Your Valentine’s Day Staff Meeting: Prepared, Profitable, and Positive

Episode 317: Valentine’s Day is the busiest and most important holiday of the year for florists, and preparation makes all the difference. Vonda and Lori walk you through a full Valentine’s Day staff meeting, just as they would with their own teams.

From customer service reminders and sales scripts to design productivity, cooler strategy, delivery expectations, and social media ideas, this episode is packed with practical guidance you can use immediately. They cover pricing confidence, upselling with integrity, managing stress, supporting your teammates, and creating a positive, organized environment—even when things get hectic.

Whether you’re a designer, sales associate, delivery driver, or owner, this episode is designed to motivate, align your team, and help you approach Valentine’s Day with confidence, clarity, and a little fun.

You’ve got this—now let’s go sell some flowers.

2026 Valentine's Day Staff Meeting 

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

When you are describing the arrangements that you are using impressive language such as showstopping and lovely and handcrafted or artfully designed.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

And we believe the business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Good day, clickers. I hope everybody's doing well and mid-month really digging in deep with all the preparations for Valentine's Day. I know that, gosh, almost all the conversations I've been having with members this last week have really revolved around preparations for Valentine's Day. And we continue to remind everybody to have a staff meeting with your employees to get everyone on the same page because we all know communication is key. And Lori talks about that time and time again. So what we did last week, Lori and I recorded a staff meeting session that's up on YouTube that really allows you to play that for your staff to really get them on the same page and to key in on certain aspects of preparations for Valentine's Day that are really important. So we're going to do a replay of that today. And I will also drop the link for the actual session with the slides for you to take a look at if you want to listen to it and play it at the same time. If you didn't get the email for the link for the staff meeting session, then please you send an email to us or reach out and let us know that you want to be on our email list. But let's make sure that we're as ready as we can be for a successful Valentine's Day. Hi, I'm Vonda LaFever from FlowerClick. And I'm Lori Wilson. And we're excited to be here for the staff meeting. So we're going to walk through this staff meeting much like I would if I was going through a staff meeting with our gals. This is our Flower Click gals, and Lori and I, once a month, we have a staff meeting and we share ideas and motivation and hear what others have to say because it's truly a team that works together and we have an amazing team.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

So today we're going to pretend that all of these ladies and Vonda and I are part of your team and we're having a staff meeting together.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

So let's get started. Most of you know Valentine's Day is the single busiest day of the year, whether this is your first year or your 50th year. You know it's a busy day, right? And the whole idea is to get through that with ease as long as we prepare well. It goes, I want to say seamless, but we know it's not seamless. But with the right mindset, we'll get through it with ease. First of all, we want to thank you. Thank you for being part of our team. Each and every one of you have a vital part of this team. You might not think so, you're like, I just do this, I just do that. No, it takes all of us to make things happen.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

All right. So this is a quick reference guide that we've created. And we are going to laminate this and have it up at the front desk. It is for exceptional customer service. It's going to be on the front desk and near every phone that we have. And it's just a quick guide to look down of reminders for us because I know the week or the two weeks leading up to Valentine's Day can be quite chaotic. And sometimes we forget things, such as forget to smile when we're talking on the phone, forget our power greeting. Like when we answer the phone, what do we say? Because remember, first impressions are everything. Remember to paint that visual picture, which we're going to talk more in detail about later. So always, always, always remember to take a look at this. And if you don't see it, come check with one of us and we make sure we have it.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

So let's talk about the expectations for all of us. We want this to be fun, not chaos. Now, everything's not going to come up roses, which we have pun intended, because that's the way it is, right? We want to provide superior customer service, not just great customer service, superior customer service. We need to make sure that our team members, each and every one of you, know when you're expected to be in. So come to me, come to the manager to make sure that you know when you're on the schedule. And sometimes it's not spoken. Sorry to say, I kind of expect everybody to be here during that holiday time. So let's have a conversation to make sure that we're all on the same page, when you need to be here, what hours, et cetera. We we will schedule the flower delivery time. So any of you who are in care and handling, we need to make sure every all hands are on deck for that. And then we need to discuss what we can do to prepare all of us together. What is it that we need to do once those flowers come in so that we have the process day by day? Because again, we're all on the same team.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

All right. Communication is everything. We need to be always communicating what we are low on in the front cooler or in the back cooler. So for those of you that work up at the front, we should always have different price points, different colors in the front cooler where our customers can see it. If you see that we are running low on things, you need to let myself or another manager or designers know so that we can be making some things to put out there because we are going to be having a lot of walk-in. If we have things that are completely sold out, this is mostly for people in the back that you know we have no product left on things. Let the people in the front know which specials or which things on the website are sold out. This is really, really important. Step up when someone on your team needs a break. Be looking around, making sure everybody's okay. So, matter of fact, something that we may do as a team is have pedal pals. I was thinking about this last night. When you walk in for your shift, you are gonna have a sticker. And your sticker is a flower sticker and it's gonna match another staff member's sticker. That is your pedal pal for that shift. Your job is to check in on them throughout the whole shift. Every day it's gonna change. We're we are not favoring our pedal pal. You're gonna have a different one every time because that's your person for the day. And you're gonna check on them and make sure if they need a break, you make sure that they get a breather or they get to go to the bathroom or they get to do whatever it is they need. But we're gonna make it fun and we're gonna know that somebody's got our back. The last thing I want to say is we're gonna have problems. There's gonna be broken glass, there's gonna be broken flowers, there's gonna be broken hearts, there's gonna be broken stuff. Take some breaths before we respond, before we react, and just know in the big scheme of things, we're gonna figure it out. It's gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Absolutely, Lori. That is so true. So let's talk a little bit about what we expect from our designers. Productivity is key. We have to get a lot of stuff done in a short amount of time to make a lot of customers happy and play Romeo and all over the place, right? So we know that, but even as important, if not more important, as Lori showed before, quality. So the attention to detail is really important. Now, I know we have a couple that might be designer assistants that will be able to fill the vases and get things ready to hand off to the designers, might even be able to pull like these roses and Crispidia that are all together, put those together so that the designer can go extra fast because that will help in our productivity. We know what we're offering for our specials, so really know what those recipes are are key into those. So it makes it easier for you. We're gonna work on a production line. And I know, gosh, there might only be two of us on this production line, but one of us will start with the foliage and a couple key flowers, somebody else will do the next flowers, and then we'll hand it back so that we make sure that the quality is there. So that production line will help us do more arrangements in a shorter amount of time because those pre-made that are done ahead of time, we're gonna get 20 of these done. And then as those orders come in, all we have to do is put the cards on them. We are not gonna wait till the orders come in to do them as they come in. We're gonna pre-make those orders and anticipate what orders are gonna sell and make it real easy. And then we're gonna put it to you sales staff to go, oh, they've got extra of these. That's what I'm gonna sell. The other thing is we need to be able to keep the cooler filled and we're gonna do a rotation. Going to head back behind the design table. Here we are. You're in the design room now. I am somewhat of a design room here, Lori. And what we want to make sure that you have in the cooler are three different price points at least, right? So we want something for the dad who comes in for with his child who wants something that they're going to be able to take to mom. And that could be this uh vibe vase that has carnations, a spray rose, some Ulstro, just a nice variety of flowers. That's an easy grab and go. This is gonna be a good price point, but you don't want this one to be the only one. You need a larger design. And in this case, and we have the mixed hydrangea, all straight roses. Again, um, you want to make sure that you have a good variety of things in there, but not all roses. You're gonna have your dozen roses, two dozen roses, three dozen roses. You know those are gonna sell. But have the mixed ones with roses in them because they're gonna get a larger arrangement for a lesser price point, right? This one really comes up to 169, is what we're looking at here. And on vases, whether we're using the small ones or the larger ones, be sure you have some type of Valentine pick. Now, I'm not big on these Valentine picks, these aren't bad, but what else can you do to add a heart to those designs that's not necessarily a pick? So here I just have some braided lily grass, and if we put this in on two sides, and then I bring these together and tie them and put them back behind here, you can see I have a heart.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You see it? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

So something like that that you can add to the design that's not taking away from the size and everything, but it's adding that heart because men especially would like to see something real Valentine's looking in their design. So in this one as well, remember all of you who are on the front showroom. If they buy this out of the vase, don't forget to give them the option. Would you like to upgrade that to a keepsake vase that maybe she would like it to be more special? And designers, this one's for you. I have this done so that it's easy to take from one to the other. Whether I use some type of a mechanic. Um, in this case, I have the floral netting that I have it in. Or if you're using, you know, hamtiged bouquet, make it easy for that staff in the front to be able to do that and bring it from one and the other. And you can see, you know, sometimes you might even have to show them what a difference it makes for another $30, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Then we have our mid-size. Question, Vonda, about the seagrass or the heart. Can that be pre-made in advance, like far in advance?

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yeah, you can do that a couple weeks ahead of time. Take that lily grass, get it braided, put it in the cooler, in you know, a box with some crown glory or something to just make sure it's has enough moisture, but definitely that can be done ahead of time. Yeah, I love that idea. And instead of just the little lilygrass, it's just three of them that are braided. So it's simple. And so then this would be the mid-size arrangement. This is 10 tulips, some spray roses, and one hydrangea. And so what we have here is a 59, we have a 99, and we have a 159. So we have three different price points. And always make sure you have your plants. Of course, this is my favorite, the high hyacinth, because it smells heatherly. Yeah. Green plants. Have everything ready for them. Don't forget that the end of the day or in the middle of the day, once to use your DCD, clean your uh tabletop and my tools, because we want our flowers to last so long, right? That's it quality. So be sure that you're cleaning up after yourself, after your tools, so we have a nice clean surface that we're not having any bacteria grow on our our tabletop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Great information. We may even assign one of our assistant designers that job to like every couple hours go around and just do a clean. Like that, I might have that job. I'm good at that job.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah, that's a really good idea. That's thank you for bringing that up because I do think that's a really good idea. We should definitely assign somebody to that. So now that we know we we have the things we're gonna do in the cooler, but we also know we're gonna do a limited number of specials. So, you sales staff who are amazing, know that there are a limited number of those specials. They're gonna be very similar to what we have on our website because we have that on our website. We're gonna have it in the cooler because it makes it so much easier. We don't need more stress and we don't need more things to sell and more decisions to make. So we're gonna have that ready. We're gonna set up for success with the tools for easy and seamless sales conversations, which are the sales scripts you see here. And Lori's gonna talk about those in a minute, but always communicate. What are we out of? What are we getting low on? It's that communication that's really key. Front room, back room. You guys have to talk. You have to really clearly communicate what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Again, just more buzzwords to put on those sales scripts. Um, the scripts that Bonda had on this, the previous slide, that is in the designer's resource guide. Um, we are part of Flower Click, and so we get that guide. And so we have all access to all of these kinds of words. So make sure when you are describing the arrangements that you are using impressive language, such as show stopping and lovely and handcrafted or artfully designed instead of just plain, oh, it's beautiful or it's amazing. Like, you know, think a little more outside the box. All right, sales scripts. Here's the sales scripts we're gonna be using. These are some of our specials. These sales scripts have not only the descriptions, but we also have put up right over here. If you can see me highlighting every time you see an arrow, it helps paint that visual picture that I mentioned earlier. It's so important every time we describe what design we are featuring or that we are suggesting they purchase, that they know how big it is without giving them exact dimensions, because that never helped anybody. Um, we need to talk about placement, what it would look nice on. But we want to, again, we want to make it fun and exciting. So, for example, the flirty flare, it's made to shine on a dining room table or an entryway or even a big kitchen island, basically anywhere where it can steal a few glances because it is just that pretty. So have fun with it. Um, we put ways that you can make it sound great. I think the little petite tote right here that I just love says um that it's sweet enough to be on a nightstand or a small table or even a cubicle. So think about how you're gonna describe it because that's what they are picturing. Again, more buzzwords, playful and polished, fresh, vibrant. All of these words are what I call appetizing. Like they make me go, ooh, I want that. And so that is your goal. You want the person on the other end of the phone or standing in front of you to go, yeah, that sounds great. That sounds incredible. That's what I want. Card messages. Some people do not have a way with words, and that's okay because you do have a way with words. You're gonna have some. Take, use these or make your own. Have a mix of romantic and funny and flirty. Whatever we decide we want to have, we can have. If we want to have some borderline raunchy, let's do it. I don't know, it's gonna depend on the customer. But whatever, let's just have some in our repository to when we say, Oh, what do you want the card messages to say? And if they're stumbling, go, you know what, I got a couple. You want me to help you? Because I can. They're gonna love it. And that's what they're gonna remember, and that's what's gonna keep them coming back to us.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

So in if they are saying to you, oh, just say love your husband, you might just help them out. Give them something. Oh, no, no, he would want to hear. Gonna be some more.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Prep school. We have sales prep school. So we are going to take some time and watch the extra videos in the bottom of the course that are specific to Valentine's Day. For those people that are watching this video and do not have sales prep school, you should have it because it is an incredible tool to get your staff trained in one cohesive manner where everybody is doing the same thing. Um, you can do it in seven days. It is just that simple. About an it takes about an hour a day. You do an hour and then you practice. You do an hour and then you practice or apply the whole day. So you can see day one through seven, and that's what it is. If you have any questions, you can shoot me an email. Also, in the email that you're receiving that has this video, there may be some promotions in there.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

You'd make sure you read every detail. Okay, so then let's talk about delivery because we know delivery is huge for Valentine's Day. Your sales staff at the front are going to be selling that. Designers are gonna be whipping those arrangements out, and then it's gonna be passed off to the delivery drivers, and we're gonna have several of them. So, you who are the drivers who are sitting here watching me, you know that you are the face of the shop. Most of the people you're going to their door and making that delivery have never been in our flower shop. So it's so important that you make a great impression. You are the only thing they're seeing, you and the beautiful flowers that we've all put together. So remember uh to check in on what our delivery policy is, whether we leave it, whether we leave a card, it's gonna be dependent on our weather. So know at the very last minute what we've decided on that. We might be able to give you a designer assistance so that if you're driving, somebody can run. We're gonna have to see how that's going to. Be sure, be sure to clearly communicate with your logistics engineer. Somebody's gonna be getting all those things ready for you if it's not you doing it yourself. Communication, like we've talked at the beginning, communication, communication. And always err on the side of caution. If something falls over, make sure you bring it back or you send a picture so that we know whether, oh yeah, that's okay. Use the water jug we have in the van to fill it up and go ahead and take it to the door. So make sure that everything that makes it to a customer is in tip top 100% best quality ever. And just a reminder, we've talked about scheduling just a little bit, but let's get one-on-one so that we make sure that you know when we expect you to be here, what hours and everything. Because if there's some type of a conflict, we need to know it now and get that taken care of. So we don't have any last-minute problems. Now, this is a pretty important for salespeople, especially, but even the designers who are making the design, average sale for Valentine's Day is between $190 and $200. Last year it was $188.81, which you see right there. Don't try to sell them that $59 vase if unless they're getting that vase and the $449. You know, maybe they're doing everything together. So remember that. They're not just there looking for something really inexpensive. There's going to be some who are, but push the envelope a little bit. Be sure and show them those really, you know, knock it out of the park kind of arrangements. Or if you're on the phone, the same type of thing. Don't assume that they're looking for a low-end item. Your biggest spenders are in that 35 to 45 age. And on the phone, it's really hard to tell on that, right? But if they're standing in front of you, you can pretty much tell and then steer them to something in a in a higher end. Uh 38% are buying online. So that's why we have to keep making those designs that are online so that when those come in, we can tag them and be done. 40% are buying flowers, the others are buying candy and greeting cards. So let's sell it all to them.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

All right, marketing. We're gonna do this really quick. I Just pulled a lot of content from my Instagram because I wanted to inspire you guys in hopes that it will inspire you to inspire me. So it's reciprocal. We need to be on our social media as much as possible and start getting the word out there about Valentine's Day and about our business. So one of the things that is really, really great right now are carousels. People love carousels and that works on Instagram and Facebook. It works better on Instagram, but it also is fine on Facebook. This is an example, Main Street florist, Sarah, Main Street florist, friend of ours. This is not Valentine's Day, but it's one of her Christmas posts. She was doing 75% off. So all she did, her first slide picture was like, hey, I'm having 75% off of some stuff. Snatch them up. Nothing super fancy. She went around the shop, took pictures of everything that was really cool that she had on sale and showed the price. And she put it in a big carousel. We can do that as a team for Valentine's Day. We're not having 75% off for Valentine's Day, but you know what I'm talking about. Go around, find your favorite products that we're gonna have for Valentine's Day. Take pictures, send them to me, send them to our social media manager, send them to whoever. Let us do that. People want to see our stuff. Make sure they are good picture. Clean your camera before you click for the picture. Send them and let's start posting. Galantine's Day, it's the 13th. We need to promote it. We can have some specials, but this is another shop. Flower and Balloon Gallery. She's doing a fun Galentine party. She's not doing it the night of, but she's doing a Galantine party. And we're not doing a Galantine party, but it's to inspire that you can do some fun things. Other things, reels and carousels are the two things that get the most views and likes on social media right now, especially on Instagram. And so still pictures are fine, but we're going to try to go for those two things between now and Valentine's Day and see if we can bring more people in. The far left is one from Flowers by Michelle. She's it's a real, but it's just a screenshot of one. It says there's just something about classic roses. Basic, very basic. We're not gonna do all of those, but what could we do? How do what does that inspire us? She didn't even write that. I put that on there because it made me think there's just something about classics. So let's let's play with that. Um, the one in the middle, Blake Moores, she did a reel. It's just of a refill of the cooler, midweek cooler refill. Love it. We can do that for Valentine's Day. And the other one, Valentine's Day starts long before February 14th. This is Flower Shop of Lake Charles. Educate, we need to educate our customers. Hey, we're already working on Valentine's Day. December 26th, we're already working on it, right? Actually, in October, we're working on it. But make them understand where it's coming. Um, Broadway Flowers. I love that. She made it like a playbill. She is in New York and uh her shop is Flowers on Broadway. Valentine's Day is coming. Don't wait. I love that to pre-order. And then the one at the bottom was from Bill Doran in Austin, and it is a meme of Joey from Friends freaking out because it's a reel of moving from their Christmas stuff over to Valentine's Day, and it was hilarious. You should go follow them and get some inspiration that we could do for our staff. So, anyway, fun things to inspire us to do better at social media. Creating bundles, combined flowers, chocolates, we know this. We got to start thinking what do we want to take in our shop and create three things together to make that $200 mark that Vonda was talking about. An arrangement, a plush, and a candle, an arrangement, chocolates, and a card. What do we want it to be? And how are we gonna market it? It's all in the name, and we know that. Cute names sell. Here's some ideas. We want the romantic Taylor Swift version. Here's three different songs of hers, enchanted, lover, love story. So we could do a pink bouquet with plush and chocolate, romantic bouquet with candle, and a nice thought-out, a pretty nice card. Our customers will pay for us to hand write out a card. We can sell that for a pretty penny. If we have it, we should offer it. Movie titles, pretty woman, love actually. He's just not that into you. I put that there because number one, it's a cult classic. Number two, it's a great bundle to sell for Val uh Galentine's Day or sending it on Valentine's Day from one best friend to the other, which I think would be hilarious. So, anyway, it depends on our customer base, right? So these are just ideas that we need to think about what kind of bundles we want to feature and what do we want to name them. Promote early, early bird. We need to be sending out emails, whether we have a promo in there for early bird incentive or not. We need to, as a team, decide that. Um, we could do early delivery, we could offer up an additional small box of chocolates. I think we have some left over from Christmas. We could offer an extra gift value at $15. You know, there are things that we could do that if they pre-order and sign up for early delivery, since it's on Saturday, if they are okay delivering it Monday through Wednesday, it benefits us as a team to offer this early bird incentive. So we need to be thinking what that incentive could be. Offering delivery promotion. So this is something we should discuss. I do know there are some shops that offer free local delivery in their area if they deliver early.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

But I know Vonda is, yeah, I'm not sure we're gonna do that. I mean, I think we're gonna have to discuss that because we have to look at you know what we're doing. But I think a lot of times, as you mentioned before, an incentive to order it early or it's a regular delivery charge, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But when they get into Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we're gonna have a premium delivery charge. Yeah. So I think I like the Valentine's delivery charge. Yes. I like that better. Yep. I think that we've got some ideas, and but we'd like to hear what you have to say about that.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

And then Galantine's Day. I've talked about it a couple of times. We just don't want to forget it. Like I said, we need to be posting about it on social media. We'll have something on our website, you know, a a design or two. Um, and then you make it fun because every year Galantine's Day gets bigger and bigger.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yeah, and we don't want to miss this one. That's no, no. So this is one that we get asked every year, and we just want you to be ready and feel comfortable when somebody asks this question. I can get the roses much cheaper at the grocery store. Well, you've been to the grocery store recently and you've seen that as well. Now, there are roses, they're less expensive, but look at that quality and compare that to what we have in the store. You can see that the grocery stores offer lower prices, but their quality is less as well. And they don't care for their flowers like we do. They don't cut them and put them in a hydrating solution. They don't make sure that they're hardened before they go in the cooler. We use correct care and handling. You know, our team is amazing at that to make sure that we're giving a quality product to our team. And and the rest of you, quality service. We're quality 100%. And they're not getting that at the grocery store. From when the flowers come in to the sale to the designer making them to the delivery, quality all around. So we give that personalized service. So you see what we have here, come up with your story. But it just needs to be, yeah, we understand if you want that price, you can go to the grocery store and get them. Yeah, but you're not going to get the same product.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

And I I think the key to this also is to respond calmly, yeah, but with confidence. And also be okay if they choose to walk out and go to a grocery store because here's the thing they aren't your customer. Any person that doesn't know the difference is not your customer. That's not gonna understand the difference. Um, they're not looking for quality, they're just looking for a bargain, and you're not a bargain flower shop. Take those three breaths that we talked about earlier and just move to the next one because you did your best, you tried.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

So remember to take care of yourself and your pedal partner, right? So you have those two things. Make sure you're hydrated, you have healthy snacks. And remember, if that somebody, maybe it's not your pedal partner, somebody else is like, they're not doing so well. Say something, help them, help each other, because we're all in this together and we want it to be a really fabulous holiday. So, like it says here, it's all about our fabulous flowers. It's the food because we do have some pretty amazing food. Yeah, snacks, and we have to all be flexible. And bottom line, we need to have fun. Agree. All right.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

You guys, we've got this. We've got this. Let's go sell some flowers. 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_00 32:13

So please come back and join us to discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.