When I was 18 my brother bought me my first beer kit at Harvest Brewing, we transformed a part of the basement into a brewery, beginning a life long hobby.  A couple years later I switched to wine and never looked back. Over the course of roughly 5 years I have made well over 100 kits (3000 bottles) of wine.

I have always patronized Harvest Brewing, one of the managers there would always go out of his way to ensure I was taken care of.   For the store his attitude paid off, I was loyal, never buying from anywhere else and telling everyone interested that Harvest Brewing was the place to go.  It wasn’t just the staff, I think Harvest Brewing’s wine kits are better, a couple months back I made a kit from a different store (it was for a lovely gal I make wine for, not myself) and the instructions alone were enough to make me quit drinking altogether.

So they have a great product, the employees go out of their way to help customers, what could possible be wrong at Harvest Brewing?

I went there last week to pick up a kit and chat about attracting new clientele and possibly helping begin a “You Brew” program in the store or in homes.  The response I received was don’t even try, it isn’t worth your time.  The owner is unreachable.

The store that has kept me there so long told me that the owner doesn’t care, he doesn’t have the time of day to listen.  If you don’t care about your company at least fake it to your employees so they don’t pass that on to your customers.

Immediately I felt shameful for being a long time customer of a store who’s owner doesn’t care about his employees or store and is just trying to make a quick buck.  Yes I’m over reacting and I know there MUST be more to the story but I’m not sure what I should do.

Would you pursue the owner and let him know the message his employees are conveying?  Change stores immediately?  Not do anything and keep helping a store who’s owner doesn’t care?  Please help.

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Tagged as: Business, case, feedback, Harvest Brewing, Marketing, Regina, Saskatchewan, Strategy

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Hi, I'm Jeph. I love helping people make smarter business decisions. I help companies stand out. I consult, speak, facilitate and do project work on new marketing strategies (word-of-mouth, customer service, and social media). My consulting company is JephMaystruck.com Research & Consulting. The marketing industry is changing very rapidly and the only way to stay on top of it is by a philosophy of continuous learning. Do you have an information strategy? Are you learning faster than the world is changing? If not, we should talk. Learn more here: http://jephmaystruck.com/marketing-strategy/ Follow me @JephMaystruck

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