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Many businesses, like banks, are now changing their hours to better suit their clientele. Is it time to re-evaluate your shop’s schedule?
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Your shop hours dictate when your product is available to customers. If someone wants to buy flowers from you and your shop sign says “closed” then you can count on the fact that they’ll go elsewhere and probably won’t think twice about your shop the next time they need a bouquet. In a time when everyone’s on a tight schedule and there are never enough hours in a day, are you making it easy and convenient for your customers to shop with you?
As is the nature of the floral business, the location of your shop and your clientele will dictate when you’re open for business. To determine the right availability, you need to consider a few different areas. Ask yourself, what time of day do you receive most of your orders? When do you see the most walk-in traffic? Are you in a location where there are a lot of eclectic shops? Are you surrounded mainly by commercial buildings or is your shop set up in a residential area? What percentage of your business is phone or wire orders? These are all considerations that will help you pinpoint your peak hours.
If you are in a commercial area that’s dominated by industrial factories, these workers are often at work for 7 a.m. so you should be there before they have to go to work on busy floral holidays. They are also often off work by 5 p.m., so being open well into the evening would probably not serve you well. Same goes with a residential area – make your shop available to customers before the typical 9 a.m. start to the workday and remain open until after the workday finishes to encourage sales on their drive home.
If your shop is located in an artistic area with other shops, people are more apt to walk around and browse these types of neighbourhoods with a coffee in hand. You should have a beautiful, welcoming storefront with a diversified collection to tap into that market. This type of area caters to the relaxed times of the day, like evenings and weekends, and generally the shops open later in the day. I found this when I was travelling in Vancouver. I was surprised at first to miss visiting some of these shops on my tight schedule, not being aware that they didn’t open until 10 a.m. Obviously, these florists knew their market and realized there was no point in being open earlier.
On the other hand, retailers in some areas of Saskatchewan still benefit from being closed on Sunday, as does the small community I live in here in Alberta. Saturday afternoons are often quiet as well. This would also be the case in a commercial area. Is there any point in staying open when there is no business? Smaller communities have an advantage in that people usually know how to contact you in a bind. I had a shop in a small community years ago and the funeral chapel had my home number, as did most people in the community. If on Christmas Day, someone had a baby and needed flowers, or Easter Sunday there was a funeral viewing, the good news (at least from a business standpoint) was that I was just a phone call away.
Not only can the geographic location influence your shop hours, but so can your retail setting. Many malls have strict rules about when you must be open. In today’s market, some will negotiate with you if the option is for you to close your business completely or to close during unproductive hours. Some malls will make exceptions rather than lose the tenant.
The fact is that in today’s busy society, more businesses are rethinking when they hang up their closed sign. Even banker’s hours no longer follow the traditional Monday through Friday model. Due to market demand, approximately two years ago, CIBC led the way in the banking sector, opting to open some branch locations on Sundays. Most recently, in February, TD Canada Trust announced that it will open 25 per cent of its branches on Sunday to cater to customer preferences. Our society is growing accustomed to buying products and seeking out services over the weekend and may become irritated when something isn’t available when they need it.
As an industry, we need to be sure we’re making it easy for floral buyers to find us when they need us. We also need to be going to our customers instead of waiting for our customers to come to us. It is imperative to our survival as an industry.
I recall an Administrative Professionals Week when I worked out a promotion with my local radio station. The first customer to call in to my shop at 7 a.m. received free flowers for their receptionist/secretary. Now that meant I had to be at the shop (this was before the days of call forwarding), but I made a pile of money that year because, obviously, more than one person called. So, if they didn’t win, they ordered flowers anyway! Shift your shop hours as the season dictates. The Christmas season is another time when being open later can serve you well as people are out and about shopping anyway.
My premise is this: stick with hours that work well for you. Know when you make the most money with walk-in and phone orders. Today, even phone orders are so easily adaptable to call forwarding or messages that you can almost do some of that from home. Talk to neighbouring business about their store hours and find out what works for them.
If you do change your hours for any reason, be sure to make it very clear. Post large signs that announce to customers you’re now open evenings or on Sundays. Send out flyers to those in your community, e-mail your customers – communication is necessary for success.
In the end, it doesn’t matter how great your selection is, how wonderful your designs are and how much friendly service you give if you’re not available when your customer needs you. Find a formula that works for you and your clients will know you’re open for business.
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