Do (successful) breweries give a damn?

I emailed Deschutes about a bad case of Red Chair and they were awesome. They sent a prepaid box to send some back for testing, two pint glasses, coasters and a check for the full retail value of the case. Needless to say I went out and bought more Deschutes beer with it.

 

Hi All,
Apologies for coming to the party late, but we did want to chime in a bit.

We do take complaints very seriously, and usually myself or our QA director personally answer each one and find ways to make the situation right. Unfortunately, sometimes certain correspondences do fall through the cracks, mainly with Social Media. As Stephanie from Stone alluded to earlier, we get inundated with requests: people want free beer, they want beer caps/labels delivered to Oymyakon, Russia, they're getting married and would like a keg of Duck Duck, etc, etc.

While social media is a necessary evil we've all come to embrace, it's also plagued with noise, and sometimes, just sometimes, it's hard to hear over the cacophony of voices.

We work hard to make ourselves as available to our patrons as much as possible, and as such put our direct emails on our website for any and all to contact us. While we will continue to monitor all of our social media channels for complaints, high-fives, and questions, we can't promise that a few won't slip by us, but will continue to strive to answer everyone.

Quick side note: Facebook messaging is not the most effective way to communicate with us in general. While we do post and monitor the site, FB in general has become more of a forgotten player in the game in our opinion. With their updated algorithms and "pay to play" advertising plans, we don't post enough (sometimes we're just cleaning tanks, don't think that merits a post) or are big enough to spend money to "boost".

We do appreciate the feedback though, @pumpkinsmasher, feel free to reach out to me directly, Cheers!

Adam Martinez
Director of Media and Marketing
Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey / The Hop Concept
adam.martinez AT lostabbey.com

 

This is actually a huge deal that the vast majority of Facebook users are clueless about.

For those who don't know or forgot... about a year ago Facebook changed their News Feed algorithms to identify Facebook accounts run by businesses and hide most of their posts from users, including users that "friend" the business. Businesses can now pay Facebook for premium business accounts and/or have their posts/ads sponsored, but it's too expensive for most small to medium businesses [and not just breweries]. This makes Facebook fairly useless to many businesses now. But most people don't know this and expect the businesses to be as active on Facebook as they are.

 

Trying to respond to social media queries is like drinking from a fire hose. If you want a thoughtful response, use email. Most breweries have someone dedicated to that as part of their job who can triage public queries and fwd it to the person who can respond most appropriately.

 

I've only e-mailed two breweries, but both responded in a timeframe I thought was appropriate. They were Lost Abbey and Alesmith. Both were very helpful, and nothing got lost in the mix when I responded with more questions.

 

I have to agree. I've never had to contact FFF, my only contact directly with them was going to Dark Lord Day a few years ago, and while obviously frazzled beyond belief, everyone working there was as polite as could be while dealing with 5000 drunks. I can say that I have spent plenty of time in customer service fields, and it is extremely frustrating getting the same questions dozens of times a day, for things that maybe shouldn't be asked. I guarantee every time they come up on one of those lists on Esquire or any of those, they (and all the other) breweries get swamped with calls asking if they have Dark Lord, or in Founders case, KBS, or what have you. We as BAs know that it comes out once a year, but the general public doesn't. For those calling in, or coming in to the brewpub it's their one and only contact, and the workers get frustrated. I've been there, and it's not fun for either party.
Getting short with customers can easily lead to a reputation, whether deserved or not. Look at all the stories about people yelling at stores in the Southwest for not having Heady Topper, because they just read on some magazine website that it is the best beer in the world, and they want some. Yes, some investigation will reveal that it's only available in Vermont, but they don't think of that - they think of every store they go to that has stacks of Bud, Miller, Sam Adams and Seirra Nevada, and don't consider that some breweries are very limited.

 

I'm thinking this is not related to size but just to each companies individual policies for customer relations and social media management. The two breweries you mentioned definitely need a full-time person dedicated to social media if not more. I have a tiny brewery that's been open a year and I spend 15-20 hours a week on social media. Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Instagram, Untappd, Google, etc. You wouldn't believe the amount of shit you have to deal with in one week if you want to be on top of your game. There are no more 'comment cards', social media, for better or for worse, is the key to your companies success in my opinion. I personally hate Facebook and rarely post anything personally, but am on it all day for business. As you mentioned answering questions, resolving issues, and generally just promoting our brand and events. Here's one now!
https://www.facebook.com/blackholebeer

 

I think some breweries want to get back to you but once the flood gates open how do you close it. There are a lot of crazy off the wall shit that people will write into breweries that make no sense, are a scam, or are just nut jobs ranting about how Obama fucked up his beer. Sometimes silence is the least path of resistence.

 

And how is a cashier or an office admin going to be remotely helpful/useful in answering the questions that will get asked of them?

 

You have a small brewery open less than year and have to devote over 2 days work time to social media?

This is why social media isn't helpful. I'm sure there are other more productive things to do for such a small operation.

 

I sent Lazy Magnolia an email when they entered my market with their expansion, congratulating them on their success and a couple inquiries regarding their beer and it's roll out. They gave zero fucks and couldn't be bothered to reply, so since then I haven't been bothered to buy their beer, no matter how much I enjoyed Timber Beast. I've ran businesses for years and proper customer service is important to me.

 

Which gets the priority, the social media inquiry, or the actual person standing in front of you wanting to purchase something? How is the office worker gonna do payroll, send bills or payments, and deal with all the stuff, when they've gotta hold delicate little hands all day?

 

Some do. Some don't. Even good breweries have their slip ups. It's gonna depend on each person's visit and what employee helped or didn't help them

 

Have you ever had Dark Lord? Of course 3 Floyds doesn't care what people think.

 

Frankly, it's amazing what kind of response you get when you post positive comments and not just complaints.

 

A great company always cares about their products and how it's perceived regardless of their success or size.

 

Not Founders or the Bruery. The Bruery opened their email with" if you did not buy the beer direct from us we can't do anything" I did not ask for anything just wanted to let them know my bottle of mischief had no carbonation at all.

Founders won't respond

All others I can think of right now go tight back to me with a good email. Sone offered me stuff I did not ask for. SN sent a mailer to send the beer back for testing.

Enjoy

 

What you may not be factoring into your thinking is that not everyone relies on or thinks of Social Media as mechanisms for serious communication by people worth listening to. Rightly or wrongly Social Media are still a thing many people don't understand but don't let that stop them from participating. For example, many users think of it as a way of getting free advertising and collecting likes, others rely on it for personal contacts and ignore other stuff, still others use it to create "flash mobs" of local support for being the little guy attacked by a "nasty" big guy.

Similarly, its amazing how many people will reveal private information about themselves online that could be harvested by others and used in varying ways by employers or by identity thieves. In the realm of email, I continue to be amazed by the ongoing survival of things like the "Nigerian money scam" type emails and the fact that there are still people who will fall for them. So I can imagine quite easily that in a mess of "noisey" input your serious efforts to contact a particular brewery got lost in the shuffle. Whether we like it or not, lots of stuff gets lost in electronic shuffles. (Just look at some of the longer threads on here and see how many times some of the earlier posts get duplicated in later posts by folks who seem not to have read anything more than the thread title before responding... :-)