|
|
 |
Going the Extra Mile
Your great stories |
|
Written by Rebecca Schwarz
|
|
|
It’s common for small businesses to say they offer great customer service, but what does that really mean? We asked florists to share their exceptional stories.
|
|
The best way to keep customers coming back is to deliver them with great service. This can mean more than just quality products and a friendly experience – sometimes you have to go the extra mile to meet unusual requests. We spoke to florists across Canada and asked them to share their stories of times when they’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty.
As it turns out, there are some quirky customers out there, but there are also a number of patient and imaginative florists, ready to tackle any unusual request.
Svetlana Sapargaliyeva, owner of Queen’s Park Florist in New Westminster, B.C., recalls a time when she helped save the day for a forgetful husband. “Years ago, I had a gentleman call for a delivery. The shop had been closed for an hour and I was tidying things up. I answered the phone, to a man whispering, ‘Can you send flowers now, I forgot our anniversary and my wife is in the other room?’ I could barely hear him. So I took the order and then decided to have some fun with him. Because I knew he could not say too much for fear of being caught. I proceeded to tell him how I now owned him,” says Sapargaliyeva with a laugh. “Since he couldn’t respond, he had to suck it up. I said I was doubling all charges and he had to take it or I’d call back and tell his wife. Of course, all was in jest, I delivered the flowers and he became a very loyal customer.”
The florist also remembers two instances when the delivery instructions differed from the norm. “One customer wanted one red rose delivered on Valentine’s Day, but asked us to hide it in a flower bed outside the building, because he didn’t have instructions to access the building. Another customer sent his significant other on a scavenger hunt, armed with a map of clues leading right to an arrangement of flowers in our cooler.”
Carol Duffley, owner of Crabapple Cottage Florals & Gifts in Timberlea, N.S., forwarded us a photo of her late husband dressed as a bee, and recounted to us her experience with what she terms “extra mile service.”
“The picture is of my husband dressed as a bee,” she begins. As in “be my valentine.”
“It took me three years to convince him to do it,” she says, “because he’s a man’s man and tights were involved. I told him to have fun with it, as a licence to act as goofy as he likes and no one will care. At first he was quite nervous, but out the door he went with his deliveries. The first clients I sent him to were successful businessmen.”
Calls came in immediately from the men in suits, praising the idea and ordering arrangements. Husband Frank enjoyed many hugs from the ladies and queries regarding the location of his stinger.
“He had an awesome time that weekend. And finally, on Sunday evening, Valentine’s evening, I had to tell him he could sleep in his costume tonight but then he had to put it away for the year.”
As a result of the stunt, requests came in for “The Bee.” In fact, “The Bee” developed something of a following. “My husband passed away exactly one month later. So not only did we get great advertising, I have a wonderful memory of him truly enjoying himself and making others laugh,” says Duffley.
Gail French, owner of Contemporary Florist in St. John’s, N.L., provides a simple service to some of her clients to keep them coming back. “I always give a child a flower, to start them young. Always brings their moms back.”
It’s common for florists to spend holidays in the shop, but Tracey Hopecroft-Steed, owner of Always In Bloom in Peterborough, Ont., proved her dedication to her shop one Christmas. The florist has calls forwarded from her store directly to her cellphone and received an order request one Christmas Eve, in the middle of a family dinner. The next day – Christmas Day – Hopecroft-Steed opened up her shop, filled the order and delivered it to a new mother at a nearby hospital.
“I was a little bit miffed,” she says, “that the client wasn’t appreciative, but a few weeks later I got a thank-you note in the mail.”
Other bizarre requests include a high school student asking for candy to be incorporated into a boutonnière. This recent request is still puzzling her: “I have no idea how I can do it,” she admits. “Maybe tie a piece of liquorice into loops?”
Connie Dean of Keirstead’s Flowers and Gifts in Saint John, N.B., deserves the last word, with some unusual and even heart-warming stories of going that extra mile.
“We once delivered flowers to an elderly woman in the middle of a snowstorm, and the lady asked us to shovel her steps for her, as she was snowbound.” Dean, then the driver and now a designer, did so, shovelling both the steps and the walkway.
The shop’s current driver delivers to another elderly woman who asks him to put away her groceries for her. “He takes them into the kitchen and puts them away for her,” says Dean.
A recent funeral arrangement for a construction worker came with a special request: to incorporate the tools of his trade into the finished product. Dean was able to work in a hammer, work belt, pencil and tape measure. But that doesn’t top the wedding bouquet she was asked to create for a Thanksgiving Day ceremony. “The bride wanted it to be made of vegetables.” And it was.
Dean also keeps doggies treats and water for canine friends. “We have certain treats for certain dogs,” she says. “And of course, we know the names of our customers’ pets.”
The above stories are all evidence that florists not only have a passion for their product, but also for their customers. Chances are, these incidents are ones that their clients have never forgotten and remain a reason they continue to visit their local florist.
|
|
|
