Are YOU Marketing for Easter?

Easter not what it used to be? Is that what you hear out there? So many florists have made the mistake of writing off Easter. A mistake it is. By not marketing anymore, they have left a holiday on the table for the .com’s to take advantage of. NO COMPETITION. If you are looking for an edge, this is it. Doing what everyone else does will get you the same results. If I can ask you to do one thing, it would be INSERT Easter postcards in your newspaper the week before Easter and watch what happens. I can promise you will see a spike in sales. If not, I won’t ever ask you to try Easter again. So far everyone that has tried it, continued. This is an opportunity to step up ahead of your competition. The fact that no one in your market will be doing it is an edge. People DO still send flowers at Easter.

I talk to shops constantly that are looking for a better way. Looking to grow, yet the ONLY way to grow is to market, and the best time to market is when you have an audience. YES people do buy flowers to celebrate Easter, they just buy with people who provide the best offering.

We still have 2 days before our final deadline approaches for our Easter OVERSIZED postcard. Take a look and think about it. If not our piece, make your own, but most important, DON’T MISS this opportunity to get out in front of your customer. Easter is a flower holiday and the lack of marketing has directed what sales there still are to national companies which result in wire in’s for you. Something to think about…

 

 

Arthur Conforti

Get out of the Box this Wednesday with Art Conforti

• Why should customers shop with YOU?

• Why are customers shopping at ProFlowers?

• What is a retail florist supposed to do to stay alive in this rapidly changing retailing environment?

 

Start by thinking out of the box! What you did as little as 5 years ago is most likely not as effective as what you should be doing now.

The truth is, there is more business out there than any florist could handle, and plenty to go around.

The best part is, you can keep your customers buying from YOU, earn more business, and best of all, capture and grow your business again for FREE!

I will be speaking at Cleveland Plant and Flower on February 22nd to share the answears with the questions above. Stop in and I will GIVE you 4 simple steps to jump start your business as we discuss how to GET OUT OF THE BOX with retailing 2012!

The cost? Your time. I could never put a price on the value of your time. I promise to give you a new perspective on your business, from one local florist to another. If the cost is your time, the value is PRICELESS!

It will be a FREE 1 hour presentation that will get you to look at your business like you haven’t ever before. You will realize just how valuable a customer or a phone call is. You will not look at your business the same way. The attention you will learn to give your business is what it needs. We all need this. We all need to re think where we are today. Look around you, there is a shift. Traditional retail florists are failing. New shops are on the rise and the attitude is different. More Europeans are purchasing flower shops and opening them. They are not from the traditional mind set we have all been raised with. They are not waiting for business to come to them.

Don’t get caught in the box! 3 points to remember:

#1:  When you answer the phone, what is your roll? Who are you? A salesman? Wrong. You are an educated order taker. You are a form of a concierge. You are there (in most cases) to convey a message, and the floral design will compliment or enhance the meaning of that message.

#2:  Your driver can be your best marketer, I will show you how.

#3:  Wire services. Who needs them? You won’t want to miss this!

I am bringing footballs, we’re going to have a few good laughs, and I promise you will be re energized about your business within 1 hour. I, like you, have been a retail florist for almost 30 years. Starting a family shop with just my Mother and Father, I found my way out of the box once I realized I was IN THE BOX. I look forward to seeing you Feb 22nd at Cleveland Plant and Flower. Please join me, I promise to EXCEED YOUR EXPECTATIONS, and best of all, it’s FREE!

Changing Existing Orders

What seems like a simple request to your customer can be a disaster for you, the retailer.

Think about this…

Most shops are not set up with systems to change orders (notes are written on scrap paper, newspapers, lunch bags, and who knows what else). If you miss this or lose it, you may find yourself having to crawl out from under a rock. Being timely requires great organization. There is no room for error at Valentine’s Day, so a little forward thinking could make the biggest difference.

How to eliminate customers from calling back to change messages:

Inform all your employees to explain at the end of the order, “I believe I have everything necessary to complete your order and I would like to review the details with you since we cannot make changes once we process your request.”

Then, simply review the recipient information, product, and card message. For example, “We have your bouquet of red roses and lilies for $125.00 and a box of chocolates at $39.95 being delivered on Tuesday, February 14^th to Jane Doe at 1234 New St. in Sarasota, FL. The recipient’s phone number is 123-4567. The enclosure card will read, Dear text text text.”

Now, ask if the customer has any questions, thank them again, and process the order.

Your drivers will appreciate it as you will reduce the chances of typos and wrong delivery addresses while instilling confidence that you have accurate information.

You could even let them know there is a $5 or $10.00 fee for changing orders (I don’t care for that but some shops do).

Make the most of your Valentine’s Day, communicate with your staff and increase efficiency!

Chevy Introduces Interactive App for the Super Bowl

The internet became available to the public back in 1994-1995. By 1998 people were being driven by Super Bowl ads to their computers for special offers and to interact with the game. You would be prompted to do things including seeing the ads and winning contests. They key was they were driving viewers to the internet.

This year, Chevy will be the very first to begin the app movement. You MUST download their app (not mobile version of a website) to play. Considering this past September, 2 out of 3 smartphone users made a purchase using their smartphones! This stat along with Chevy during the Super Bowl will clearly introduce everyone to the app world.

Apps are fun, easy to use and best of all FAST. It’s new and florists who have an APP or using FLORALAPP are considerably ahead of their competition. Why play catch-up, haven’t we done this enough?

There is no need to “sell” anyone on the value of having an app, I just hope to educate florists to the value of capturing customers before your competition does.

This Super Bowl should be a great one. Check out Doris on our website now at  www.beneva.com

2012 AMS Conference

Jan 22^nd – 24^th and even through today, what a week! There was a wide variety of topics discussed and some great ideas brought to the table by our Members. Being an AMS Member is special and by invitation only. Advanced Marketing Solutions (AMS) sums it up. This is a forward moving and forward thinking group of retail florists that have been invited to use and share technology developed by Sarasota based web solutions developers, GravityFree. Started back in 2001 when Beneva Flowers was the first retail florist website developed together by Art Conforti and Scott Heaps of GravityFree, it has grown to over 50 users today using industry leading technology called FlowerManager.

The week started off with a sunset welcome cruise, followed by a gathering at Café Epicure to watch the Giants advance to the Super Bowl. Monday we had an overview of the week ahead and discussed the industry, and Tuesday we were joined by the GravityFree team to discuss all the new enhancements to the web technology as users shared individual uses of their websites. All users have exclusivity in their local area. The form is very open and, since there are no competing markets, the discussions were wide open.

The GravityFree team shared information about maximizing email campaigns, SEO tips, and so much more, while they also reviewed all the new features being added to the website and future enhancements.

Art also shared reports from his phone system that validated his marketing efforts with the use of telephone reporting on every sale (as Art sees it, every retailer that does any marketing needs this phone system). The system is developed by another local company called IPitomy, owned by Nick Branica. This too is an exclusive offering from Conforti for retailers. Tracking the phone numbers takes all the guesswork out of sales and marketing efforts. As Art says, “How can you spend money on marketing and not track your results?” While many do it the old fashioned way with coupons, most companies use tracking URL’s. The technology used on these GravityFree websites allow you to use tracking phone numbers along with URL’s to register every phone call and order placed.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Art. Having local relationships with GravityFree for web technology, IPitomy for telephony solutions, and another local company who developed floralapp® for the floral industry, Sarasota may become “Silicon Sarasota” before too long for the floral industry. Voted #1 beaches in the world, it looks like technology development has also found a home in Sarasota.

Valentine’s Day Thoughts…

2 things to keep in mind:

• exceptional service/product
• prompt delivery

More shops need to figure out logistics before the holiday hits.  Do you know how many orders you can deliver per hour?  Can you make timed delivery requests?  Asking these questions is a good place to start.  Too many shops take more orders than they can fill in the time frame allowed.  Let’s face it, Valentine’s Day is over, for most, at 4:00 p.m.  People want the recognition more than the flowers.

Offering an exceptional service and product is #1, and delivering timely is just as important. Most of the time, Valentine’s Day “competition” is taking place amongst customers in offices, while florists are competing with other florists.  All of our red roses are 70 and 80 cm, and other colors are 60 cm.  We want people to experience the Beneva difference. We are confident that our product stands above the rest.

Valentine’s Day can be a dangerous holiday.  Look for Paul Goodman’s story in the upcoming Flowers& Magazine about a lesson we learned 10 years ago.  It woke us up.

Remember, there are two types of experiences people never forget:     1- exceptional and 2- horrible.  Use your experience and knowledge to be a smart operator.  Be sure everyone has an exceptional experience when they order from YOU, the local flower shop!

What a Success!

It was a great night at Nordlie’s in Warren, MI speaking with local flower shop owners about the state of our industry and where it is going for those stepping up.

Last night, customers of Nordlie were fortunate enough to get an invitation to get together and not only hear the presentation I had to offer, but to share ideas and solutions for improving the experience at their shops. I always say, “If knowledge is power, reports are priceless.” I shared a simple illustration that was good and yet bad. What was good was there were 4.2 MILLION unique visitors shopping for flowers in the last year. The bad news was they were all on FTD.com, 1-800-Flowers, Teleflora.com and Pro Flowers. Why? This was the question that we answered, as well as HOW to bring customers BACK to shopping LOCAL. Yes we can all do it and I feel confident, from the discussions that went on after my presentation, these shops have revamped and are ready to evolve into the future.

We gave away a FREE floralapp® to Dave and Jay at Charvat the Florist. Dave shared some comments on why he was so excited to win as he was buying one anyway. His comments about where shopping is headed were very accurate. It is clear the shops that attended last night will be moving ahead of their competition with the technology enhancements they have acquired. Thanks to Nordlie, there will be over a dozen more floralapp® users in this market, and more to come.

floralapp® is the only shared app in the industry. We have made it affordable for EVERY florist to have this technology. FTD and MAS have also made it affordable to use with a $0.00 per order fee to use their technology to receive the orders. As Dave said, “Why wait till everyone else has it and play catch-up?” As they say, the early bird gets the worm. Tim from Norton’s also added some very useful comments and tips on how he is maximizing his floralapp® which he purchased through Florists for Change.

This industry has become very fragmented. Florists working with us at Beneva Solutions have one main goal in common, improving their local business. It was great to meet so many shops last night who I had only known by name. Those who were able to attend improved their business and hopefully have a new strategy for marketing that will clearly show them that the light at the end of this tunnel is not an oncoming train.

A big thanks to Bill Schodowski for visiting and  Frank Mancuso for showing me around Detroit as well as visiting his shop and his staff. Another true, YES WE CAN florist with the right can do attitude.

Come Join Art Today at Nordlie’s in Warren, MI

Nothing beats working in an industry with people being on the same page. We need to increase exposure, decrease expenses and improve profitability, but the very first step is connecting with our customers! Tonight we will be discussing just how EASY this is to do. We all need to “GET OUT OF THE BOX” with our thinking process.

We are no longer able to count on doing business as we once did for profit. Where at one time wire orders originated from all parts of the country, many today are originating in your own town. Just watch the card messages at Valentine’s Day… Do you really think orders incoming from 1-800-Flowers, WESTBURY, NY are all just happening to send to your town? Then you see the card message to read, “Happy Valentine’s Day see you tonight.” Think about it. In many cases, customers IN YOUR TOWN are calling 800 numbers and/or other companies to order Valentine’s Day for these reasons:

1) Easy to find

2) Easy to order

3) Lower price

4) Technology

So what do we do? Here are some suggestions:

1) Easy to find: Are you in your local newspaper or radio stations the week before Valentine’s Day? They are!

2) Easy to order: Is it easy to order at your shop? Pull out all the stops. Make it easy. If you don’t support and direct your sales team to take orders making it easy, they won’t!

3) Lower price: You don’t have to be the cheapest. Educate. Here is what we say when someone asks why we can’t sell roses for $29.99, ” Mr. Customer Name, we would never take short stem roses, put them in a box and ship it to your Valentine. Imagine what it really will look like after your Valentine attempts to put them all together. With us, you can expect a quality delivery that truly shows your sentiments, hand delivered and guaranteed. Best of all, no assembly required! By the time you pay the additional fees and shipping, how much will you really save?”

This is not a big deal, is very simple, and IT WORKS. If you want to capture this sale, you must educate and you only have a few seconds to do it. Use this script, modify it, but most important, think about it now and do it! You will see more sales and it does not cost you anything to do it.

4) Technology: Today I still see shops with websites that require people to call to order. This is not a good model. You need to be accessible. From a toll free phone number to an enterprise website and an app, this is how people choose to order, are you ready?

Here is an interesting stat, in September 2011, 2 out of 3 people placed ORDERS using SMARTPHONES! It can’t be any clearer, people expect you to be technologically prepared for their business.

Also, after hours. FTD and Teleflora offer these services to every member. There is no excuse for not being available 24/7 in today’s market. Answering machines are like FAX machines and gift certificates. It makes us look like we are behind.

These are points to think about and some of the topics of discussion tonight. Best of all, there ARE solutions and opportunities.

Come join in the discussion and let’s “GET OUT OF THE BOX”!

6:30pm at Nordlie

25300 Guenther, Warren, MI 48091

After spending last week with Brad at Allen’s Flowers, it is great to see shops prospering in an economy like this. Brad upgraded his website and put into action marketing strategies that will surely keep him ahead of any competition with a focus on customer retention and LTV (Lifetime Value). Check out our LTV calculator here.

Welcome to Flower Manager, Allen’s Flowers!

We just finished setting up the newest member to our web user group FLOWER MANAGER, Brad Levy of Allen’s Flowers. This company has operated 3 locations in this area. From downtown Market Street to La Mesa and El Cajon, Allen’s Flowers provides service from San Diego up to Oceanside.

Brad and his father Max are at the shops daily, and mom Marilyn handles weddings and special events. Allen’s is clearly a quality driven florist and pays great attention to every detail. They are a true YES WE CAN florist. Max started the business in 1982 selling flowers out of his trunk, and WOW, what an accomplishment today as Brad (over the last 15 years) has been moving the company more towards technology and is now prepared to increase his exposure to all of San Diego, La Jolla, and up through Oceanside.

Brad will be maximizing rewarding his customers with our Rewards Points, targeting recipients of his deliveries with Lucky Stems, and plans on loading floralapp® on every walk in customer (and boy do they have a strong walk in business with the locations)! Max and Brad strategically set up these shops to cover this wide area.

We are proud to have Allen’s and the Levy family sharing technology. Mary got floralapp® set up last night as Brad pulled it up for the first time on his iPad2 pictured here.

We met with local newspapers and discussed many online strategies. Allen’s is set up with all the tools and tracking they need to ensure you won’t miss them the next time you visit the areas where he has a retail shop. Allen’s is a quality flower shop with the finest flowers brought in fresh from the markets every day. The designs he is preparing to showcase on his website are like no other in the industry as the event work they create is as creative as any you will find.
Open 365 days a year, Allen’s is, in my opinion, the best choice when anyone should need to send flowers to San Diego, La Jolla, La Mesa, or anywhere up through Oceanside.

There is no wonder why this company continues to increase sales. As Brad stated, “Customers continue to expect more when placing an order and we are now prepared to maximize the experience and never let them forget Allen’s when sending flowers across town or the entire USA.”

Join Arthur Conforti at Nordlie’s in Warren, MI