Saving Valentine’s Day Thanks to Customer Success
Working in a florist shop for many years has taught me a lot. I know how to make cut flowers last as long as possible, which plants are poisonous to cats, and how to perfectly wrap a bridesmaid bouquet. Probably the most valuable lesson I learned though was the importance of customer success, especially around the holidays.
The three busiest holidays at any florist shop are as follows: Mother’s Day, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day. Everyone wants to gift a bunch of beautiful flowers to their loved ones. Some people will order months in advance and spend hundreds of dollars, while others will forget and panic at the last minute when the day arrives and they only have ten dollars to spend. Our job at the flower shop was to treat each customer with the same level of care and enthusiasm to make sure they walked out of our store completely satisfied with both our product and service.
This past Valentine’s Day was one of the busiest days I have witnessed at our little shop. Due to Covid restrictions, customers lined up outside in the frosty February air waiting to pick up their orders while two or three people at a time were allowed inside to browse and pay at the register. Our team that day consisted of two front-end workers, four designers in the back room, and a runner that went between and helped where it was most needed. While the designers worked hard creating all the top quality floral arrangements, it was up to me and the other front-end staff to manage customer success. In order to maximize our customer success, I had to proactively anticipate the customers’ needs, adapt to unforeseen challenges, and imbue all my customer interactions with an abundance of empathy and patience. Using these three tools I managed to create a wonderful Valentine’s Day experience for our customers.
Proactivity
Firstly was being proactive. Every time a new person entered the shop I had to quickly identify what the person needed so I could keep the line moving in a timely manner. Sometimes the customer knew exactly what they wanted so I could quickly write an order form, ring up their payment, and invite them to wait outside for the design team to make their arrangement. More often however, the guy would just say they needed something for their girlfriend but didn’t know the first thing about flowers. In that case I would ask them a few simple questions like their budget, their girlfriend’s favorite flower and/or color, and a few other things to personalize their order. I could then suggest the flower arrangement I thought best suited their needs. I reassured them that our design team would make their flowers beautiful no matter what. Once it was ready, I would bring it outside and ask if they were happy with the arrangement and their response was always immense satisfaction.
Adaptivity
The next skill was adapting to problems efficiently and creatively. Despite ordering two thousand red roses from Texas, we ran out completely around 5pm. From then on, any time somebody came in wanting a dozen red roses I would have to explain that we were sold out. However, I was always ready with alternative options such as a dozen colorful roses, or twelve red tulips all the way from Holland. Rather than focusing on the negative, I encouraged the customer that there were more creative arrangements we could make and their girlfriend would appreciate their one-of-a-kind arrangement even more than the stereotypical red roses. I would also point out that red roses were more expensive so they could get more value for their money this way.
Empathy
The final ingredient to customer success was a combination of empathy and patience. Unfortunately, sometimes there are difficult customers who are determined to be dissatisfied with everything. One such lady came into the shop and wanted to buy one of our specialty dyed rainbow roses. From a large bucket containing about two dozen individually wrapped rainbow roses, she picked one that was particularly wilted and bruised, probably from previous customers handling it too roughly before putting it back. She wanted to know if she could have this rose at a discount. When I told her there were plenty of other rainbow roses in a nicer condition, she insisted that this one had a unique center that she liked and none of the others would do but still insisted on a discount because of the poor condition. I asked her to wait a moment while I brought the rose to the back to ask. After confirming with the owner that our policy was not to sell any product deemed to be below our standards, I returned to the front without the rose and calmly explained that I could not sell her that one since it did not meet our quality standards. She became frustrated but I simply apologized and asked her if I could help her find something else she wanted. She waved away my help but continued to browse. Eventually she found a small planter she liked and came to the register to purchase it. I complimented her on her choice and offered to water it and place it in a box so it would not tip over in the car. I added some colorful wrapping and brought it out to her with a smile. She thanked me and left and I knew that I had managed to salvage the situation.
All in all, we served over 300 walk-in customers that Valentine’s Day plus about 100 more who came to pick up their pre-orders. Despite lines and wait times, we only had ten complaints the whole day thanks to our great customer success strategy. Busy holidays can make customer success a bigger challenge than usual for businesses, but that is why it is very important to focus on each individual customer that walks through our doors to make sure they have a great experience. We wanted to make sure everyone had the happiest Valentine’s Day we could provide because our motto is “flowers are a gift to the world”. If your customer success needs improving, definitely try out these 3 strategies.
