Not long ago, Anthony Baradhi of Flower Station in Somerset, New Jersey, decided to put himself in his customers’ shoes. For the role-playing exercise, he timed how long it took to pull up to his business, find a parking spot, walk into the showroom, be greeted and find flowers in the cooler: three-and-a-half minutes. He shared the news with his team.
“That’s pretty fast,” one employee said. Baradhi disagreed — and then engaged the staff in a discussion about why even a few extra seconds matter.
“That’s a long time for our customers — nobody feels like they have any free time anymore,” he argued. “Think how quickly they can navigate on their phones or on a website in that time, or how convenient a supermarket or club store is by comparison.”
In an age of sky-high consumer expectations, when customers are comparing your shop to Amazon and every five-star restaurant or hotel they’ve ever patronized, you may be having similar conversations with your staff — conversations that boil down to a common theme: What do we do well? What can we do better to surprise and delight customers?
This month in Floral Management, five very different retailers weigh in on the big and small changes they’re making to attract new customers and keep current clients coming back for more. Read the full story online — and check out our improved mobile version, which allows for a more streamlined reading experience.
