Our Four FAQ's from our Live Event in Texas

Episode 099: Flower Clique and Bill Doran Company hosted two live events in Houston and Dallas last week. It was great to get back out and share education and listen to the needs of flower shop owners. After returning, we thought that if so many attendees have the same questions that perhaps you do too! These are the four frequently asked questions from the two events.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

What if I don't have a lot of walk-in customers? This is what we've heard many times in different ways, right? And you just you have the perfect solution, and this is to tell truth. I don't have walk-in customers. Why do I need designs in my cooler? Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda. Lori, we're back in the office now after a long week. We are, I saw you less than 24 hours ago. And so that was good. Well, when this airs, it will be longer than 24 hours. But we had a busy week, Vonda.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

We did. We were in Houston and Dallas at the Bill Doran Company locations with face-to-face events. It was so fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

It was so much fun for multiple reasons. Not only meeting some of our members face to face, uh, and new shop owners or new people just getting into the industry. Like we met a couple people in Dallas that have only been in it, like they started it during COVID, which is crazy. They're doing well. But the other part that was fun is Flower Click. We have a partnership with Bill Dorn Wholesale with our flower bundle boxes, right? That our members can purchase. Um, so we got to meet the employees.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

It was great, it really was great because a few of them we talked to on the phone, but really they didn't know what flower click was. And you know, we had been in wholesale houses before, so we kind of knew what that was about, but they had really kind of no idea what flower click was.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Right. It just it I walked away again, so fulfilled, but thinking a couple things. The reality is flower click is so hard to describe, it really is when you're trying to just put it on a website, like everything that we do. And so Ellie LaFever, um, I was noticing she she's got a couple of little sentences that she was using because you know she was having to answer a question, like those are really good, and she really does start with it's a membership-driven company, um, and and then she kind of goes into it. So it's like, ooh, that's good. It is, but in part of being a member, you have access to our bundles, but anyway, that's a whole nother thing. But I loved it. I got to meet people in downtown Houston, and I'm gonna go down and visit more since I'm here on the other side of Houston. Um, but it was really, really fun.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

It was, and that's why we thought this podcast would be really important to kind of do a follow-up because there were really four questions that were asked both locations in multiple ways, yeah, but really the same question. Right, right. And what they're asking that question, everybody then we know that you out there, our audience, is probably have the same kind of questions, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

And I thought it was funny in both the Houston and Dallas location when somebody would raise their hand and ask this these questions. 75% of the people were nodding, yes, like, yeah, yeah, answer that.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

So true. So true.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Like, well, I guess this one's important. And the thing is about these, it's not like a super quick answer to any of these. So let's let's go ahead and get get going here. Um, so it's good. One of the main ones, and and again, just a little bit about what we did. You and I were up on the stage or whatever you want to call it. And the only reason we're not stage is so they can see you designing, it's not like we require the stage or anything. But um, you were designing and you were talking a lot about productivity, uh, you know, and and cooler stuff. And I was giving employee sales tips, like here. So you might this is what you might do when you're on the phone and your designer has just created what Bonda said. This is what you might say, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

So we did a little bit of sales, a lot of productivity and design, and how everything really goes from your website, right? So it was website, sales, productivity, and how all of those work together to make a really well-run, efficient site, efficient flower shop, you know, operational-wise.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah. So one thing, um, and I don't have it up in my notes, but you just reminded me, I was a little surprised at how many people I spoke with afterwards that didn't have websites yet. Wow. I mean, they have social media, um, but they don't have anything clickable. And so I was, you know, I spent a lot of my time talking to people about, you know, we we live in the world of clicks. You're probably losing quite a few customers if you have nothing that they can go online and just click. I here's a little crazy example. I was wanting to order a turkey, a smoked turkey for Thanksgiving. Because I didn't want to make the turkey, I didn't want to mess with it. We have a fairly small group, it just and and I love making all the sides. So I there were two places I was gonna check. One of them, it had the menu and had what you could order, but it said call to order. The other one was click to order. So, Vonda, which one do you think I chose? I know you did the click to order. Yeah, because then you were done and it got it off your list. And it was in the evening when I had time to think about it, like, oh, I need to do this. They'd be closed by then because it wasn't a restaurant, it was a like a deli type place. But I'm like, they're really missing out on a lot of customers when you don't have a website.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Yeah, an e-commerce website where they can click and buy because there's a lot of pretty websites out there, but they really do not allow you to click and buy. So that e-commerce is really, really important. Yes. So we did cover that just a little bit, but you know, we just really went into a lot of things that uh happen every day in a flower shop.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Right. And so again, we were in two places, and these four questions were asked in both places, maybe not the exact verbiage, but we talked about this in all four places. We're like, well, maybe we'll talk about it. So, number one, how do I satisfy my customers and find the balance between giving them enough but still staying in business? Bonda, this yeah, like the overriding theme. Um, because we talked so much about the personality of people that go into this industry. That's why we're here because we love them. They're they really do all seem to have a servant's heart. Like they love to make beautiful things and share them with people. They love to do those types of things, but the negative side of that is we tend to give more than we're actually receiving monetarily. And you and I both had multiple conversations with businesses. A lot of them were, at least for me, they were newer, like less than five years. I love you were asking, like, how many have been in the industry this long, this long? And we had some people that'd been in over 25 years, and so they weren't really struggling with this because they understood they knew what they need to do. But the other ones, one of their biggest struggles were like, I don't like I have a bride and she only has $700, and we worked with her, and then we really can't do it for $700, but I want to make sure she's happy. So they like gave her more than she should. And I love their heart, but they're not gonna stay in business. And and what they didn't do is have that conversation right up front the first time they met with her, going, listen, I I think we can help you. I really, but here's what we can do with that amount. Prices are going up, and you know, with everything else that's going up in the world, it's going up for us too. So don't make promises that you cannot keep just to please them. You've got to stay within that budget.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

I think one of the things that it didn't matter whether you've been in the business for 30 years, 35 years, I mean, somewhere over that, or you're brand new. Pricing is the issue. It is an issue, even for the seasoned designer, because we're seeing prices that we see really at Valentine's Day and more than what we're paying for Valentine's Day. So everybody's having a hard time digesting those prices and having to increase prices in store on website, everything else. So it's like you said, you know, it's expectations. You know, when you're talking to someone, you really need to set the expectation as we will fill the order to the value. You know, if you're talking something that's in the distance, like a wedding, you know, you really have to be totally transparent and let them know, hey, you know, we don't know what we can do, you know, in six months. Uh you and I had this conversation with our clickers, right? With our flower click members not that long ago, when they asked about weddings, and then others were just chiming in saying, you know, I'm pricing my weddings 30 to 40 percent more than they are right now, because I don't know what it's gonna be, and I need to cover myself. Yep. And then the conversation with the bride is I'm pricing this out where I think it's going to be. If it ends up being where I can give you more flowers for this amount, I will do that. Your designs, your special event will be filled to value, but you you've got to cover yourself. And if they walk away because you've overpriced it, hey, that's okay. You know, you need to be able to stay in business, make money. And so that's where, again, making sure you're pricing the things on your website, because that's where they're looking at the prices that they feel are in your store. So if those prices are wrong and then they call you and say, hey, I want those six roses on your website at $30, you could fall over because you're paying more than that.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Right, right. So and I and I think it's just being authentic and truthful at the very beginning, it doesn't, I mean, just because you're saying all this up front doesn't mean that you're mean. And the thing is, as long as you know that you're being truthful and honest and up front at the beginning, if they do leave, that's okay. That's okay. Because going back to what you just said, if you would have taken them on as a customer, you you would have lost money. And yeah, you can't stay in business if you're losing money on weddings.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Well, and the truth is it is in the news everywhere about the the supply chain. Right. Everywhere is having this. Right. So it's not like they're gonna be going, well, what do you mean there's a problem with getting flowers and they're costing more? It's in everything in their life right now, right? You know, right. So and another one that somebody talked about was a friend's wedding. Right. I'm doing a friend's wedding and she's expecting more because I'm her friend. Again, manage those expectations.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Exactly. And here was a conversation, at least in Dallas, that we kind of went to that I thought was interesting. It's it's one thing if one of your best friends you're doing something for them because you're very close and you want to do their wedding, or you're providing something and you give them a discount. The problem is when your best friend's friend's mother knows you they got a discount, so they feel like they're gonna come around and say, Oh, Vonda told me that you did this and at this price, can you do that for me too? That's right. You've got to draw the line. You could you just you have to say, you know, I can't, I'm so sorry, you know, because I am a business, but at that price, I can do this. And if they don't like it, it's okay. Because they're not your friend, they just want a bargain.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

That's what they're looking for. The next question would be how can I better deal with my customers? This lady was in the back of the room, and she was she raised her hand, and this was a sincere question. Everybody was shaking their head. How can I better deal with my customers? It seems like each time I make a suggestion when I'm trying to sell something on the phone, they say, What else do you have? And I feel like I just continued to talk and talk and talk about what's in the store. How can I deal with my customer better? You want me to answer that? That's you because I know the answer to that.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Because I turned it over to you. I said, Lori. Well, I almost went back and hugged her because I was like, Oh my gosh, it's like you set me up because I was going to talk about this. You have to ask questions up front when the customer was calling, saying, I want to order flowers, um, you know, for my great aunt Sally, who's my favorite person in the world and is not existent in the world, but you want to talk to them about it. Well, tell me a little bit about her. You want to find out, you know, she's lived in the same house for 65 years. She, her favorite color is still avocado green and gold, or you know, whatever they can tell you. And then the key is to go back and go, you know what? First of all, I think I'd be friends with Great Aunt Sally. She sounds wonderful. Second of all, I think I have the perfect thing for her. When you do that, it tells the customer, oh, they've customized based on everything that I've told this person, they've kind of customized a product for me. And I can promise you, I mean, maybe they don't want the first thing, but they're gonna because you're like, you created this based on what they told you. So how can they say no?

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

It's just because you were listening, because you were listening, yes, you know, if they're saying avocado green kitchen with the gold countertops like my grandmother used to have, go, oh my gosh, yep, that brings back so many memories. And also, as you're saying that, I'm looking in the cooler. We've just got in the most gorgeous sunflowers, they would be perfect with a bright yellow and then some foliage, you know, and whatever. And they're like, oh my gosh, I can picture it. I could picture it in her kitchen on her kitchen table or or whatever. So it's not hard. It just takes a little bit of time up front. And if you're not good at like on the fly thinking up questions, have a couple in your back pocket that you always ask every time the customer is. They're not gonna know that you ask it every time, but just maybe have some written down by the POS if you need to, if you're you know not good at it. But if you ask up front some questions that help personalize the arrangement, that's when they're gonna go, yeah, that'd be perfect.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

That's what you have created in sales prep school. It's like all those tools that make it really easy to know how to sell. Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

So giving away all my secrets. Yes. You're giving away secrets, it's I mean, it's it's pretty intuitive if you are on the phone a lot and if you you like those kind of relationships. All right, next question. Number three, this is this is a Vonda question about productivity. How can I make so many designs that look the same or similar? I feel like my customers are gonna know. So we paraphrased this, but this was an overriding question in in both locations. For some reason, they get caught up as a designer thinking, well, I already made that creative thing. It went really well. We got a good review, I gotta make something different this time.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

You hit it when you said the designer gets caught up in that, because a designer should be able to put three vases or four, depends on what number you want to do, and do the same exact design, duplicate it four times. Because when you, Lori, are in the your selling mode, you're gonna be looking and saying, I've got this. So do one, that's the one that's going out on the order, and then the rest of those you're putting in the cooler to sell or pull for orders later. The other thing is with so many orders coming in off your website, and we did this as a demo, is that that one order comes in, it has you know coral roses, spray roses in two different colors, two allstrameria, a hypericumberry. So you have all these varieties of flowers that are in one specific arrangement that's on your website. Now you have to decide if you don't have those in the cooler, are you gonna get them? You're like, yeah, okay, let's get them. So when those come in, don't just do that one arrangement and put the rest in the bucket in the cooler and waiting for the next order to come in. Use those flowers and create five or six designs in varying sizes and prices and put those in your cooler. Yes, they're the same flowers, but when those go out of the shop, they're going to different locations. They don't know, they're not friends. Right. And they don't say, hey, I got the same one as you. Right. Exactly. They're not comparing notes. Right, right. So that's that's my suggestion is to take those flowers that you had to get for that one design, use them up in multiple designs, and then you're done. You have used all the flowers. Now you just have to turn them over, communicate with your sales staff, or if you're the salesperson, sell the flowers, sell what you have, have what you sell.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Right. Exactly. We got a lot of nods. Oh, yeah, makes sense. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

So, Lori, now I just talked about putting all those in the cooler. What if I don't have a lot of walk-in customers? This is what we heard many times in different ways, right? And you just you have the perfect solution. And this is so true. I don't have walk-in customers. Why do I need designs in my cooler?

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Right. And going back to what you said, this was an overriding thing because, again, the last 20 months, things have changed, you know, like our downtown Houston, it's still not bustling and busy, you know, where it used like it used to be before COVID. So a lot of people are like, we don't have a lot of walk-ins, or they've made the choice. We don't want walk-ins anymore. We just don't do that. So the reason you still need things in the cooler are because of employees like myself who are answering the phone at four o'clock, and my brain is already fried, right? And it's somebody wanting to place an order for flowers to be delivered the next day, and they're like, What do you suggest? And I'm like, I don't know. I have no idea what I suggest. What you know, so well, your brain is fried at that point. And we've burned up all our brain calories, so it doesn't process as quickly anymore by a four o'clock. So I'm gonna look right over to the cooler, and the first thing I'm gonna see are some of those beautiful designs that you just made with those coral roses, right? Because you just took 24 roses and you took three out for the arrangement you were making for that day, and you're like, let's just make the rest of these. And I've got coral, I've got sunflowers, I've got purple whatever's, I've got all different colors and sizes. I can just reel them off, reel them off after I've asked them the questions. Well, you know, who are you sending it to? Blah, blah, blah. Tell me about them. Well, their favorite colors, pink. And I would say, how do they feel about a variation of pink, maybe a coral pink? And if they're like, I don't know, and say, Well, I'm telling you, because right now, what is flying out of our door are these gorgeous coral, whatever flowers they were. I would only highlight the star of the show. It. I'd talk about some other colors, but that's how you do it. And that's why you have things in the cooler. So that you can visually look over and just start describing them as you go.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

And the other reason is because that person who's calling late in the day more than likely still wants it delivered today. Well, for now, you have to just complete the order, the card prints out, put it on, take it out there for delivery. So I think it's twofold. Yes. It so helps your mind, you know, for sales to be able to really look at something and describe and you know, have those different prices. But it also allows you to just be able to get that out in a timely manner. It's a win-win, let's say. So Lori, I think we have some really great takeaways from our time in Houston that we're sharing with everyone because of these questions. The other thing I just want to encourage everyone, if you have an opportunity to get face to face with other shops, the networking that was happening, even if they were standing, you know, six feet apart, it was so exciting to see people conversing and sharing ideas and sharing stories. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

It was fun for the Bill Dorn reps to be there to talk to their customers. It was really fun to see flowershop owners connect over one thing we said, and they're over there just kind of you know hashing out how they do things. And again, meeting some of our members face to face. It was good. It was good. It was hopefully we'll be traveling around other parts of the United States.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

That's our plan. Get back out there. So let's talk about those hard takeaways. One of the takeaways is have hard conversations. We say manage expectations, but what you mentioned about everybody being very emotional and wanting to give more, it's a hard conversation, but have it with the customers up front.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Yeah, yeah. Another takeaway, if you are the person that's always answering the phone and you're struggling, feeling like everything you offer they don't want, is listen first. Listen first, ask them questions about themselves or the person they're delivering to or the relation. Ask them some engaging questions and then make the suggestion.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Another one is use best practices in productivity. You know, when you're designing design in multiples, use the full bunches, multiple sizes. So best practices and productivity will make a huge difference in your overall operations.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah. And the last one is, and I think I talk about this almost every time on the podcast, is be aware as a manager, owner of the communication between your team. Um, you know, we talk about front, front of front of store, back of store, salespeople, designers. Make sure that relationship is happening, like that it's fairly cohesive that people are communicating. Because again, you know, what you always say is you can have the best designer in the world, like AIFD, PFCI, you all of the letters, right? You can have them. But at the end of the day, your salesperson is one that makes the sale. So they have to be communicating.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

All right. What is inspiring you?

SPEAKER_02 25:42

What's inspiring me is the thought that we get to go out and be with people again. It's just nice that everything's opened up and we get that opportunity. Just having come back to that, now we're like, okay, I think there's a Society of American florists, profit blast coming up. And so I sent an email and I'm like, hey, Laura Weaver, do we have an opportunity to present at some different locations? So we're starting some conversations with what's next. That's really inspiring to me.

unknown 26:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

What about you? It's motivating, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 26:12

It it is. It's motivating for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Yeah, it's just the whole concept of something to look forward to. Um, what's inspiring me is the fact that when you and your daughter were here, your daughter, which is one of my favorite people on the planet, at least she helped me with my tree topper on my Christmas tree. And it's always my biggest struggle. And, you know, a couple of years ago you guys did it. And then last year during COVID, I was literally FaceTiming with our member, or I think I actually did a Facebook Live in our member community, and they were giving me suggestions because I can't do it. Anyway, so when I got back home from our trip last week and walked in, uh it was the first thing I saw, and it just made me smile.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

So it's November 10th, and Lori has a tree up with the treetopper complete. So there we go. All right, Lori.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

This is great. Okay, everybody have a great week. 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_02 27:34

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.