RedChirp Acquires Vimbibe, Expanding its Investment in the Future of Business Texting for Wineries
For Release: August 16, 2022
Napa, Calif., August 16, 2022 — Business texting platform RedChirp continues to invest in serving the unique regulatory needs and communication challenges faced by DTC wineries with the acquisition of Vimbibe. Launched in 2020 by Highway 29 Creative, Vimbibe was the first wine industry specific texting platform. RedChirp looks forward to welcoming Vimbibe customers to the rapidly growing RedChirp platform.
“Here at RedChirp, we’re so excited to continue Vimbibe’s mission of revolutionizing DTC communications,” says Jennie Gilbert, Co-Founder of RedChirp. “We look forward to welcoming their customers — some of the very first wineries to embrace the power of text messaging — and growing with them as we raise the bar with effortless compliance, powerful automation, and meaningful integrations.”
“This acquisition is a huge step forward for the DTC wine industry,” says Simon Solis-Cohen, founder of Highway 29 Creative and Vimbibe. “We all joke that the wine industry is slow to adopt new technology. I saw how business texting was taking off in other industries. Instead of waiting for someone else to innovate, I decided to do it ourselves. I was impressed when RedChirp opened their platform to the wine industry and saw how our missions aligned to bring best-in-class engagement tools. It is a natural fit for them to carry my vision forward and create one top solution for the wine industry.”
The RedChirp and Vimbibe teams will work together to transition Vimbibe customers over to the RedChirp platform before the end of the year. Wineries using Vimbibe can expect to be contacted within the next few days with additional details.
“We started texting with Vimbibe as soon as we learned about it and it was a huge success from day one,” says Kenny Brown, E-Commerce Manager at Texas SouthWind Vineyard & Winery. “And now all the additional capabilities and features in RedChirp are taking our communications to a new level. We love it!”
About RedChirp
RedChirp specializes in helping highly regulated businesses realize the power of text messaging. RedChirp’s webchat feature lets customers initiate inbound text conversations, and routes them to the right team members without anyone having to actively monitor it. As it becomes more challenging to get emails opened and phone calls answered, RedChirp cuts through the noise with one-on-one conversations, bulk informational and marketing texts, and completely automated text confirmations, reminders, and notifications. RedChirp’s many industry-specific integrations eliminate silos and make automations more powerful. And while other generic business texting platforms prohibit and restrict highly regulated content, RedChirp embraces and automates industry-specific compliance needs. Learn more at https://redchirp.com/.
About Highway 29 Creative
Highway 29 Creative is a leading DTC wine marketing agency. They launched Vimbibe in 2020 keeping inline with their mission of creating innovative marketing solutions for the wine industry that fuel growth. Today, they offer DTC marketing services including digital advertising, email marketing, social media, and more. They also provide web design services specializing in custom websites that integrate with Commerce7 and WineDirect. Their team understands how intimidating digital marketing is and that wineries don’t have time to become expert marketers overnight. They have created proven digital strategies that generate measurable results so wineries can grow their DTC wine sales. Learn more at www.hwy29creative.com.
Current Vimbibe customers will be contacted to arrange an informational call with the RedChirp team to learn more about this exciting transition.
Interested in learning more about RedChirp? Click the link below to book a demo.
FAQ
If I am a Vimbibe customer, what will happen to my account?
You will be contacted by the team at RedChirp shortly to set up a video call. They will walk you through their platform, answer any questions you have, and help you transition to their platform. All of your contacts and opt-ins will be transferred over. They offer a very similar feature set, plus other new features we think you will love. If you have any immediate questions, you can contact us at hey@vimbibe.com.
What if I am not a Vimbibe customer, but heard about this acquisition and am interested in trying texting with RedChirp?
Cool! RedChirp is an amazing customer engagement platform and we suggest you give it a try. You can schedule a demo with their team here: : https://calendly.com/jennie-gilbert/redchirp-demo-hyw29
When can I transition my account to RedChirp?
RedChirp is ready to welcome you right away!
First step: schedule a Zoom so we can meet, learn more about your business, and answer all your questions: https://calendly.com/jennie-gilbert/redchirp-demo-hyw29
Learn more about the RedChirp setup process in this short video.
Please note that Vimbibe will be sunsetting their platform, but you have plenty of time to move over to RedChirp first! Plan to be fully transitioned to RedChirp by December 1st to avoid any disruption in your texting services.
Can I keep my phone number?
Absolutely. Vimbibe and RedChirp can work together to port the number you’ve been texting from over to RedChirp if you would like to keep it.
Plus, RedChirp can accommodate a wide range of phone number strategies. You can text from toll free numbers or from local numbers, we can secure new phone numbers for you in your area codes, or in most cases even text enable your existing landlines. Phone numbers can be assigned to individual users or to teams. And you can mix and match all these options to create the perfect phone number strategy for your unique business.
Can opt-outs be moved over?
Yes! RedChirp and Vimbibe will work together to automatically opt customers out in RedChirp if they have previously opted out in Vimbibe so you’re all set.
Will I be gaining any new capabilities with RedChirp?
RedChirp has a lot of features that were in development at Vimbibe and ready for you to use on your first day. Here are just a few examples:
Payment Requests let you securely collect credit card information by text message. Because that’s so much more convenient for customers — and more secure for your own team — they come back really fast! 42% of all RedChirp Payment Requests are completed within just 10 minutes…and 98% within one day!
Webchat lets your customers initiate text conversations with you right from your website. No one needs to sit there and monitor it! RedChirp will automatically notify the right person or people on your team, and keep leads warm for you when you’re not able to reply right away.
Most wineries have an average of 4 people in each tasting, but contact information for only the one who made the reservation. Totally integrated Tasting Room Opt-In Forms can help you collect up to 300% more contact information. RedChirp will supply you with a QR code and easy online form. When guests fill it out, they automatically become contacts, receive a personalized welcome text, and have their full texting consent stored in your Consent Register.
RedChirp supports more phone number options. You can text from toll free numbers or from local numbers, we can secure new phone numbers for you in your area codes, or in most cases even text enable your existing landlines. Phone numbers can be assigned to individual users or to teams. And you can mix and match all these options to create the perfect phone number strategy for your unique business.
Is RedChirp inside of Commerce7?
RedChirp is fully integrated with Commerce7, but the RedChirp platform lives outside of Commerce7 in its own app that can be used on your computer, tablets, and phones. More about the integration:
Contact Sharing: All Commerce7 customers will be synced to RedChirp in real time. RedChirp will automatically recognize any text to or from a phone number in Commerce7 and label it with the correctly name. One click will take you from RedChirp to the specific customer in C7 from a conversation, webchat request, or payment.
RedChirp Conversations in Commerce7: The RedChirp tab will automatically show you all conversations in RedChirp with that customer, including who the conversation is with, the date of the first and last text, the total number of texts, and a link to go view that exact conversation.
Start Conversations from Commerce7: Looking at a customer in Commerce7? Once click will begin a new text conversation with them in RedChirp.
Commerce7 Tags: Building a bulk message to send to a specific group of customers? Select one (or more) Commerce7 tags to automatically add everyone with that tag to the recipient list. RedChirp will automatically deduplicate and validate their phone numbers. You can also upload a list of recipients from any excel sheet as well.
Trigger Automated Messages: RedChirp’s Commerce7 integration also allows you to automatically trigger a variety of automated messages including: shipment notifications, reservation confirmations, updates, and reminders, when a credit card is declined, and when most transactional emails are sent.
What happens to the texts I’ve sent with Vimbibe?
You can request that Vimbibe provide you with one-time export of your data in Vimbibe. Please note, as is customary when changing text provides, your previous Vimbibe conversations will not be transferred into RedChirp.
Will I be able to set up the same automated texts?
With RedChirp you can set up any combination of these automated text messages: shipment notifications, reservation created, reservation updated, reservation canceled, all types of reservation reminders, credit card declines, and whenever a transactional C7 email goes out for account confirmation, club shipment 2 weeks away, club shipment 2 days away, club member shipment credit card decline, order confirmation club pickup and order conformation club ship.
How much does RedChirp cost?
RedChirp serves wineries of all sizes with plans that start at $99/mo. Full pricing details can be found here.
Will I be charged for both during the transition?
Nope! We’ll be able to get your RedChirp account ready to go for the date you choose for your switchover so you can definitely avoid being double-billed.
What is happening to the referral program (refer-a-friend) feature from Vimbibe? Can I keep using it since RedChirp does not offer this feature?
Good news- we will be pulling the refer-a-friend functionality out of Vimbibe and offering it as a stand alone app in the Commerce7 App Store. We are finishing up development and will be releasing this shortly.
If you are already using this feature, all of your referral links will continue to work and you will have no interruption in service. We will help you activate the new version of this app when ready.
If you transition to RedChirp for texting before we have this new refer-a-friend app ready, we will end your Vimbibe subscription so you will no longer be billed for our platform and can continue to use the refer-a-friend feature inside of Vimbibe at no monthly cost. (The 3% referral commission will still apply).
If you have any questions, contact us at hey@vimbibe.com.