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As part of Customer Service Week, (October 7th-11th) we wanted to share with you one of our members who is working hard to boost customer service and sales in their flower shop.
A Local Florist Taking Action
Bridgette Mills Arnold, a 30 year veteran of the floral industry, is the owner of Posey Peddler in Joneboro, Arkansas. The shop has been a fixture in the Jonesboro area since 1998 and serves the local community with custom gifts, flowers, plants and home decor.
Recently Bridgette brought in customer service and sales guru Tim Huckabee of Floral Strategies to conduct a workshop with her employees.
Why Floral Strategies?
Floral Strategies is the only on-site training program in the entire floral industry that teaches critically important customer care skills. This specific training empowers flower shop workers to give extraordinary customer service. As you can guess, this makes for happy clients that keep coming back.
Celebrate The Learning Experience!
FSN visited this bustling flower shop during their training seminar. Check out this video of Posey Peddler’s day with Tim Huckabee.
FSN Members: CLICK HERE to login & learn more ways to improve customer service and sales with specific tips from Tim Huckabee.
Video Transcript
Bridgette Mills Arnold
“I am the owner of the Posey Peddler Flowers and Emporium. And we are in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Today we are doing a training seminar with Tim Huckabee with Floral Strategies. And we are all upgrading our ability to sell!”
Tim Huckabee, AIFSE – Found of Floral Strategies
“ The primary focus of my training is customer service and sales because that’s an easy fix. That’s something that we can address today and you see immediate results. I would say the biggest hurdle that the typical flower shop has to contend with is their own staff. They’re missing opportunities to make bigger and better sales. It’s easily addressed, that’s easily changed just by giving customers the chance to spend more, they will spend more.”
“My focus really is on helping you to be able to listen better to a customer, identify his or her needs, and give them the chance to spend the appropriate amount of money.”
Bridgette Mills Arnold
“What he is trying to do in my opinion, is to bring professionalism to the floral industry so that we meet the needs of the customers – listening to them instead of listening to our own selves, and selling out of our own pocketbooks.”
Tim Huckabee
“Part of what I tackle when I’m in a store, is I look around. So I’m going to take a look at what’s in your cooler, in terms of prices, in terms of design style. I’m going to take a look in your store. Do I see a lot of clutter? Do I see things that I know maybe aren’t placed well to make for an easy shopping experience for a customer? I’ll take a look at your website before I comes to the store.”
Becki Gibson – Posey Peddler Designer
“Well, he’s got some valid points here that I have never used. And I have been in marketing… I graduated with a marketing degree. I look at this and I think “Gosh, why didn’t they teaching this in school? WOW. This is sales! Like selling a car! And I have been kind of intimidated by it. Training is key to keep you from being scared of your product. This is simple and I’m like, Oh! Now I get it. ”
Tim Huckabee
“Florists are some of the hardest working people that I know. Typically whenever there is some kind of meeting it is always design-focused. Oh, what are the new designs? The latest trends? And that’s great, and we need to keep current however, if you can’t communicate that on the phone, if you’re not going to merchandise it in your store, if you’re not going to present it on your website, if you’re not going to effectively communicate it to a customers, they are only going to buy the same old, same old.”
“And what I hear from so many flower shop owners is “Well, I’m an artist. And I’m in business to make people happy.” You can be an artist and be extremely wealthy. You can be in business to make people happy and do it profitably. So they don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You can still be an effective profitable business person and maintain your artistic level.
Bridgette Mills Arnold
[They] are going to walk away from today with confidence that conveying more information to them is alright. And that asking for the sale is expected. They are going to come away with an ability to know how to do it!”
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