Want to Boost Your Floristry Business? Educate Your Customers!

1. Stay in contact: It's important to maintain regular communication with your customers. Reach out to them through phone calls, emails, newsletters, or even in-person interactions. (Yes, I did say emails and newsletters! - Do you actively email your customers?) Be proactive in staying connected, and consider using various channels to ensure your message reaches them. Even if a past customer doesn't work with you again keeping yourself at the top of their mind can lead to referrals!

2. Post-Purchase Assurance: Follow up with your customers after they make a purchase. Show them that you care about their satisfaction and that you're there to support them. Make sure that you make it easy for them to contact you after they or the recipient receive(s) their order or after their event in case they have any customer service issues and make sure to resolve any issues quickly and professionally. Also sending something as simple as a thank-you note or even a card on the anniversary of an event can make a big difference. Customers appreciate feeling supported even after the sale. Especially with weddings and events, you wouldn't believe the repeat and referral business I would get just by staying in touch and thanking them!

3. Deals & Guarantees: Offer your current customers the best deals and guarantees available.  Demonstrate your appreciation for their continued business and consider creating a rewards program or providing preferred pricing options which can also help in retaining their loyalty. Make sure that you think through your reward program carefully. Often you will see these “Buy A Dozen / Get A Half Dozen Free” programs but you don’t want to encourage your customers to buy your cheapest, lowest margin items. You do want to encourage them to spend more money on your higher margin products. This means that the rewards should be based on the amount that they spend - not the number of times that they spend. 

4. Integrity: Uphold good business practices, integrity, dignity, and honesty in all your interactions. Building trust with your customers is crucial, as they need to feel safe and confident in their decision to choose your business. One way to build trust with current customers is by making sure that the floral designs you deliver match any original marketing photos shown to them. People want to receive what they ordered and when you can meet that time and time again they will come back to you over and over because they can trust in the end product and service. By creating a trustworthy and reliable reputation, you can foster a supportive and loyal customer base.

Remember the key to a successful business is to not neglect your current customers while pursuing new prospects! In the floral industry this can be very easily done but as Jay Abraham says, “Your best prospects are your existing customers. If you’ve been putting all your marketing efforts into acquiring new customers, stop and divert some of your resources into reselling, upselling, cross-selling to those same customers. In every ways possible – through package inserts, regular mailings, special offers – stay in touch with those customers and get them used to buying from you.”

By focusing on your existing customer base, you can reap the rewards of loyalty and growth.