September 24,2018
Last week we talked about the question "how do you change your industry". This week we delve deeper into this question with more ways Boulder Gardens is changing the flower world !!
In a flower shop, we are participating in some of the biggest moments of a customer’s life. From birth, to marriage, to death, to congratulations, to I'm sorry's - we are there to help ease people's lives with a touch of nature and beauty. It is one of my favorite parts about this job and it sometimes is the most stressful. It is important to me that in all situations, I am at my ultimate best for customer service. This means that I listen actively, giving responses only when necessary and help them develop trust that we can ensure a timely, safe and beautiful delivery of their floral expectations. This part of “hearing out” the customer is vital I believe to not only the floral industry but to our community as well.
With such a fast paced world we live in, every human interaction we have becomes obsolete with intention and active listening. When a person comes into the flower shop it should be a deep breath of fresh air. I like to ask how the person is doing, what is going on in their life and see if I can do anything to help them. It is these simple things that allow a moment of connection in between life's busy moments. We take extra care here at Boulder Garden's to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s. More recently we have stepped away from the larger order gather companies so that we can talk to the customer and recipient of the flowers in a more caring, compassionate and detail oriented way.
Large corporations like Teleflora and FTD are at the forefront of floral marketing. They attract customers with large, photo shopped arrangements at extremely low costs. The convenience of choosing from a diverse virtual "flower market", at any time of the day regardless of location is a large part of the reason these companies have succeeded. Although they provide the customer with all these entertaining options and prices, there are many downsides for the flower shop producing these arrangements as well as the customers purchasing these arrangements.
The first major problem that often arises from these order gather companies is lack of money for the florist to produce the arrangement to pictured size. This is because these large gather companies take an extreme cut from the price the customer originally pays before sending it out to the receiving florist who will produce the arrangement. Thus this leaves the florist next to nothing for money for flowers and subsequently the arrangement does not match the pictured item the customer purchased. The second major problem is timing. When a customer orders and tells the phone operator a specificity on timing of delivery, these companies guarantee that this will not be an issue. This leaves no room for the florist to communicate local traffic delays, that the recipient may or may not be at their residence during that time and/or that the florist may be delayed in receiving answers on substitutions. We have noticed time and time again that because customers are shopping on virtual flower markets they do not know what is in season and what the local florist has. The florist then has to make “substitutions” to these flowers. But before one doing this , they have to ask the company for permission which then calls you for further permission only to get back to us hours later delaying your arrangement and increasing confusion.
With three major issues that kept occurring, Boulder Gardens decided to divest from several large order gather companies. We are still listed with a few of these chain operations but only accept local Boulder deliveries. This allows us to a) make sure the arrangement gets there on time b) the arrangement is at its freshest for delivery and lastly, so that in time we can take less of these orders. Re-localizing our delivery zones for these major companies has allowed us to focus on our customers better !!
We offer complimentary upgrades with customers that call us directly, designs that are in season with materials we have and we are able to communicate any delays in the arrival of their beautiful arrangement! Taking this leap of faith into our local customers who order from us directly, is and has changed the way people perceive the floral industry !!!
Here at Boulder Gardens florist, we build relationships and arrangements!!
-Erin at Boulder Gardens Florist
