Fixing Flowers that Flopped

Earlier today flowers arrived that my youngest had sent me for my birthday – they were a day late and more than a dollar short.

Okay, okay. I sound ungrateful. The flowers were nice (read ‘nice’ with that elongated sing song tone men hate so much that really means “good effort dear but no cigar”). Of course I called my daughter immediately and thanked her profusely – after all I was truly touched by the gesture and that she had spent so much on her strict student budget. That part really did move me. Still does.

Then she asked about the flowers themselves. I sort of hedged (okay, except for things related to Christmas gifts and the like, I have a hard time lying to my kids) and she just knew. That finely-honed intuition of hers kicked in on cue and she said, “They’re not the pink, purple, cream and white flowers I ordered, are they?”

I described the bouquet that had arrived: Fall-coloured daisies punctuated with bright purple asters. Ughh. Kat was already groaning knowing that I hate rust-coloured flowers, but when she heard the description her displeasure increased.

Why? I had described a much cheaper bouquet she had seen on the website. It appeared as though the florist has simply added a couple of clashing asters as a token response to her actual online request for spring blooms.

I’ve heard of florists sometimes sending “less-than-fresh” flowers, or less expensive bouquets when they are pretty sure the sender will never see the actual bouquet, but have only experienced such a thing once before.

Knowing that my daughter puts a lot of thought into birthdays and other occasions, I couldn’t let it rest. I called the florist to complain. I remained friendly and started with a gentle, “What I’m going to say is going to sound ungrateful, but...” and went on to explain what my daughter had intended and that the sum involved constituted a major expense for a university student.

While I was on the phone, I learned that my daughter was on their other line. Kat knew who to call because our family has purchased bouquets from this florist on numerous occasions over the years.

Long story short: The florist was upset/ embarrassed by what had happened and will be sending me a new bouquet in the morning. She has also offered to use a few extra flowers in the new bouquet to make up for our collective disappointment.

The genuine concern the florist expressed, the pleasant/professional way in which she responded to our calls and her correct (from both professional and personal perspectives) response to the situation means that we will continue to be loyal customers.

Had the response been different in any way, the retailer would have lost us as customers. Given that my mom, sister, sisters-in-law and colleagues also use this floral boutique, and that we collectively orders many, many bouquets each year, they would have lost a sizeable piece of business.

The reasons I consider the florist’s response to have been correct go beyond the potential business loss from our family:

• The Life Time Value of loyal clients (+$1500 for diapers, +$12,000 for fast-food, etc.),

• The cost to acquire new clients vs. the cost to retain existing ones (5x – 25x depending on the industry),

• The number of people that unhappy customers tell about their experience (the accepted average used to be 16, but recent studies that has increased slightly... even without taking into account public posts on sites such as facebook),

• The potential for online “retribution” when disgruntled customers air their grievances in social media forums (remember what happened to the Motrin advertisements thanks to a mom with 5,000 twitter followers)

• etc.

There are bound to be “Life Happens” moment in every business, but how you handle them can determine whether or not these moment hurt you in the long run. Hopefully we will all be able to fix our flops the way this florist did!