Pat Dahlson of Mayesh Wholesale Florist, Jena Gizerskiy of Rosaprima, and Susie Bachman West, Bachman’s Floral, Gift & Garden, will discuss how to build brand loyalty at SAF Phoenix 2023.
Marketing to new customers is hard — and expensive. And studies show that new customers don’t typically spend as much as existing customers who are familiar and comfortable with the business.
So how does a business build a following of loyal customers? For many business owners, it starts with the business’s brand, which is a reflection of its culture, values, service and more.
“You have to have a strong brand in order to expect people to be loyal,” says Susie Bachman West, AAF, of Bachman’s Floral, Gift & Garden in Minneapolis. “We look to our core values and our core focus to help carry out the brand and earn loyal customers.”
West and other floral professionals will share how they built a strong brand—and in return a loyal customer base — at SAF Phoenix 2023, the Society of American Florists’ 138th annual convention Sept. 6-9. During the session, “Building Brand Loyalty,” West, Pat Dahlson, of Mayesh Wholesale Florist, and Jena Gizerskiy of Rosaprima will discuss how to build a strong brand, leverage technology to build mutually beneficial relationships with customers, and how to turn your employees into “brand evangelists.”
Build a Brand
“Your brand is your promise” to customers, says Dahlson. It’s important to identify your business’s core values, whether they are excellent customer service, knowledge of the product, or consistency. A good place to start is with your team, Dahlson says. What qualities do they bring to the company, and how can you promote those in how the business operates and markets itself?
West suggests also asking customers why they keep coming back to you, and building a brand — or relaunching a brand — based on those responses.
“You’ve got to get the culture in place first and you’ve got to get people to live it every single day,” she says. “Otherwise the brand won’t withstand the tests of time.”
Leverage Technology
Customers, whether they be B2B or B2C, are all looking for ease when it comes to transactions. For businesses like Mayesh, being able to order via a mobile app has earned them loyalty.
“We’ve developed a lot of ecommerce to make our clients’ lives easier in how they buy flowers — we meet them where they are,” Dahlson says. It also helps their sales reps because they don’t have to be on the phone all the time, he says.
Gizerskiy also pointed to internal tech tools that have helped their company build profiles for each customer, which helps remind them to send automated emails to wish a customer a happy birthday, or remind them to ask about a customer’s child.
“It’s an amazing thing to be able to remember special moments in our clients lives,” she says.
Education has also been a big part of what Mayesh, Bachman’s and Roseprima provide for their customers, and for that, they turned to blogs and video. Bachman’s has a YouTube channel with a library of videos.
“Anytime we can put the information into a video — that’s the content that seems to be consumed most readily right now,” West says.
For more about building a brand and a loyal customer base, including how to develop a rewards program, register for SAF Phoenix 2023.
Amanda Jedlinsky is the managing editor of SAF NOW.
