Once upon a (true) time, there was an entrepreneur who took an abandoned warehouse and turned it into a brewery.

Now this brewery happened to be next to a residential house, which depending on your view of breweries, was either very lucky or very unlucky for this neighbor.

Being a considerate person, the business owner went to the neighbor to talk about how they could make this a win-win situation for everybody.

Of all the things that could have concerned the neighbor, the biggest concern of all was their dog and the fact that there wasn’t a fence between the new brewery entrance and the home. The neighbor felt like the fence was essential for safety and would also help the dog not bark at every car and person the dog might see going by.

They discussed in detail the traffic, the noise regulations, the lighting, and a host of other things, but the homeowner was only concerned about the dog and the fence.

So in the spirit of goodwill, the business owner decided to pay out of pocket for the fence.

As they say, “High fences make good neighbors.”

So, imagine the business owner’s surprise when a few weeks into opening, they get a negative review from none other than the…dog. No, just kidding! The negative review was from the neighbor.

Guess what the neighbor was complaining about? The traffic, the noise, the lighting. These were all things that had been discussed, agreed upon, and supposedly settled. But the review did not mention that a discussion took place, that those items had been reviewed, or the fact that the brewery owner paid for a fence.

So imagine if that review had sat there with no response from the brewery owner. It would have left a bad impression indeed, but…The brewery owner did respond. And in a very clever and effective way.

To be continued…