Blooming Beyond Bounds: Unveiling the Art of Exceptional Customer Service with Sam Bowles

Episode 185:  Join Lori and Ellie as they sit down with our good friend, Sam Bowles, the General Manager and Creative Director of Allen's Flowers in beautiful San Diego, CA. Get ready for an inspiring episode that will leave you motivated and eager to take your floral business to new heights!

In this captivating conversation, Sam shares his incredible journey from being a middle-school educator to diving headfirst into the world of flowers. Discover how he experienced personal growth and embraced the evolving floral industry, becoming a true expert in his field.

But that's not all! Sam also reveals the hard-hitting truth on delivering exceptional 5-star customer service. Whether your customers purchase flowers online, over the phone, or in person at your shop, this episode will provide you with valuable tools, ideas, and concepts to elevate their experience and surpass their expectations.

Attracting and retaining customers is crucial in today's competitive market, and Sam's expertise will guide you on how to ensure your business stands out. Learn how to demonstrate your unrivaled knowledge, readiness, and commitment to superior customer service, making your business the go-to destination for all things floral.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable insights from a veteran floral business educator. Tune in to this enlightening episode and discover how you can exceed customer expectations and create an unforgettable floral experience!

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

Customer service is also how do you take care of the customer when they call and place the order over the phone.

Speaker 2 0:12

Welcome to the business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your hosts Fond La Fever and Lori Wilson . And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination, kind of like us. Wanda <laugh>. Hello, Ellie La Fever . How are you?

Speaker 3 0:32

Hey, Lori . I'm good . How are you?

Speaker 2 0:34

I'm doing well. Thanks for subbing today. Yeah.

Speaker 3 0:38

I'm stepping in in NDAs place while she's at a I

Speaker 2 0:41

F D . She is , she's working in the workroom, that little workhorse.

Speaker 3 0:46

Mm . Always.

Speaker 2 0:47

Yeah. Yeah. But you know what the good news is? Well, we have two pieces of good news. Number one, you and I are not there because it's hard. It's a lot of work. We love ai , but it's a lot of work. Let's be honest, that was, remember how much walking it was

Speaker 3 1:02

<laugh> ? Yeah. In Vegas last year. That was, we got our steps in,

Speaker 2 1:05

We got our steps in, and we got blisters and , and covid , my blisters , we got blisters and covid. But that's a whole nother story. So my other piece of good news is we have a fun guest.

Speaker 3 1:17

Yes, we do. Our welcome Sam Bulls .

Speaker 2 1:20

Our friend Sam Bulls from California. Hi Sam.

Speaker 1 1:24

Hi ladies. It's good to be with you today.

Speaker 2 1:27

Well, we're excited to have you. We've been trying to get this going and we ran into you again at NextGen and we've only been, I've only been talking to you about this for a year. So we finally got you on and you are my fellow ex teacher with me. Well, we have a lot of stuff in common that we could go to . Yeah. But you also love customer service, sales training. You manage like 700 flower shops. Is that what you're up to now? Or I don't know how many, how

Speaker 1 1:59

Many we have. We have , uh, five locations currently and we're, we're gluttons for punishment. So the sixth is opening this summer. Oh my

Speaker 2 2:07

Gosh.

Speaker 3 2:07

Wow.

Speaker 2 2:08

Congrats. Okay . All right . Well, you are delightful and you are such a good speaker , um, slash storyteller. So we're excited you're on. So we have some questions for you today. Sure. And , uh, let's just kind of see where this whole thing goes.

Speaker 1 2:25

Absolutely.

Speaker 2 2:26

So what I would love for you to share is how you even got into this industry in the first place.

Speaker 1 2:35

Yeah. I came into the industry, I think the way many people do. Actually, as a part of my own personal project this year, I wanted to make sure that I was celebrating every single team members , both their birthday and their employment anniversary. Mm .

Speaker 2 2:49

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 2:50

<affirmative>. So, you know, birthdays are random. That's cool. But when you start to make employment anniversary charts in a flower shop, you start to notice some common trends. Wow. There are a whole lot of people whose date of employment starts in early February or late January. Yeah,

Speaker 3 3:05

Yeah .

Speaker 1 3:06

A whole lot of people whose , whose first date of employee is like early May. And I realize how many people have the same kind of story that I do, which I think will come back to , um, given some of the things we're gonna talk to. I started in a big old flower shop on like February 1st, and they needed extra help specifically just answering the phone. So I did have a unique experience that my very first flower shop I started in was a , was a pretty big one. And I was just doing phone sales. So I was upstairs never really touching the flowers . Um, I had to learn on the fly. So I was that annoying salesperson who comes into a flower shop and really is like, giddy. Like everyone else is just showing up and they need their costume . Like , Ooh , what's that? Ooh , what's that ? What's that ? Or anything .

Speaker 3 3:50

You weren't jaded yet . Yeah ,

Speaker 1 3:52

Yeah . It's important . Cause you know, honestly, the day I started, I had about the flower knowledge of, of the average human being. Right . Which is like, I probably knew what a rose was. I maybe knew what a Lilly was, but I had to learn everything on the fly. So , um, I was in grad school, it was just a side hustle, but I, I really realized I had a knack for it. I loved it. I kind of became the right hand guy to the general manager. And this was at Nance Craft in Louisville, Kentucky, by the way. Okay . Um, so I did that all through grad school as my side hustle and was kind of semi managing, helping manage their call center by the time that I , um, finished grad school and I wanted to move to New York City no matter what. And so I was looking for teaching jobs after I finished up my master's degree in English. I was looking for flower shop jobs, but I just wanted to move to New York City, you know, like small town boy Sure . Who wanted to move to Manhattan, going

Speaker 2 4:43

Into city

Speaker 1 4:44

<laugh> , kind of the same way I got the flower shop gig . Uh , my good friend Tim Huckabee, who was a family friend outside of the flower industry, and many of your listeners will recognize his name I'm sure. Yeah. Um, Tim knows so many people that, like when I got ready to move to New York, he said, Hey, now I have a guy who I've worked with before who I know is looking for a manager for his shop. And so I connected with that guy and ended up managing that business in Queens for a couple of years. Before

Speaker 2 5:09

You even got a teaching

Speaker 1 5:10

Job. Exactly. Wow . Yeah . So I'm still in flowers . Then I went full time actually doing what Tim does. Uh , he kind of taught me all his tricks of the trade. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , uh, really helped me as a, as a young manager and as a salesperson in the industry. And so given my teaching background, he said, I think you could be really good at doing what I do and traveling mm-hmm . <affirmative> and training and consulting. So I actually was full-time with traveling the way that Tim does with Flo Strategies for the better part of a couple of years. And then finally, I, I kind of wanted to put the brakes on, not because I wasn't enjoying what I was doing, but really because there was a part of me that was like , you know, I always thought from the time I was in high school that I wanted to be an English teacher, and so maybe I need to give this a good college try before I let flowers run away with my life. So an opportunity presented itself for me to teach at a , a high school, a charter school in , uh, Manhattan, in my neighborhood. Actually, I had a dream commute. It was 200 yards from my apartment . Oh , wow. And so I taught junior's 11th grade composition for a year at this charter school. And it was actually during my spring break , uh, a teaching high school that I came back out to California to do some more sales coaching with Alan's flowers, because like the common thread of my story is I'm a hustler, so I'm I'm <laugh>

Speaker 2 6:24

Well , you're a teacher, so you have to have a second income, so

Speaker 1 6:27

Yeah . Yeah , exactly. So while I was out here in beautiful southern California , um, Brad, the owner of Alan's Flowers, and I kind of started having a conversation about what his goals were and what his aspirations were, and realized very quickly that he couldn't do it by himself, and he needed, he needed a partner. And , um, he, he in that moment on that day was like, well, what if it was you? And so it started a conversation and within three months, my girlfriend at the time, and I had loaded up our little Scion XB with the littlest U-Haul trailer that they offer. And we drove all the way from Manhattan to San Diego. Wow. Which is one of the longer driving commutes you could make in the United States, I guess.

Speaker 3 7:10

Yeah. I've done Boston to LA

Speaker 2 7:13

And it's,

Speaker 1 7:15

We took our time, we saw friends along the way. We went to the Grand Canyon. It was, it was almost real . When we actually pulled into our apartment complex in San Diego, after all that driving, it was like, this is it. This is where we lived . Now that was, were you guys

Speaker 2 7:29

Excited or were you like, what have we done? Like, what was the

Speaker 1 7:33

I think we were really, I think we were really excited. It was bittersweet because , um, Chelsea's story was similar to mine that she moved to New York City just as a Midwestern girl who always wanted to live there. So she's from Cincinnati about two hours away from where I grew up in Indiana. But we met in , we lived in the same neighborhood in New York City. So it was bittersweet leaving New York behind, because I don't know if either of us had enough time to get it out of our system, but we were both excited about the opportunity of experiencing the, the glorious West coast. August 1st will be seven years that I, since I started at Allen's . Yeah .

Speaker 2 8:08

And did you ever, like, question your ability to like, walk in and just start managing a flower shop? Or was it all intuitive because it's not like you had a ton of managerial experience?

Speaker 1 8:21

Yeah. You know , I have such a, I had such a diverse , um, experience in dealing with people. So I know Laurie . Yeah . And I have talked a lot about , um, my background and being raised in , in the church, very involved in my church. Right . I ended up working back at my home church. It was supposed to be for a summer, but I ended up there for like three or four years in between undergrad and grad school. Yeah. And so, and it was a , it's a pretty decent, pretty decent sized church. And so I was a young person already there that was leading a lot of people in different ages, even though they're mostly volunteer capacity. But it taught me a lot about interacting with people that served me very well. Um, and has served me very well in those roles. And I also think it's my style. When I came to Allen's, and I know this now because they've shared it with me , um, employees who had been with Allen's for over a decade were petrified when I came because it really represented a new chapter. The company had only ever been a , this is the family that owns the flower shop. They're our bosses. This is a small thing. And now this, this intimidating idea of bringing in this young Yeah. Hot shot for their manager. It scared a lot of people. And I think very quickly they realized that I don't think that I know everything. I took a lot of time just to be a part of the team and to dive in and learn the processes before I just started making changes willy-nilly. Um , sure . So I earned their respect before I really had to assert myself, let's put it that way.

Speaker 2 9:51

Right. Well, and they probably, once I got to know you realized how great you are and how kind you are, and you have this natural friendliness about you , um, and maybe their fears were alleviated , um, because you really do, I'm not trying to be weird or anything, but you do lighten up a room everywhere. Every time you walk in, you just make friends. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , you're just very easy to be around. Um, and I would imagine every employee that meets you as like instantly, oh wow. I'm so glad,

Speaker 1 10:27

You know, that comes from the church world. I a

Speaker 2 10:30

Hundred percent ,

Speaker 1 10:31

My mama would tell you early on that when I was a five or six year old , she was more likely to find me in the kitchen with the old ladies.

Speaker 2 10:39

<laugh> . Well , that's where the free food is

Speaker 1 10:42

To say just as likely, because I also hung out with the kids, but I was always comfortable with older people as well. So, yep . Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , I think, you know, we talked about it at NextGen last year. I think that an advantage that younger bosses bring can bring to the table is that maybe we're a little better equipped to lead with empathy and mm-hmm . <affirmative> , um, instead

Speaker 2 11:02

Of ego .

Speaker 1 11:03

Exactly. I think my, my employees, I presented myself to them as, I kind of view myself still as an ambassador because I kind of have one foot in the ownership camp where I'm working with the owners to achieve their business goals and, and achieve our shared goals. But I still also have a foot in the employee camp. And so I'm constantly kind of feel like I'm representing the interest of both and trying to make us the best company we can be from a business perspective, but also make us a good employer, a place where people , um, could see themselves making a career.

Speaker 2 11:35

I see that in you. You model it, you model it well. So , um, okay. So I've got questions for you . Absolutely . These questions are coming from a lot of our members that ask me these, you know, there's a huge attrition issue on a lot of parts of the , the world right now in flower shops. For some shops, it's just a revolving door they can't keep, especially during the pandemic. But even coming out of it, some shops just have a really hard time keeping employees for whatever reason. I, some have my own thoughts on some of them , but for some of them I truly can't figure it out. So when you're hiring somebody or onboarding someone, talk to me about some of your red flags and some of your green flags when it comes to hiring people.

Speaker 1 12:25

Yeah. You know , and the list of questions that you sent me, this was the one that I probably thought was the toughest one to come up Yeah . To answers with because I naturally, my personality I think is that I assume the best of everyone. And so it's been a hard lesson for me to learn managing that you can have really great interviewees that just don't work out. And yeah , the other hand, you can have people that maybe aren't, not that they're bad interviewees, but maybe they don't bring that kind of energy, but they turn out to be reliable and good employees. So even after 10 plus years of interviewing and hiring people for, for various roles in a flower shop, I really don't have a great answer to the question that there is a surefire way to know, yeah , this is gonna work great. And this is not What I think is more important are two things. One, making really clear to the employee during the interview what your expectations are and what the position's even going to consist of and what kind of opportunity they might have for growth. Yeah. And I'm also a big fan of , um, the trial period, so I would , I was

Speaker 2 13:29

Gonna ask.

Speaker 1 13:29

Yeah. You know , again, going back to that earlier point I made, the holidays are a perfect time to bring someone in and say, look, all I can conti commit to right now is five weeks or four weeks because we gotta get through Valentine's Day and this is gonna be your role. However, and I often tell seasonal employees this, like many of us around here started as seasonal employee. So this is an opportunity for you to figure out if this is a good fit and it's something that you're interested in, and it's a good opportunity for us to see how you will work and jive with our team as well . Because honestly, what better time than the intensity of the holiday to see if somebody can roll with the punches? And it's not that I expect them to come in and know, like, how could they know our system? How could they know? Even designers who are great have to learn, like, how do you make this arrangement? What's the recipe ? You all that jazz. But you can still see and tell during that time, like, okay, I think this, this could be a good long term fit. Yeah. I would just say to other managers, don't think you're doing something wrong, because it happens to all of us that you have someone who interviews great. You talk about the future, it's all fantastic, and a month later it fizzles out and that doesn't even mean there was something wrong with the other other person. You know, like life happens, then it takes people in different directions. So I trust my gut. I do try to make the most of it. Uh, I do look at the background. Obviously you can see red flags if they've had six employers in the last year and haven't been at any job for less than three months. So I would give them an opportunity to address that question, you know , like, why has this happened? Because, you know, if an employee's honest and says, you know, honestly, I just kept getting into them and I I was bored. I didn't like it, I didn't like any of those jobs. Sure. And it can naturally lead to like, well, what if we try this as a trial basis for a month and then we check back in and see,

Speaker 2 15:11

Right? Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . Right. So do you trust your other employees to tell you, Hey, I don't know, I get a bad feeling about this person?

Speaker 1 15:21

Yeah. I actually like empowering my managers to interview for their positions that are gonna be working under them anyway. Um , when I got here, it was pretty much at the top. We did all the hiring, you know, like if I'm gonna be hiring somebody to work at a retail store, then they actually start with the manager of the retail store. They may still come interview with me or with the assistant general manager, but I like empowering them because they know better than I do what the day-to-day is gonna look like in that position. Yeah . And kind of what they're looking at , looking for. And I think it goes along with those managers that they feel like they're heard and their opinion is valued , uh, during that process as well.

Speaker 2 16:00

Yeah. No, I think it's, I think that's, that's great. Okay. You were talking to a whole group of managers. What would you tell them they should tell their employees? Like, if you can only give three customer service tips, like these are the three main things you need to have locked into your brain every time you are on the phone or a customer walks in the door. Like, these are the things

Speaker 1 16:28

Yeah. I tried to pull three kind of unique and Yeah. And a little bit abstract points. Good . Yeah . That I think can really spread across the whole philosophy that I have. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and obviously to give credit where credit's due , um, Tim Huckabee's a great friend, and yes , I also learned most of everything I know through his various training and working with him, and then he and I tweaking it as, as things change . Yeah . So a lot of this is very, very floral strategies inspired, but here are my three tips. My first one is, good customer service is about being a good listener. Yes. And that applies to both selling, because a again, you know, from my presentation in NextGen, a lot of us, when we think customer service, we only think about after we've messed up customer service is the problem fixer, which that's a pro a part of it , but customer service is also the entire journey. Customer service is also how do you take care of the customer when they call and place the order over the phone? A hundred percent . That's still customer service too. Yep . And so the first point is being a , a good listener because inappropriate suggestions aren't just bad sales. They're actually really bad service. Yep . If, if in the process of me you're like, oh , thanks for calling , uh, flower click , how can we help you? I'm like, oh , I , I'm really hoping you can help me out. Um, my best friend for my whole life, who means the world to me just got a big promotion at work and I really want to wow her with some flowers and blah, blah, blah , blah, whatever the case may be. And then you still go through your same rope . Well, our arrangements start at $65. You're not listening. That's not good service. You know, when I walk in a restaurant and I tell the server that it's my anniversary and I've chosen to come here to celebrate it with my wife, they don't say, oh, that's so awesome. Well, let me point out the least expensive thing on the menu. Cuz that's just how we start things here. Like, I love using the restaurant analogy because you realize really quickly how it's not just bad sales is actually can be insulting. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , you're not, you're not listening. So I think the first tip is be a good listener.

Speaker 2 18:29

Yeah. Yeah. 100% vda . And I always talk about that too. My tip is almost that exact same thing and it's like, listen to their story. Especially if you're on the phone. And even if you have to write down little buzz words that they're saying, like my brain, there are days it doesn't really retain well Yeah . But if they're saying pink or if they're saying, like you said promotion, you know, big job exact , I'm thinking, oh , big dollar signs, big desk. This is gonna be a big thing. Like anything like that where you're gonna be able to regurgitate back <laugh>. Yeah . A big, beautiful design. Anything that's gonna help you describe back to them using some of those same words. Because it's almost that subliminal messaging when you start giving them back some of the same words that you, they said to you,

Speaker 1 19:30

Here's a really tangible and practical way that a shop can implement this immediately. If you're an owner and a manager and all of your salespeople don't have a chart that tells them a price for every single arrangement from a dozen roses to 100 roses. Right. So like you make a simple chart that's like, if I sell an arrangement that has 56 roses in it, this is the cost. If it has 70 roses in it, this is the cost. And the reason why is because that's a great way to show you're a good listener. You can say back to the customer latching onto numbers. For example, what I heard, what I heard you saying is we're celebrating a 25th anniversary. So what if we have our design train team create a customer arrangement featuring 25 long stem roses made extra special by the addition of other premium flowers. Right. Right . Cause customers, they're not , they're not insulted by the fact you just offered them a $300 arrangement.

Speaker 2 20:22

No,

Speaker 1 20:23

They're , they're flattered that you listened and you had this idea. Exactly. And they latch onto the symbolism Exactly . Those numbers . So that's a good tangible example of here's the tool you provide your team cuz they need it mm-hmm . <affirmative> so that on the fly they don't have all this pressure. Like , uh, what would it cost to do 39 roses? Because this is a Right.

Speaker 2 20:42

Exactly.

Speaker 1 20:43

So make the chart, make the tool, tell 'em how it's used and it empowers them to, to use that.

Speaker 2 20:49

Yep . No, I love it. Great, great tip.

Speaker 1 20:52

Tip number two is give more advice. Mm-hmm . And I think that this one is a really good one. If you want to present yourself as an expert, which is what we, is how we want people to see us. Right. Cause whether we like it or not, our customers are already seeing us as the experts. Yes. We're , we're already hearing people from day one when little Sam went into a flower shop and didn't know what a flower was. Yes. Customers were already saying back to Sam on the phone, well, what do you think? What would you wanna do? Just like we do in any shopping experience where we're outside of our expertise. Yeah . We're looking, I'm looking at the baker at the cake shop to tell me some recommendations for the cake that I'm ordering for my wife's birthday. I'm looking at the solar installer who's surveying my, I don't know how many panels I need. I need you to, to tell me. Right . You're the expert.

Speaker 2 21:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1 21:42

So by giving more advice, it's the best way to present yourself as an expert. Yes. Yes . And that's a good one because it applies on the phone, it applies in store , it applies to selling weddings. Suddenly it becomes really good service and it empowers you when instead of saying, well, how many bud bases do you think you need to put down this farmer style table? You know , a customer could answer that <laugh> , but maybe it's better service to say, well, your farmer style table seats 30 people with 15 on each side. If we're gonna go for this Budd base, look, I would recommend that we scatter at least 25 individual bud bases down the table and blah, blah, blah, blah. Right . You the expert should present your, your suggestion,

Speaker 2 22:24

Your recommendation. Right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> 100% .

Speaker 1 22:27

There some , there are some power phrases, things like, well, what I recommend or what I might suggest, and it even works on the floor and the shop, you know, Laurie comes in to the store instead of just saying, how can I help you? Or let me know if you need anything. I engage Lori and what are we celebrating today? And Lori says, well, I'm not really celebrating anything. My colleague Ellie just kind of having a bad week, and I just wanna bring something to work that brightens her day. Oh, well, here's what I might recommend. We have this beautiful display of hand tied bouquets that were just made fresh this morning. It'd probably be the perfect thing to, you know mm-hmm . People see that as really great service. Yeah. And, and it, it also results in higher sales. Yeah . It's a , it's a win-win win .

Speaker 3 23:10

And it's not an open-ended question. I think that's

Speaker 2 23:13

No . Where

Speaker 3 23:14

People fall short too, is they ask an open-ended question and then the customer's like, oh, I'm good. I'm good. Shut it down fast.

Speaker 2 23:22

Yep . It sounds confident and confidence is what sells. Right. The salesperson talks to me in confidence that's like, Ooh , they know what they're talking about.

Speaker 3 23:30

Yeah . Yeah . That establishes trust. And then that establishes dollars .

Speaker 1 23:35

Another, another really tangible, concrete example of this is Valentine's Day. I get tired of hearing florist who are like, oh , guys just ordered the same thing. They just order a dozen roses, a dozen red roses. It's so boring. Well, let me tell you why a dozen red roses is the most popular thing every Valentine's Day because the vast majority of florists ask the customer who we already established doesn't know anything about flowers, what do you wanna send? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . And they say back, the only thing that they know, the only thing

Speaker 2 24:05

They know,

Speaker 1 24:06

What has culture in society told anyone they should send on Valentine's Day Red

Speaker 2 24:09

Roses.

Speaker 1 24:10

Yeah . A dozen red roses. I agree. So even when a customer calls and says, ah , I just wanna order a dozen roses, you could just take the order for 90 bucks for a dozen roses or a hundred whatever you charge. Or you could be the expert and say, awesome, well what most customers are doing, let's spice it up, is sending our premium dozen, which is that same 12 long stem roses made extra special by the addition of blah , blah , blah , blah , blah .

Speaker 2 24:38

Yep .

Speaker 1 24:39

No customer gets mad that you're offering them the version that costs $50 more. They think it's awesome when their wife comes home or their partner comes home and says, you know , like everyone else in the office just had a plain old dozen roses, but mine were like special with all these lilies and cool things coming out of it. Like it's good service and it's good business. Yep . So be a good listener. Give more advice. And it brings me to my last point, which is look for opportunities to offer the wow.

Speaker 2 25:08

Offer the

Speaker 1 25:09

Wow by the Wow. I mean those, those special things that sometimes we're afraid to talk about because they come with high price points and we think we're gonna tick people off. Yep . You know, like when I go to a nice restaurant and I'm celebrating, last night we went to a nice restaurant and it was just because it was date night and the server came up at the beginning and he told me about this really cool special they were having. And they even had a, a special appetizer that featured caviar. And the appetizer itself was pretty expensive. Now do you think that when he told me about it and gave us the opportunity to start our meal that way, that I slammed my hands down the table and said, how very dare you tell me about this?

Speaker 2 25:49

Right, right. I will never enter this space again. Exactly.

Speaker 1 25:53

I said, well, you know, that sounds really awesome and we might try it when we come back, but it's just a Thursday night and Right. We're not , we're not gonna do it tonight. Like the worst that can happen,

Speaker 2 26:03

Where's Morris ? We don't have any money. <laugh>. Yeah ,

Speaker 1 26:05

Exactly. Exactly. So going back to the Rose idea, it's the same thing if you say to a customer, well, what I heard is we're celebrating that your aunt has been a teacher for 15 years, which is really awesome. So what if we create this arrangement featuring 15 beautiful roses? The worst that can happen is they say, that's a really awesome idea. It's a little more money than I was looking to spend today. Right . You

Speaker 2 26:27

Have anything less,

Speaker 1 26:28

But they're not ticked off by it.

Speaker 2 26:30

No. No. And you know what the thing is, what I always tell our clickers, if they are, you probably don't want 'em as a customer because they're gonna either not be happy with the product. They're one of those type of customers. Yeah . So it's okay . I mean, one in every 100 that do get ticked off, let it go. Then if they hang up on you, it's okay. It's okay. Just move on.

Speaker 1 26:57

And you know, another tangible example of this, which we talked about at conference, is offer the stuff on your website too. There, it literally costs nothing. You know, I talked about how often I look at florist websites and the highest priced arrangement is $125.

Speaker 2 27:12

Yeah, I

Speaker 1 27:13

Know. You know, and, and the florist will say back to me when I'm doing training, like, yeah, but we're in bum fizzle Kentucky. We don't have customers like you do in Manhattan or in California. Like, no, no, no , no. I've been in this business all over the country. There are still the , the quote unquote big ballers from California and New York whose family is living in your small town. Yeah , yeah . When they looked at your website, maybe they're gonna send the $300 arrangement.

Speaker 2 27:37

We had something, was it Mother's Day or Valentine's Day that was , is it a $300 or $500 big thing of roses. And a whole bunch of our members still have it on there. And every once in a while, like somebody will post in our members only site. I sold another one of these like randomly and it's so much fun and it's an exciting day, just a small town, but they just kept it up.

Speaker 1 28:05

That's actually why I call it the wow. Because we have an arrangement called Wow Roses, which is 100 mm-hmm <affirmative> , 100 roses and a vase the size of a toddler. And we sell it for $500. And we used to only turn it on at Valentine's Day. Yeah . And then I realized like it cost me $0 to leave this product turned on.

Speaker 2 28:26

Yep .

Speaker 1 28:26

Yeah . Um , built a luxury section on the website where we put things like that. And honestly, there are weeks that we sell five or six of them and it's just, it's just a summer week. Yeah. So it costs nothing to offer it. And you know, another tangible example in our downtown store, which gets a lot of foot traffic, we sent some big event bases that we were done with and we told them like, just make big focal arrangements just to look good in the store. Yeah. And we honestly kind of thought like, we kind of viewed it as marketing. We're like, we're gonna make these big $300 arrangements just to look cool and it's fine if they're , they don't sell. Yeah . Well, what do you think happened when we started that practice?

Speaker 2 29:03

People wanted to buy 'em.

Speaker 1 29:05

Yep . They'll make them and they don't last for two days. Yeah . So look for opportunities, whether it be in store , online, over the phone, to offer those special things to think outside the box because your customers will appreciate it. And the worst that can happen is they say, no, tell me about something else.

Speaker 2 29:22

So out of all of these, I think you've probably even mentioned it , where do you think most florist fail when it comes to customer service?

Speaker 1 29:32

I think that too many , um, become order takers. I see a difference between what I call an order taker and somebody who is actually prepared to be the expert. Yeah . And so I interact a lot of times with florist, especially back when I was doing a lot of test calls for people who were part of that, that training program. Yeah. We would make it so obvious, like some big special celebration and the customer is literally using every word. Like, I wanna do something grand, I wanna make a splash. I want this to be special. Yeah .

Speaker 2 30:02

Right. And

Speaker 1 30:03

When it was their turn to talk, the associate had their script that they had memorized, like, well, our arrangements start at 55 99 and go up from there. Right,

Speaker 2 30:10

Right. <laugh>

Speaker 1 30:12

Like that , it was sometimes it's, it's literally a non-sequitur that's almost off putting uhhuh . So I think that that, that is a big one, which really, I'll give you a sub point , and it's kind of related to what we were talking about earlier as well. I think that too many fall into these bad habits because they allow the exceptions to dictate the rule. Yeah. So, like Lori , you were talking about when we do these kind of things, you know, like maybe one out of a hundred customers does say like, are you crazy $500 for a fire arrangement? Like, oh my gosh, you're too expensive, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 30:44

Yeah. Yeah. And that's where they land, that's where they stay.

Speaker 1 30:47

And it leaves such a mark on some people that's like, you know , I'm not gonna risk it anymore. I don't like the confrontation. And so they allow themselves then for the other 99 customers to not provide good service.

Speaker 2 30:59

Right . Right. Right. No, a hundred percent . A hundred

Speaker 1 31:02

Percent . I , I tell my team all the time, and it's even something I do with my customer service team as a manager. So they handle almost everything that comes in. Um , not that I don't help them and guide them, but as a get outta jail free card, they know that once a day if they want, honestly, they don't even end up doing it once a week because they pride themselves on handling it. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . But I have told them and empowered them to say, you know what, if you're having a bad day, or even if you're not having a bad day , you could give me the worst of the worst customer service tickets and I will take care of them because I don't want it to take a toll on you. Now again, that important , my team, in the beginning, it really made them comfortable doing the job because they knew like, no matter what I opened , if it gets too hairy, I, Sam has has told me I could hand it off to him. And it allowed them , through us working those problems together, they've developed the confidence to know how to deal with them. And now, like I said, they almost err sometimes on the side of like, well, you could have <laugh> sometimes, well , you could have pulled me in. You

Speaker 2 32:01

Could have pulled me in. Right, right. But they know you're the fallback plan, so it Exactly . It gives them power, it empowers them .

Speaker 3 32:08

Yeah. I was gonna say it , it does empower them even though it, it's a fallback it mm-hmm . <affirmative> , it gives them the the mental space to Yeah . Right . Be able to deal with the week and the day and the hour. Yeah .

Speaker 1 32:21

Yeah. Yeah . And , and going back to leading with empathy, I even try to take those opportunities to teach my employees how not to let this ruin their day. You know, like when I was younger in the industry, boy, a bad call from a customer could really just sour my stomach. I would be at home in the evening and still feeling a certain kind of way about how this person spoke to us. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And not that that doesn't still happen, but I've, I've also tried to help my team understand just generally how human beings are wired. And, you know , like we say, hurt people hurt people a lot. Right. So I take , I take opportunities a lot, you know, like, this happens all the time that a customer is in absolute terror to a salesperson like terrible. And I pull up the order and I look at the card message and the card message says basically, I'm so sorry, I'm a terrible person, <laugh>, I'm sorry for what happened last night . And it is empowering to point that out to your team so that they know that's, that person is the person with the problem. It wasn't you, you did everything right. But look, this is , this is a pattern for them. They're literally sending flowers to say, I'm sorry for being an a-hole mm-hmm . <affirmative> . So it's no surprise . And that seems like a little funny thing, but I do take every opportunity to point that out to my customer service team because it has helped them become wired to understand like, I'm not responsible for the psychology of, of the incoming person. I'm just responsible for dealing with, with them, with empathy and, and handling them with great care. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 33:48

<affirmative>. Yep . You need to read this book. We've had her on her podcast, Dr . Nicole Price . Yeah . It's called Spark, the Art engineering empathy in your organization. She's so good. Last question, and then Ellie's got something fun for you when it comes to this industry, it can be specific to your shop, it can be big industry, it can be small, whatever. What's your biggest pet peeve?

Speaker 1 34:13

I'm gonna give you two. One, okay . One is a real one, but it might not be very valuable to florist. And then I'll give you one that's really valuable to florist. Okay . My big , my biggest pet peeve when I'm taking a flower order is when a customer calls and says, I'm sending flowers to this guy to brighten his day, or whatever the case may be. And then they say, but I don't want it to be too feminine. Ugh . So basically what I'm really saying is the whole concept that you can't send flowers to guys that flowers.

Speaker 2 34:43

Yeah. Yeah .

Speaker 1 34:44

As a , as a male florist, I find that it really skews my nerves. First of all, it annoys me when a customer says that. Cause I'm like, I want to say, well, if you think flowers are only for women, then why did you call me to send flowers to a man?

Speaker 2 34:56

Right. One .

Speaker 1 34:58

I mean, I can't say that. What I always say is, well, you'll have to help me understand what you mean because I'm a guy and I love receiving flowers . And I think Right . And , and usually when I say that, then they do a bunch of backtracking and they're like , oh , okay . I think what they think they mean is they just don't wanna send a bunch of pink stuff, which we probably wouldn't do anyway. Okay . Okay . Got it. But , but it is a pet peeve to me because as a society in a culture, it's just not something we do. And I'll tell you, when I was, I think it was like maybe my 20, I don't even remember maybe my 25th birthday, I had started working in the flower industry. I remember, I don't remember what birthday it was, but it was during that period where I was in grad school and I had just kind of started working at the flower shop. And actually Tim and his partner Martin Right. Sent me, I , there was a day when I had a knock at my door and I answered the door and it was this beautiful bubble bowl with whatever birthday it was . I don't remember, 22, 23, 24, whatever it was. That's how many free spirit roses were in the bubble bowl.

Speaker 3 35:56

Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 35:57

So it was that whole number symbolism thing. Yeah. Yeah . Honestly, I was so taken aback to have been sent flowers. Aw . That , I mean, it left a mark that was 10 years ago, and I still, I can still picture that bubble bowl of free spirit roses opening up over the course of a week or two on my little coffee table in my grad school room. And so that's, I could talk That's so special . Yeah. But that, that's a pet peeve. Yeah. And then my, my pet peeve, honestly, which I've already mentioned it like five times, but you can't say it enough because people do it every day at flower shops, is that phrase, well, our arrangements start at blah , blah , blah . Yeah . Yeah . You almost should never have to say it. I , it could sound like I'm beating a dead horse, but I can tell you from my experience doing test calls to hundreds of shops that like more than half, that's the way it works, is no matter what you say about your reason for calling, or no matter what your card message is, when we get to the point where we sell stuff, we either ask you what you wanna spend or , and or we say, well, just so you know, the starting point is stick .

Speaker 3 37:06

Yeah .

Speaker 1 37:06

Those are my pet peeves. <laugh> .

Speaker 3 37:08

So everybody listening, take note , take . No . Okay. Ellie , quick, quick. Couple questions for him . It's a little fun. Rapid fire. Yes. These are the same 10 rapid fire questions that I've been asking when I'm on. So they'll be just super quick. And here we go . So jeans or athleisure.

Speaker 1 37:31

Ooh . Tough. I'm gonna go athleisure.

Speaker 3 37:33

Love it. Are you, I think I know this, you said it earlier, early bird or night owl?

Speaker 1 37:40

I am definitely an early bird. Basically when I moved to the West coast, I didn't change time zones, <laugh> . So when I lived , when I lived on the East coast, I naturally would get up around 9:00 AM and now I just naturally get up around six. I've just never changed

Speaker 3 37:53

<laugh> . Wow . Amazing thing. What is your coffee order?

Speaker 1 37:58

I like just , um, regular coffee with a little bit of milk. Okay . Or if I'm in a city that knows how to do coffee, well a cappuccino.

Speaker 3 38:07

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, love it. Spicy food or not.

Speaker 1 38:13

Ooh , that's tough. I like a little bit of spice, but it doesn't always love me. So if I had to choose one or the other, I guess I would go not , although I wouldn't want it to mean there's no flavor <laugh> . I'm one of those people that's not, I'm not very good at giving , uh, just one word answers to these

Speaker 3 38:27

Questions. <laugh>. It's ok . I like it. Texting or talking on the phone.

Speaker 1 38:33

Oh, totally texting. Really? I hate it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like talking on the phone, honestly. Especially if it could have been a , could have been a text. Yeah.

Speaker 3 38:43

That makes sense. What is your favorite music or favorite artist?

Speaker 1 38:49

I Wow , that's tough too. Um,

Speaker 3 38:52

If I gave you a ticket to see a show tonight, it could be anybody you want. Who is it ?

Speaker 1 38:58

Yeah . Even still. That's pretty tough. I, I really am into everything from like, I , I , we went to a live show of Sting and Earth Wind and Fire this year. So we're going on to the Renaissance tour with Beyonce, so

Speaker 2 39:12

Oh ,

Speaker 3 39:13

You have a wide

Speaker 2 39:14

Age .

Speaker 1 39:14

Yeah. We're into a little bit of everything. I like Greta Van Fleet if you know that . Yes . I'm the young . Yes . Cool. And, and I'll say , um, proudly that I'm pretty into the new Jonas Brothers album too.

Speaker 2 39:27

I love the Jonas Brothers.

Speaker 1 39:28

Yeah. I think this new one's pretty Boppy. It's good for the summer. So

Speaker 2 39:32

Cute. They're so cute.

Speaker 1 39:34

Janelle Monet's new album is the perfect , uh, California Beach album. Lori , you'll appreciate this. I'll freak my wife out whenever there's any kind of scene that involves like an old hymn and

Speaker 2 39:45

Just Oh , love an old. Yes .

Speaker 1 39:47

And I just start singing not only the chorus, but then it , the scene moves on and I start singing verse two or verse three.

Speaker 2 39:54

Yes. The third and fourth stanza.

Speaker 1 39:57

How do you know that? I'm like , well , it's ingrained. Yeah , exactly.

Speaker 3 40:01

Wow. Okay . Well that is the best answer I've gotten for sure. With music. I love, I love the range. Okay . This one you can only have one answer for. What is your favorite number?

Speaker 2 40:14

Oh wow.

Speaker 3 40:15

Lucky number. Favorite number. Yeah .

Speaker 1 40:18

I never thought about it. Nothing stands out. Okay . Except, except honestly, I , the, the first number that comes to mind, I'll tell you without telling you. It's um, it's a four digit number that we use and by we, I mean me and Chelsea use for almost anything. So like if we go into a hotel and you have the safe where you make a code. Got it . Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , we only have to talk about it. She can access the safe and get her iPad out because she already knows what I'm gonna make the code. And the fun part about that , that number is also our garage code, but it's also our garage code because it was the garage code on my family home growing up. Oh

Speaker 2 40:52

My gosh . That was funny.

Speaker 1 40:53

It was the garage code on my family home growing up because when Sam, the nerdy 13 year old programmed the garage door , um, at the family home, he used the last four digits of the phone number of my, of my grandparents' general store.

Speaker 3 41:10

Wow.

Speaker 1 41:11

Which was a long defunct phone number cause the business . But it was like back from the age where people my age, you know, in the beginning we did have to memorize numbers. Like really ? Yeah .

Speaker 2 41:22

We remember

Speaker 1 41:23

Number we're the age group who got cell phones and now I don't even know anyone's number. No. But I still remember my grandparents both sets of grandparents' numbers. I remember the number to that general store. And so the last four digits are the code we use for almost everything. <laugh>

Speaker 3 41:37

Once again, not a straight answer and I love it.

Speaker 2 41:41

That's a great answer. That's my favorite answer. Yes, you are , you are me. You are just the male version of me. <laugh> .

Speaker 1 41:50

I like this segment because it reminds me of , um, you know Colbert, Steven Colbert, who I love . Yes . The Colbert questionnaire. Yes. Where you ask the same questions to every single guest and there are guests who are probably what you're more thinking. It's like, what's your favorite sandwich ? And they just say it. Yeah . But then there are a lot of them like me and Lori , who they can never answer. No , no . Everything is a story.

Speaker 2 42:13

Everything is a

Speaker 3 42:14

Roundabout . It's so much more exciting. Yes. Yeah . Yes. Okay . So I'm a little nervous to ask this, this might be another anyway, what did you wanna be when you grew up?

Speaker 1 42:24

That's actually an easy one. A teacher. I was very confident. So coming , coming from a small town in my, in my little rural part of Indiana, there's one high school in the whole county still. And so I had a really unique experience where, from the seventh through 12th grade, so six years I had the same English teacher because she taught all of the honors , uh, English classes. And fortunately having the same teacher for six years, she was an awesome teacher, cuz that would've been really bad if she wasn't. But she made such an impact on me that, shoot, by the time I was a freshman in high school, I was pretty confident that I wanted to major in English and be a teacher. Yeah.

Speaker 3 43:05

I love that. What is your biggest pet peeve? Let's go. Not related to flowers, since you already said those .

Speaker 1 43:13

Just in life in general. Just

Speaker 3 43:15

In life. Yeah. Oh

Speaker 1 43:16

My gosh. I'm basically like a , a young Larry David. So that's really

Speaker 3 43:22

Loves Larry David.

Speaker 1 43:25

He's my , my spirit animal. The things that annoy him about humanity annoy me too. But , um, gosh, what are some, well, I'll share a really obvious one that's not super common. I have a really hard time with chewing gum. Mm . Like , I just don't like it. I would totally do well in a society where gum is outlawed. But I didn't even notice you were doing gum, by the way, so you weren't bothering ,

Speaker 2 43:48

But that's hilarious.

Speaker 1 43:50

I have self-diagnosed misophonia. Have you ever heard of what that is?

Speaker 3 43:53

I have that as well.

Speaker 1 43:55

No, I'm very good in diplomatic about keeping my mouth shut by the

Speaker 3 43:57

Way . But it makes you like filled with rage.

Speaker 1 44:00

Yes. There will be someone in a movie theater who's eating popcorn Yep . Loudly and without their lip sealed and like it ruins the movie for me. And I, I asked Chelsea, like to me it's like an earthquake happening. Yeah. And when I bring it to her attention, she d she hasn't even registered it, like didn't even notice it. So

Speaker 3 44:16

Sometimes I'll like look at Tyler and he'll know and he's like, stops chewing. He's Yeah . And I won't even like, he just, yeah,

Speaker 1 44:25

Totally.

Speaker 3 44:26

It's like you just wanna punch them in the face but you don't, it's a real condition. We have a condition. It's

Speaker 2 44:31

A burden. It's a burden. The two of you ,

Speaker 3 44:33

I do have one Larry David question though. Say I'm walking my dog down your street Uhhuh and my dog poops and I pick up the poop. It happens to be trash day. So all the trash route , is it okay for me to throw it the trash bag in the neighbors or whoever's on that path

Speaker 1 44:50

Track ? Yeah . So I've given a lot of thought to this question and I have a , I have a somewhat complicated answer. Okay . If they , if their trash can is down by the curb on trash day Yes . And has yet to be collected, then I think it's fair game for anything when you're walking on the sidewalk. Okay. What I don't tolerate is like my trash cans when it's not trash day are, are 15 feet back off the curb. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> up in my driveway. Yep . Like, no, you better not be walking up my driveway just cause you ,

Speaker 3 45:19

What if the trash man just came and so the trash cans empty?

Speaker 1 45:23

That's where I get , that's where I get really Larry David about it because it's probably unreasonable. But then I'd say no because it's , if you open the can and you see that trash has already come today, then no, I don't want your stinky dog poop in my can for the next week or two weeks. Yeah .

Speaker 3 45:37

Yeah . Okay .

Speaker 1 45:40

Love

Speaker 2 45:40

Insight . Thank you .

Speaker 3 45:41

For I , that's a internal battle I have almost every time I walk my dog, I'm like, I don't know.

Speaker 2 45:47

I I, I never even on trash day, I would never put it in my neighbor's trash.

Speaker 1 45:53

I probably, I probably would not either, honestly. Uh ,

Speaker 2 45:57

Yeah . I really trash

Speaker 3 45:59

It's trash.

Speaker 2 46:01

It's poop. It's poop trash. Yeah . I would only put it in and because I've had this dialogue in my head, it's, I don't want 'em to put in my trash. Yeah. I put it either in my , my own trash or the park trash or you

Speaker 3 46:16

Just hold onto it. Right. Just hold on . I hold

Speaker 2 46:18

Onto it and put it in my trash when I get back

Speaker 3 46:19

Home. Yeah. I

Speaker 2 46:20

Don't ever put it in the neighbor's trash.

Speaker 1 46:23

That's , but if the choice of picking it up and putting it in my trash or not picking it up at all, then I guess I would err on at least you're picking it up, right?

Speaker 3 46:30

Yes . I do it

Speaker 2 46:31

Right . Oh, a hundred percent . Pick

Speaker 1 46:32

It up. I used to fantasize about, especially in New York about having a machine where I could just magically make any pet , um, residue that was left unattended. Like I just want to make it teleport to the pillow of the person who was too lazy to Yes . That stuff that would solve that problem really, really fast.

Speaker 2 46:52

Yeah. That was a good idea. Or

Speaker 3 46:54

Even, you know, honestly New York City human, human. Yeah .

Speaker 2 46:59

I

Speaker 3 47:00

Remember wa having to step over that one too many times out of my , uh, fifth story walk up above the Chinese restaurant. Yeah . One last question. What is your death row meal?

Speaker 1 47:15

Okay. I have an immediate answer to this. Um , ooh , A pastrami sandwich Enri from Katz's delicatessen in New York with their steak fries. I might take a little bit of deli mustard because they don't, don't frown on that. I've tried the versions that add this or that and you don't get any better than just their pastrami piled up on their eye. It's my favorite meal. That sounds so good. I've been, you know, Ellie, like you we're foodies. We've been to, you know, treated ourselves to some nice restaurants and I'm not discounting that experience, but there's no meal I love more than the pastrami sandwich from Katz's .

Speaker 2 47:52

I love it. Hey, will you come back sometime ? Cuz we just love you .

Speaker 1 47:56

Oh yeah. Anytime . I love it.

Speaker 2 47:58

Hey, where are you gonna be next? You're gonna be doing a profit blast, right? Yeah,

Speaker 1 48:02

So I'm , uh, I'm presenting, let me pull up my calendar so I can tell you I'm gonna be at the profit blast in Boston, July. It is July 23rd, a Sunday. The , the s a f profit profit blast in Boston. Okay . I'll be there presenting kind of a take on what I did at NextGen. So it's about five star customer experiences Yeah . And how you can provide those website phone in store delivery all across the business.

Speaker 2 48:27

Love it . All right , great. So if anyone's listening that, that is a great topic, a great presentation for if you are a shop owner for not only you, but you to bring your employees, like bring a whole staff, like a team building session. Yeah . Because it'd be for everyone. So , um, think of it that way. Um , especially if you're in driving distance. You got Yeah . Especially if you're in within driving no brainer distance . Yeah. Go to the website, right?

Speaker 1 48:56

Yeah . Yep . Exactly.

Speaker 2 48:58

Thank you Sam. We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.

Speaker 1 49:02

Oh , it was my pleasure. I had a blast.

Speaker 2 49:04

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,

Speaker 4 49:25

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.