EXPECTATIONS Today’s customers are paying more than ever — and demanding more than ever. Florists are fi nding new strategies to add value and deliver elevated customer service. BY VICTORIA ABBOTT RICCARDI SHUTTERSTOCK/FLAFFY & RAWPIXEL.COM uring the first two years of the pandemic, customers at Allan’s Flowers in Prescott, Arizona, were pretty relaxed about their purchases. They’d tell owner Rakini Chinery, “Here’s $75, and I want hot pink roses in the arrangement,” or “I want purple and yellow.” And that was it. But as inflation increased in 2022, so did her customers’ questions, demands and expectations. “They want to know exactly what they’re going to get for their dollar,” says Chinery, who with her staff, is spending more time managing customers’ needs. “Now, they’re dictating exactly what they want, like, ‘I want irises and lilies and carna-tions,’ and, in some cases, we have to tell them that for $50, we can’t accommodate that request.” Sarah LoBue, AIFD, co-owner of Main Street Florist in Carlinville, Illinois, is having regular conversations with her customers about prices. “When a customer comes in, we might have to explain, ‘Last year when you got your wife this arrangement for X dollars, if we use the same price point, the arrangement might look less full and so, would you like to add more?’ With each customer, we are explaining what they’ll get for their money. We try to find out what size arrangement they want, if they want premium flowers, or maybe it’s more about the size and not the types of flowers, so we’re customizing our conversations to each customer.” D The magazine of the Society of American Florists (SAF) 25
Floral Management Magazine March/April 2023: Page 25
