This year’s Flowers Canada Convention was held in Ottawa on the weekend of Oct. 17-19. The weekend kicked off with an excursion to the Netherlands Embassy for a royal reception with the newly appointed Ambassador, Wim Geerts. Convention attendees were treated to dinner and cocktails as they networked and toured the home.
On Saturday, Tim Huckabee of Floral Strategies hosted a workshop with florists to talk about how they can improve customer service to increase sales. Huckabee has conducted his on-site training program with florists across North America and the world and shared his tips and advice with attendees. During the workshop, Huckabee stressed the importance of sounding professional when interacting with customers and listening to the verbal cues they give you when taking an order. Instead of bombarding clients with questions as soon as the customer calls, he taught florists three steps for phone orders: identify yourself properly; ask if the customer would like a gift or suggestion; and then take the card message before you sell the product. This is a speedy and efficient way for the florist to get a better idea of what the customer wants, how much they want to spend and what occasion the flowers are for.
On the final day of the conference, the Flowers Canada Retail annual general meeting took place. Afterwards, attendees filled a conference room to watch Neville MacKay wow the crowd as he headlined the design show. He created for the audience a number of fall and holiday designs for the audience and demonstrated how adding accessories can increase the perceived value of the design and up the wow factor for your customer.
Visit our photo gallery for pictures of the event.
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