Episode 058: Customers can be challenging these days and employees get discouraged easily. Vonda and Lori discuss ways to keep up the moral while keeping customer satisfaction at the highest level. They are also joined by Kami Martin, Director of Flower Clique's One Clique Program with important tips for a successful website for the holiday!
If you need a quick training session to process flowers or make a rose vase, look at
Flower Prep School.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
Episode 058: Customers can be challenging these days and employees get discouraged easily. Vonda and Lori discuss ways to keep up the moral while keeping customer satisfaction at the highest level. They are also joined by Kami Martin, Director of Flower Clique's One Clique Program with important tips for a successful website for the holiday!
If you need a quick training session to process flowers or make a rose vase, look at
Flower Prep School.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
Right. And so we're talking to an employee, but we're also talking to the shop owner is how do you keep the morale up? And that's the conversation with Jerome. It's like, we've got to have ways to keep the morale up in our employees. welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda Lafever.
Lori:and Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda,
Vonda:Lori. So good to be here today.
Lori:It is good to be here today. Ms. Vonda, how are ya?
Vonda:I'm good. You know, Valentine's day right around the corner. We thought it would be important to share with our cliquers a few things that they really need to keep in mind.
Lori:You're very right. So much so that we brought in our resident expert, Ms. Kami, Martin, our director of one clique for flower clique, hi Kami, how are you
Kami:Hi girls, Glad to be here.
Lori:We're excited.
Vonda:We're so glad you're here. You know, this is what I call the calm before the storm, because there's like this week before people start getting their flowers in and it's like, Oh my gosh. So there's so many things that need to be accomplished before Valentine's day. But we really narrowed it down to two areas. Right, Lori?
Lori:So the first thing we wanted to make sure and talk about is your website, right? This time of year, we're always talking about it. Are you website ready? That's why we brought in Kami. So we're going to talk a lot about things you can do to make sure your website is ready for Valentine's day. The other thing we're going to talk about is, and this came from your interview with Jerome last week. So if you guys are listening and haven't listened to that, you may want to go back and listen to that. Um, he was talking about how, how do we help keep morale up for the employees right now? So we're gonna kind of take a little deeper dive into that. I've been doing a lot of research and of course I found a lot of the psychology behind some things that employees can do to maybe not take things so personal.
Vonda:So Kami let's talk about websites. And one of the things, when I look at websites, I see some Valentines categories have 40 to 50 choices. O M G. And we talk on this podcast a lot about the paradox of choice, right Lori and too many shoppers. And what do you call it? Paralyzed, right? Yeah.
Lori:Descision fatigue. I just talked to a shop this week that called to hear about flower clique. I was talking to her about this and you know what she said? She said they have 700 active images on their website. And I mean, she's not happy about it, but she does, she need to talk with Kami Martin. So anyway.
Vonda:Wow. Can you imagine trying to source all those flowers right
Lori:Not even off of the holiday season? Like just in your day to day, I feel like you would, you're just making so much more work for yourself, for sure. So, didn't mean to interrupt.
Vonda:It's not an interruption. So Kami, what do you suggest about the Valentine category? How many things should be in there? Sometimes you talk about something called a skinny, could you give us like the scoop on that?
Kami:Give you the skinny on the skinny? Yeah. We strongly suggest you limit the products in the Valentine's day category. I would say about no more than five rows are needed. I would think that florists would take a deep breath at the thought of that. Right? You can have plenty of choices with just five rows, you know, of products, four to five rows, just make sure you have your dozen roses, your double dozen roses, make sure you have something that's, you know, a different color. They don't want to get the traditional Rose design and in different price points. You definitely want to take a look and make sure you have something for someone that wants to spend a little less. Some of them want to spend a little more and you can achieve that with four to five rows of products.
Vonda:Does that hurt my customers? Don't they like go away? Cause they're like, Oh, I don't have enough choices there.
Kami:Well, what you guys were talking about with the paradox of choice, we find it actually increases the conversion rate. Um, so there's science behind what you're talking about, right?
Vonda:I know. I just want you t o h ear t hem to hear it from you too.
Kami:Cause it truly increases. And the conversion rate is I like to use simple math. If you have a hundred visitors to your website, 10 of those convert to customers, then you have 10% conversion rate. So the rate at which they convert to a customer though, the visitors on your site convert and actually buy from you. So we find the conversion rate goes up on those sites that have less product available versus the one that you guys mentioned that has, you know, you scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and do get that decision fatigue that you're talking about.
Vonda:Absolutely. As far as the designer, I would say it increases productivity too. Instead of having to create all those different types of designs. Now you're saying, you know, if we're doing five rows, if there's three in a row, there's 15, otherwise there's four in a row. We have 20. And there's a lot of similar things. If I have six roses and 12 roses and two dozen roses, my productivity of my design team goes up because I don't have to do that many different kinds of designs.
Kami:That's right. And we might even put like a standard version of one design and a more premium version of the same design, three rows down. So not only do you have that color pop and that color balance on the website, we like how that looks, but it also is technically someone can buy that design at a little lower price or they can go a little more premium and get it at a higher price, but you are making the same, you know, using the same flowers. So yeah,
Vonda:That's really smart. And then let's work into the prices of that. I mean, I look at those things sometimes and go, Ooh, if that came into my shop, even at a non holiday time, but at a holiday time at that price, I'd be cringing because there is no way I would be able to fill that order at that price.
Kami:That's right. And I mean, when you think about it, not only are consumers buying off your website and look, but they're also, and you know, and sending that order in over the website, they're also using your website as a menu when they call in. So you need to make sure your prices are correct. Um, and if you do the skinny down that we're talking about, it really makes it not that hard to look at the prices on your website. Now, if you're the lady that Lori mentioned that has 700 products on your website, it's overwhelming. There's absolutely no way. I mean, it would be, it would be a task I wouldn't want to have to do so. Um, but if you skinny down the selection first, and then you put your eyes on every single one that you've decided to feature, it's really not that hard. And you make sure that you're getting a profit from that design. Otherwise you're just spinning your wheels. And I talked to so many florists who that is what they've been doing. They're busy and they're selling, you know,$39 designs that aren't, that aren't profitable and they're either losing money or just spinning their wheels and wasting time really. I mean, and I mean, if it's not priced to make a profit, you're just wasting your time. Right. Right. So, right. So get your eyes on every product that you have featured on your website. Not only do we recommend you skinny down the Valentine's day category, we go a step further for our members and we skinny down the other categories as well. So we choose about five or six categories that we leave up for two weeks before Valentine's day. And we're about to skinny all of our websites from the 28th or 29th of January all the way through February 15th. We basically take categories that someone might be shopping like anniversary and romance. Rose's birthday get well, new baby and plants. Those are the categories we choose to keep on the website. And then we take Valentine's day and put a lot of the same products in those skinny categories that we see in Valentine's day. So someone that's has a birthday, February 10th, bless their heart. They can still get flowers, but they can still get flowers. Um, and if someone's looking to send flowers to them on February 10th, did they might go to the birthday category and they're still going to have plenty of options to choose from, but they're going to be items that they're churning out for Valentine's day.
Vonda:So I've heard of some shops who actually shut off all categories on their website, except for Valentine's day for that week to 10 days. Is that something you recommend,
Kami:You know, to each his own, even some of our members still ask me to do that. And I'm okay with that. I don't recommend it because I feel sorry for the consumer who has a birthday or new baby or anniversary during that week, I have friends who literally have a birthday that week. And so I like to just go ahead and leave a category up, but keep that cross over so they can still shop. You look at our Valentine's day category. We do have a lot of red roses, but we also have a few non-traditional items that are purple and that are pink and a hot pink at plants. You can definitely keep plans and dish gardens on your website during that time. So I feel like there's plenty to choose from.
Vonda:And we know that consumers are ordering non-traditional things for Valentine's day more and more. I mean, that's been very proven over the last few years.
Kami:One of our top sellers last year was the Malibu, right? That peach coral. And we have a new one that we have out that's that's that peachy coral look. And then one of our top sellers for Christmas was a dark deep purple, very non traditional traditional. Yeah,
Vonda:For sure. And I think it's influenced somewhat now because of the amount of time people are in their homes.
Kami:Yeah. I agree.
Vonda:Yeah, definitely. So let me ask you this Kami, if people are shopping for Valentine's day now and they want to buy roses, but my Rose prices obviously is going to go up for Valentine's day. How do I know that they're going to pay the Valentine's price rather than paying the price now? Or do I have to sell them at a less price for Valentine's Day?
Kami:A lot of websites will allow you to put in the upcharge for a certain timeframe. So for example, if you know, February 1st through the 15th, I wish I could show them on this podcast. Right? So right now we have a dozen roses in Valentine's day. And if they order it today, you know, in their shopping, the Valentine's day category, it would be, I don't know,$99, right. But if they order it to be delivered on February 13th or February 12th, it's going to be an extra$16. It's going to be$115 if it's delivered during that timeframe. So a lot of websites will allow you to put a$16 upcharge or a$20 upcharge on the designs so that if they order it now, but for delivery on that during that week where things are higher, then they'll pay the higher price.
Vonda:Okay. That's great because that's what happens a lot of times, they order early and then I'm having to fill an order or the shop is having to fill an order for a price that they're almost paying for themselves. So it's very important to be keyed in on that. If you can change your prices per delivery date, please utilize that tool on your platform and make that happen.
Kami:It's really neat. Like for example, the Teleflora platform does allow, well, you know how you, it pulls up the little calendar when you're selecting, what day and it'll show 99, 99, 99. And then the date that it switches to 116 or$115. And I think that's neat how you can see that and consumers know why I think they understand why. And then some platforms you cannot do that. Not every platform. Can you do that? So what some of my shops are doing is just going ahead and marking them up now they're have so many people they're really trying to incentivize early delivery that, I mean, every year they want early delivery, but this year more than ever, they're trying to incentivize early delivery. And so they're going ahead and marking them up, you know, for what the price is going to be.
Vonda:Well, that makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. The other thing that you're kind of alluding to is with Valentine's day on a Sunday, I'm not normally open on a Sunday. Is there a way for me to get the word out that I'm open on Sunday and I am taking deliveries
Kami:For sure. And that's something we're definitely encouraging our members to do. Number one, if you're not normally open on a Sunday, you do need to make sure your website is open for delivery on February 14th. Most platforms will not automatically do that for you, which I think is a good thing, right? You have to ask that they open your website for delivery on February 14th. So that's very important that you go ahead and do that. And I have a lot of shops asking me to do that now because they're wanting people to order early. You also want to, by the way, this doesn't have to do with your website, but you also want to check your Google my business and make sure that shows you can create an exception. You know, you're normally closed on Sunday, but on February 14th, we're going to be open and put the hours that you're going to be open.
Vonda:Good point. And then of course on social media too, you just want to scream out there that, Hey, we're open and we're taking deliveries on February 14th.
Kami:Yeah. I can kind of give some best practices because a lot of the florists I work with, if I can't take credit for all of the ideas, so many of them, we work together to come up with what's best for their shop. I even saw one this morning that is sending pictures of, you know, their Teddy bears and their baskets and the different arrangements that are made up and saying order early, everyone is ordering early this year. Like, they're kind of like, everybody's doing it. You need to get your order in now. Okay. So I saw that on social media, but then on some of the websites I work on, we're creating pop-ups the different platforms allow a pop-up and we're saying, you know, order for February 10th through the 13th and receive a free small box of chocolates, like they're adding a little bit, they're trying to incentivize and you know, if it were me, I'd be like, yeah, I want a box of chocolates for free. And in this particular instance, she's just using the little Russell Stover's. I think it's a dollar for a three pack of chocolates, but she just knows that every order that comes in, you know, during those days they get a free box of those little chocolates. And I think it's going to make her life much easier when it comes to delivery on that weekend,
Vonda:You can get them out the 10th, 11th, 12th, and you still have the 13th and 14th and knock those arrangements out and make more people happy for sure.
Kami:I also have a lot of shops this year. I'm trying to incentivize curbside pickup. So with, with the COVID situation and they don't want as many people in their store this year, as they usually have, I have shops that are adding use this promo code, um, with curbside pickup and you get, you know, 10% off and save on delivery or alot of shops that are really incentivizing that this year, trying to highlight the curbside pickup.
Vonda:Love that. That is a really great idea.
Kami:Talk about saving drivers and time and logistics will be, I think it would be much easier. There's one shop. I know that's going to rent like a little tent, honestly. They're not that expensive to have something like that. Um, I've got one of those here at the house, but a little one of those little canopies with a table outside the door, you know, they're going to have curbside pickup where they, they can just swing by and pick up and deliver park at the parking lot or, and come and pick it up and they won't be in the shop. So love it. Good idea.
Vonda:Some really good ideas. People are being really creative. And we've talked about that on the podcast. It's like, man, creativity is just sparked. Just like, wow, think outside the box.
Kami:And I guess tying that back to the website is you need to shout that out. You know, shout out this is our plan. This is our process. That's first of all, that's content for social media, right. If you're not sure what to say, but second it's incentivizing it's in their face saying this is what we're doing order today, or doing safe curbside pickup. And put that on your website. Put that on your social media. Um, yeah,
Vonda:For sure. One last thing, Kami, let's talk a little bit about the homepage and the importance of what you have on your homepage as far as what's selling in your store.
Kami:Yeah. So we know the homepage is the number one seller. We like to make sure that the products you can see them before having to scroll down above the fold is what that's called. So some shops, I just talked to one yesterday, they're very visual and they want this really big banner and big I'm talking like down to the bottom of the page. They like how it looks. And it's very pretty. And, but a consumer wants to be able to click and buy quickly. So on your home, you want products to show number one, before you have to scroll down, you really want products to show and you definitely want to feature what you want to sell on your homepage. So we're going through because so many shops, you know, we have a suggested mix for Valentine's day and we spend a lot of time over that mix Vonda. Like, let's make sure we offer this and this and this. And, but the shops I work with, um, they take, they're like, yes. And you know, they, they like what we have. Um, let's do this. And I also have, I've ordered these specialty containers. I definitely want to sell those because I've invested in those. So, um, we've been customizing the Valentine's day mix for our shops for the last three weeks. I mean, when January hit, that's, all we've been doing right. Is the good thing is as the shops have trickled in like some were on their game, you know, in early January and some are kind of getting late or a little late, but it helps make it manageable for us. So right now we've done all this customization on their Valentine's day category. We have some techs going through going, okay, they've done their own dozen Rose design. Let's feature that on the homepage. They've got these codafide containers. Let's make sure to feature it. We're just making sure what they want to sell. Obviously. Cause they've got it in Valentine's day is on their homepage because it is the number one seller. If you look at the analytics of a website, the homepage always is the number one seller.
Vonda:Anything that you want to move through your store quickly, make sure it's on your homepage.
Kami:Make sure it's on your homepage. And if let's say you find yourself on the 10th or 11th or 12th, having an excess of a certain product, put it on your homepage, you will get rid of it. It will sell if it's on your home page. Awesome. I have another little tip too, is if as Valentine's day gets nearer and as you start to run out of product, we talk about marking things sold out and marking it unavailable. Um, that's a good thing. I would not Mark it inactive. I would Mark it, sold out and remove it from the home page. I suggest you remove it from the homepage. You don't want someone to hop on your homepage and see a lot of sold out, sold out, sold out. That's not a really good message. It's okay for them to get to Valentine's day and see something sold out. Um, that actually kind of creates a sense of urgency. You know, it does, it says something in the brain where we're like, Oh gosh, I gotta hurry. They're selling out and everybody wants it. So I want it.
Vonda:Yeah. Isn't that the truth?
Kami:It is the truth. So Mark things sold out, but if you mark something sold out that's on your homepage, I would suggest you remove it from the homepage and put something else up there. Okay.
Vonda:Okay. So always have enough active things on your homepage so people can click and buy.
Kami:Yes, exactly.
Vonda:Great. Well, thanks Kami, for all those awesome tips. I think we're going to move on to Lori and great information about employees. So Lori, you're up on this one. We're going to talk about employees
Lori:I kind of drew this out of your interview last week, right? With Jerome.
Vonda:Exactly. And after we talked about that, you said, Oh my gosh, I hear this a lot from flower clique members who talk about customers who haven't been real nice lately.
Lori:Right. I see a lot of this in our flower clique members, only Facebook group. It's, you know, I've joked before about how it's almost a therapy group too, because I'm always in awe of how customers treat anyone in retail. Some of the stories I always I've told so many of our members y'all should write a book like this. No one would believe this, but based on what Jerome was talking about and what you were talking about, we wanted to not address how to diffuse a situation in customer service, which we've talked about before. And I'm sure we'll talk about it again. We want to talk about how the employee, how you feel when it's all over. Like how can you make sure you don't take that home with you and keep it inside of you for the next few days, because that's not healthy. Right?
Vonda:It isn't. Well, and hopefully all the customers are like that. It's like get a bad one. And then hopefully I really had a great customer that time. Right? The majority of them we're hoping are good and appreciative, but when that one gets, you can knock you out.
Lori:It does, it happens to all of us. I've had those conversations before. One thing I think is interesting when you know, we're coming up on almost a year of pandemic life, right. When the pandemic started it well for us, let's talk about mother's day. Okay. Right. And that was like the first we had a great Valentine's day. Thank God. And then everything's settled down. But mother's day I heard over and over and over again from flower shop owners and managers that people were so grateful and so kind, and like I have no roses left. I only have three plants are fine. We'll take a plant. Thank you so much. And that's starting to end, like people are kind of going back to and I get it. We're all sick of it. We're sick of it. We get, but what we want to talk about today is how do we an employee, someone working, what are some things you can do to maintain a little bit of self care through all of that? I don't mean spa days, but I'm talking about mental health to get you through the rest of the day, because what we can guarantee you will happen at some point either the week before Valentine's day or the week after you're going to get a customer, that's angry about something.
Vonda:Right. And so we're talking to an employee, but we're also talking to the shop owner is how do you keep the morale up? And that's the conversation with Jerome. It's like, we've got to have ways to keep the morale up in our employees. And like you're saying, each employee has to be responsible for themselves. And so you have some really great ideas, um, about that. So let's go ahead and share those.
Lori:Okay. So, you know, I love to do a little research. I love to read a book. And so I was reading in a book and it is called, I cannot remember the name of the author, but it's on Amazon and it's called if it wasn't for the customers, I'd really liked my job. And I think, you know, I was so drawn it. And then it's like a whole nother two or three sentences about strategies. I mean, it's way too long of a title, but the gist is every employee has felt this. Even when you know, when I taught school, I used to always joke. I love the students. It's the parents that drive me crazy. Right. You know, I, I didn't sign up to teach adults. I signed up to teach weird middle schoolers because they're my people. So here's a scientific fact for all of us to think about when we are exposed to somebody that's angry and we're left feeling very upset and we're allowing it to run our day. So here's what it does. Science says this, it does this to your body. Every time you allow a nasty customer person, whatever to upset you, your body produces adrenaline and cortisol to substances that prepare you for that fight or flight mentality. Like that's how we're born. Right? We, everybody has a little bit of the fight or flight mentality. Experts suggest. Now suggest is what they're saying. They think hypothesized their theory is over secretion of these things affect your blood pressure, your heart, your health, and more. So I think we all believe that. Think about when you see something that makes you angry, you rise up. Right? So we want to talk about how you can rethink these things and calm yourself down and not go home with those feelings because you got to turn around and go back the next day. Um, right. Number one, think about these things. If you're an employee, why do we allow a complete stranger to ruin our day? Usually, usually the customer that is going to treat you like this. Isn't going to be your customer that you've had for 20 years. Right. If they have a problem and they might, they're gonna address it differently because you have a relationship. So usually this customer is someone you don't know. Would you agree with that?
Vonda:I, I think so. Most of the time it is once in a while, it's like you mentioned, it's somebody, you know? And then you're, then it's interesting because we give them grace or we're like, whew, Mrs. So-and-so was having a terrible day. Right. But when it's another customer, we don't do that. We take it personal.
Lori:Exactly. I'm glad you mentioned that because that is part of us changing our mindset. Right. When we know that person, it's like, when my kids were toddlers and they would be bad or you know, my mom, all him needs a nap and I'm like, no, he doesn't, he's being a brat. But if we were in the grocery store and she saw a, three-year-old having a tantrum, she's like, man, that child's a brat, you don't know you're so judgy like right. How we are as humans. Right. Such a good point. I want to challenge employees and managers and owners to look at all of their customers as, Hmm. Maybe they're having a bad day. Right? What has happened in their day or life caused them to feel the need to get so incredibly angry about a bouquet of flowers. Like when you think about that, that's crazy.
Vonda:Sometimes they're not angry. They're just snarky. And they're demanding, I think is what it is. It's not angry. They're just, they feel like you owe them something.
Lori:Yes. Right? So here's challenge number one in changing your thoughts process. When you get a snarky customer or somebody that you feel like, Oh, this isn't going to end. Well, treat them as if it is one of your friends, who's in a bad mood and you're thinking, Hmm, they must've had a bad day and see if you might respond differently to them. I know we're not talking about how to diffuse the situation I'm talking about. If you respond to them a little bit differently, maybe a little more gracefully, even if they are still continue to explode and leave the, the end results going to be, you're going to go, well, I did all I could. Right? And you, aren't going to feel so conflicted in yourself going, I wish I would have said this. Right. Which, because that's where we start getting caught up in your mentally done for the day. You're not going to be really very productive. So that's thought number one, number two, and this is really hard to do. I've been trying to do this. I think a lot of us have, even through this whole pandemic people being on one side of the pandemic and not, you know, all that, I'm like, okay, I need to put myself in their shoes, the whole treat others how you want to be treated. Right. So think about your own personal experiences. Think about times that you've had bad days and exploded on people. I know I have, I will tell you, we have on video, my daughter was in a little basketball travel team tournament. We were winning. It was very, very close. I'm talking middle school. Okay. So again, I definitely was not having a great day. This couple was complaining because my daughter was the point guard and their granddaughter was on the other team. And for whatever reason, they were blaming my daughter because her granddaughter wasn't getting shots off. Anyway, they're being rude and they're crass. Well, I will admit, I said some things that not cussing, but things that I should never have said, I was just caught up in the moment and super angry and high adrenaline high. All of those things, the problem with this is I'm not on video, but the verbiage is like my child who was sitting next to me, kept the camera rolling. But here's the thing I don't know. I have accidentally lost that video because I don't want it out there, but here's why I'm telling you this. It reminds me, it humbles me enough when I speak to somebody I've been there. I've been in those shoes. I'm going to not let it affect me because they're having a bad day and maybe they'll walk away and be ashamed. At some point, I know I was, we've all reacted in situations that you're later. Maybe thinking God, maybe I shouldn't have done it. And the other thing is, there's a lot of people that go through life, constantly reacting like that. And they never see it. We can't allow them to ruin our day or our week or our life. We can't keep it all of that inside. We gotta just let it go.
Vonda:That's so true. You know, a lot of times the customers aren't angry. They're, they're demanding. They want their flowers there. They want them there now they want thme there yesterday and most of the time that's misplaced anger or anxiety because they should have called yesterday and they know they should have. So it's one of those things that it's like, okay, we're going to do the best we can to help you do this. And so again, now I'm going back to customer service, which we didn't want to go. Lori, that's a whole nother podcast.
Lori:but it's hard to separate the two. That's where I am going with this. You've got to have both as a business owner or manager, your job is to check on the mental health of your employees that are dealing with these people. Right? Make sure they are diffusing the situation with the customer. And also when it's over, saying, Hey, this was not about you remove it, let it go. Let it go. Yeah.
Vonda:And the one thing you really have to be careful of is after you have a customer like that, that it doesn't start all this negative stuff in the store because that's what usually happened. Oh my gosh, this customer was such and such and now everybody's one off. And then the next time you answered the phone, you can't be smiling and happy and ready to treat that customer with the respect because you, like you've said, you've internalized that and you think, Oh, the next one's going to be just the same way. Right? You have to throw it out the door and start again.
Lori:Right? Well, one of the other things we were talking about earlier this morning, it's kind of the manager's job or owner's job, whatever I'm using, both those terms. Cause I feel like they go back and forth. You need to prepare your staff, right? Have that pep rally staff and let them know, Hey, we're on guard for this. If you have a situation where something like that happens after over, I want to know about it come straight to me. Right? Happens is you want everyone to help you feel better, but what happens is it keeps it just continue and continue. And it's brought up again the next day that doesn't help our, our mental health.
Vonda:No, I like that. Just go to the manager, the owner say this happened and release it. Right?
Lori:The last thing I want to talk about, and it's the hardest because we all do it. Don't take it personally. That's the bottom line. Don't take it personally. They're snarkiness. None of that is about you. They were that way before you ever entered their life.
Vonda:Boy, isn't that the truth.
Lori:Yeah. And chances are, they will continue to be that way. So you just were a little detour in their life for them to get on. Let it go.
Vonda:I love this. You have written that you have to be there for your customers and take care of your customers and still go home at the end of the day with a positive attitude, a love for your job and after a bad day, and you want to come back again. That can be hard, Lori.
Lori:It can be hard. But again, I think having someone on staff that is intuitive and knows, Hey, Vonda had a bad day to day. She had a hard conversation with someone. Let's make sure we took on her. Just having that little moment with your boss or somebody can change the whole thing. One additional note. What has helped me in these is when these things happen, think about what, what is it that person did that started the trigger inside of me to get started revving up the adrenaline. What was it? And then write that down and think about it. Why is that? One of my triggers? Maybe it's your history. We all have history. And then once you identify that go, okay. When it happens again and it will, I'm going to be prepared. We are going to get triggered our whole life, but we can control how we respond I'll leave with this quote. I love it. It's Eleanor Roosevelt. She said, no one can make you feel inferior without your permission. I know that's easier said than done, but it's a nice little post-it note to keep beside a cash register or your phone or in your office. Go, listen. Only I can give you permission to make me feel bad about myself. You can think whatever you want, but I, I'm not going to feel bad about myself.
Vonda:Right? Great. Quote, love that.
Lori:I would love if owners take this last 15 minutes and play it for their staff. If they don't really know how to find the words to say it, to say, Hey guys, while you were back here working on stuff, I'm going to play this
Vonda:So Kami. We're just gonna wrap it up. What are the takeaways that everyone should have for the website for this week?
Kami:My takeaway is to take a close, look at your website, take a look at the pricing, take a look at the products. Now is the time to do it. And that way, those rogue orders don't slip through and make your life harder of Valentine's day. So do that now.
Vonda:And Lori, what is the employee takeaway?
Lori:My employee takeaway is make sure you have a good staff meeting prior to all of this and make sure that staff meeting focuses on the mental health of your employees. They already know how to deal with customers. So let's, or let's assume there do you know that you need to let them know you're going to get snarky people or whatever kind of people let it go. If you can't let it go, come to me. Let's talk through it. Make sure they understand you have their back. As you always say Vonda, right? Yes. You got to keep the peace. Yes. You got to do what you can to not get a negative review online, but I have your back and just let it roll off your back because it's not worth it.
Vonda:Right. That's great.
Lori:My new favorite question, Kami Martin, since you're our guest, you're going to go first. What is inspiring you this week?
Kami:Well, this week was my birthday and I felt so loved by people by the people in my life. You guys made me feel loved. You liked embarrassed me and made me fill up all at the same time. My family made me feel loved. My friends made me feel loved and I really walked away thinking. I wish everybody had that. And I wish everybody on their birthday felt the way I felt that day. And I want to do that for people in my life. I really do. It really did inspire me. I really, I wish everybody felt this way on that one day of their, uh, you know, at least.
Lori:Right. What about you Vonda?
Vonda:What's inspiring me this week is my oldest child is turning 40. And what inspires me is the man he's become just like, wow. Yeah. That's very inspirational for me to look and say, wow. Yeah, really? Really cool young man.
Kami:He's a good guy. And that you had a lot to do with that. I don't know everything, but I know that how much work a mom puts in I'm in the middle of it. And I hope when my kids are 40, I can look back and say the same thing. I love that.
Vonda:Lori, on, onto you,
Lori:mine, isn't nearly as deep heartfelt of y'alls. But as you know, my house has been in COVID world for like almost 10 days. Now my husband got it. He's fine. He's recovered. But we had to switch offices because my office is attached to our bedroom, the door and that's where he was isolated. So I had to have his office in the front of the house and he had mine. His office is fine. I have nothing against it. He doesn't have a lot of pink in his office. Like I do. He doesn't have a lot of floral. So last night we disinfected everything switched back and it's like, I'm a whole new person. I'm happy. And I'm inspired to create and learn things. I'm very grateful. Just my heart is grateful. This office that he didn't like, it's not his it's mine.
Kami:I love that. you look like you're in the right place. I can see you right now. It just looks better.
Lori:And I you have to share, since he rarely listens to this, I wanted to tell you and Vonda cracks up. When she thinks about one time I came back and I peeked around. Cause he was being really loud in his zoom meeting. He was using my ring light. I'm like, what are you doing? And it kind of caught him off guard? And he's like, it's a lot better lighting. I'm like, I know. Oh yeah. It was kind of funny. I think deep down he liked my office made his eyes sparkle. Right. You all, let's let everybody get back to work. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa, we look forward to seeing you next week.
:So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.
Speaker 1:[inaudible].