredients, process and allergen information per product, then answer from those documented facts at any hour with fast handover, asking suppliers the questions in AI chatbot security questions to ask a vendor. SpideyChat for food and drink businesses answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about routing on the features page.