a positive design thread, I think!!!!

[lori042499]

OK in my quest for knowledge on how customers think and how they buy I ask myself many question and I ask myself these questions because for the last 25 years I have always designed for myself first and the customer second...that is until I became the owner of a shop 3 1/2 years ago...The customer ultimately pays may bills and I want to get as many of them excited about me as possible so I have to think more like them to accomplish this...

A little over a year ago, one of my competitors closed up shop...She bought a shop that did very well for over 20 years and the new girl managed to hold on to a couple of church accounts and city gigs...She gave me the leads and I went after them....One of the churches that I got has me do at least 1 40.00 memorial every week if not 2 from sept thru June...prety sweet deal...They did have a chance over the last 4 years to try out some of the shops in the area, as they have not been completely happy with the flowers they were getting, I was even told in the beginning that they use the silk arrangements for many weeks because of the lack of participation on donations for flowers, they had asked me to redo them so they looked nice...

Every month, the man who organizes the flowers donations and orders, lets me now how pretty the flowers are and that he gets many compliments on them...Come may of this year for Mother's Day and prom, I saw an influx of customers from this parish(because I ask everyone what made them come in to check us out, something I suggest everyone do, if you don't already) I was hearing how happy everyone was with the flowers...This is great I thought...with some of the more chatty customers, I would ask more questions about what it is they like about the flowers and how they differ from flowers in the past...Overwhelmingly I have heard, "I don't really know they just look fresher and better."

Now this is my question...

Is the customer confusing a well put together arrangement, a pro designed arrangement, if you will, with fresher product??Meaning that they are looking at these flowers and seeing that it is better than x and looks nicer it must be because it is fresher because design to the average person is such an abstract term almost like virtual money...Do customers have a need for design and they just don't know it? These are issues I deal with and try to understand between my left brain and my right brain...I am so trying to understand the average person, but not being average in any way shape or form has its disadvantages for me to be able to grasp their thoughts...I am interested to know what some of you think and feel about this...

Oh by the way, the flowers I use for this church are merely, carns, poms, daisies, liatris, fugis, glads, occasional field flowers that I get inexpensively. Every week it is different, different shapes, L shape, triangle, inverted t, sometimes even a hogarth's curve...I was told that the last shop would do the same exact arrangement week after week...Also since I have taken over, participation has increased by 80% and many weeks they have two memorials instead of one because people want to do flowers more...I have a very hard time believing that this is all because I use fresher flowers, especially where it is a daisy and carn thing, this has to be a design thing, IMHO...

 

[Tuberose]

Congratulations on getting a church account, it can be really good advertising. We had a church account at another shop, we did a floral donation every week for the foyer, it did bring in quite a bit of business our way.

Maybe you have a better eye for color since we know color plays an important part in design, as well as a different design style. Maybe the last shop just clumped the flowers together, ala cookie cutter, and you have a more distinct showing. They also could have done the same style every week and you are changing it up. I think it all comes into play and can contribute to a "fresher" look.

Trish

 

[lori042499]

Congratulations on getting a church account, it can be really good advertising. We had a church account at another shop, we did a floral donation every week for the foyer, it did bring in quite a bit of business our way.

Maybe you have a better eye for color since we know color plays an important part in design, as well as a different design style. Maybe the last shop just clumped the flowers together, ala cookie cutter, and you have a more distinct showing. They also could have done the same style every week and you are changing it up. I think it all comes into play and can contribute to a "fresher" look.

Trish

So the customer basically just clumps better design and better looking into "fresher" is what you are thinking...

 

[lori042499]

Wow, have a thread that doesn't put design in a good light and watch out...want a little feedback on a good design thread and crickets.....

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

I believe as you said, that good design & mechanics can make flowers just look better - and to the customer, that may mean "fresher" as it's the only way they can describe something. Other than "pretty" that is.

Just look at slightly open roses vs buds - in the bucket for sale it's "don't you have any others that are more buds?" But in a bridal boquet, a well designed vase or sympathy arr, it's a completely different thought process for the customer. Suddenly those roses aren't "old", they're "full".

 

[Rhonda]

Wow, have a thread that doesn't put design in a good light and watch out...want a little feedback on a good design thread and crickets.....

oh frig, I was writing a reply when an order from my website came in and I switched screens - lost the FC screen (doh)....
congrats first.....second... I have a church account that spends the minimum they can. I have "license" to provide what I want for the price. Sometimes I have a few leftover premium wedding or funeral flowers that I use but I have found that by varying the design styles and keeping to color themes that they think they are getting the world with basic cooler stock. It's fun to have a church member come in and say "I saw what you did for the church last month... could I get something like that but different shape or different color theme like I saw the month before?"
So yes... even though these flowers at their basement price aren't the "freshest"....... they enjoy the difference in design/color and really don't notice that the product is mature (another agreement with the Women's Fellowship of the church).

 

[CHERYL BAKIN]

Lori:
We do something similar to what you and Rhonda are doing.

For several years we "filled in" as the florist when their regular church florist was closed and went on vacation for 2 weeks. They we were asked to furnish plants for xmas & easter. Then we were asked to bid on their church work for every Sunday.

That was about 6+ years ago. We have never looked back. Every Sunday is a different color, different style, etc. Once in a while I will get a request for a special color, and we will honor it of course. Our changes have meant that increasingly, in additon to the flowers in the front of the church, arrangements for the vestibule area in the back of the church --- as well as the parlor area where coffee & cookies are available after the 8 am service are held -- are getting included.

Just take it one church, one step at a time. It does work! And it has meant additional work from many of the members of this church!

Cheryl

 

[RWK]

Design is all about the visual. The mechanics are what make the visual look like it should. The customer will often times say something simply because they don;t know another way to say it. "They LOOK fresher" - or "That was really pretty" - or " You are an artist"

I take it to mean the yes, the flowers look better because they have been properly processed and handled properly.....and designed in such a manner as to be pleasing to the eye.

A little of both. So, yes, you could say that it all gets 'lumped' together in the eyes of the customer......

One thing I learned from Cathy's husband Phil a long time ago relates to this. He said that from the moment we answer that phone, or we go out front and greet that customer.....We are on stage. Our goal is to gain that applause from our performance. Not the applause of thousands of hands clapping, but the ringing sound of the cash register.

This church keeps coming back for repeat performance after repeat performance.......continue gaining that applause of the cash register.

....... and before it gets de-railed, This has nothing to do with how artistic, how creative, how far-out the design is........the fact remains that however it is designed, it is MAKING THE CUSTOMER HAPPY and MAKING THE CASH REGISTER HAPPY......which in turn makes the florist happy.

 

[lori042499]

So like Randy says we just have to turn customer on to our style of design. The better the design, the better the quality, the better the service, one by one we will win...It really has to do with the whole package for many customers...Those are the customer that I want, those are the rewarding customers...The random don't care customers are great for my bank account, but they do nothing for me as a designer, it is my fans that I will cherish and call special and always have....I love to hear a customer come in and say, those flowers you sent my Aunt, they were just regular flowers but you did something magical to them...

My counsellor told me that I never give myself credit for the extrodinary things that I accomplish because I have drive and that I need to start acknowledging that I go above and beyond and that it is worthy of self praise...maybe this is why I get so blaise about what we do as florists...because it has become such second nature and something I just do that it is no longer something I think is magical or extraordinary and i need to readjust my attitude on this....

 

[RWK]

In lot of ways Lori - When it comes to the techniques of design, I'm the same way.....the how and why of design has lost the 'magic' in terms of the mechanics needed to assemble and put something together. For me, the 'magic' is seeing something that I have not seen before, like the japanese floral master at symposium.

Most of the 'magic' now for me....is still in the flower.

Is there anything more magical than the beauty of a gorgeous rose, full opened, a tall stately stem of gladiola, the sheen of a perfect midori green anthurium,

I have said this many times. "When God stops making beautiful flowers, then I know it is time for me to leave and find another pursuit"

 

[Victoria]

Well done Lori.

I used to take care of churches as well. It was always a challenge to meet their needs with the money provided.

I believe, in general, customers don't actually shop with "design" in mind. If it looks pretty, has the colours they love and looks "full", they are happy. Now you and I know the design is what they're buying... our little secret.

You are giving the church people a positive experience with your expertise in providing "fresher" looking flowers (by design). May you continue to reap the rewards of that effort.

We tend to over think things. An example... yesterday I happened to over hear a couple of women talking about how "beautiful" the baskets (several waiting for delivery) were. I had, just moments ago, looked at them again with a far more critical eye. I should have placed that there and that here and so on...

You are obviously doing the right things to satisfy the customers and you are building your base. Ours is not to reason why sometimes.

V

 

[Rhonda]

Back in the days.....::::::::: groan :::::::::: of the old FTD - they did advertising for the Tickler Bouquet during the Today Show in the a.m.
It never failed we'd get orders through those days for the Tickler. I look at that design as the "first" mixed vase arrangement. With the Tickler style, we could incorporate a variety of "new" flowers. First Alstromeria, then lisianthus, liatrus, freesia, etc. (yeah, way old here). That design helped our customers learn about new varieties. It also enabled us to introduce "color theme" in a vase design and moved our customers to request the brighter colors including jewel tones. It was a learning curve for both us and the consumer. And the main reaction to the Tickler style design was "Wow, these flowers lasted so long"..........
And it wasn't because they were "fresher", it was because there was no oasis plugging stems, the flowers were in water and therefore had longevity.
Case and point, design style - fresher longer lasting design. Consumers loved it to the point that now.....90+% of our designs are "in water".........