Welcome to another Flower Shop Secret podcast and today I’ll be speaking with Daniella Marquez, and Amy Nightingale on how to maximize your summer profits by utilizing some of Lovingly’s products and services. Let’s go.

It’s summertime in the Floral Industry, which means plenty of opportunities to grow your business. Our goal throughout this mini series is to not only help you get through the season, but also gain valuable insights from professionals in the industry, floral community and our Lovingly home team.

Joe Vega 0:00
Welcome to another Flower Shop Secret podcast and today I’ll be speaking with Daniella Marquez, and Amy Nightingale on how to maximize your summer profits by utilizing some of Lovingly’s products and services. Let’s go.

It’s summertime in the Floral Industry, which means plenty of opportunities to grow your business. Our goal throughout this mini series is to not only help you get through the season, but also gain valuable insights from professionals in the industry, floral community and our Lovingly home team.

Welcome to Flower Shop Secrets: Summer Survival. Watch now on YouTube, like subscribe and ring the bell for new episodes.

So we have Daniella Marquezand Amy Nightingale in the house today.

Daniela 0:47
I’m Daniela Marquez, I’m the VP of product and growth.

Amy
I’m Amy Nightingale, I’m Product Manager here at Lovingly.

Joe Vega 0:55
So guys, let’s right let’s just jump right into it. What are some of the simple things our audience could do to thrive this summer?

Amy 1:01
There’s a lot that that shops can do that our partners can do in their account. We all know that summer can be a little bit tricky, right? You know, last summer was Gosh, like still pretty early in the pandemic. So things were kind of different still this summer. So far, everything is looking good. But summers are always a little bit, a little bit slow, no major holidays to kind of look forward to right. What Danielle and I have been brainstorming about is different different things that our partners can do to kind of make sure that their order volume stays high through the summer. And along with that, take some of the downtime that you might have to kind of get to know some of the maybe newer features in your account. Or, you know, there’s some really cool stuff that people just I mean, we know, especially for the last year, like it’s been one woman or one man shows and a lot of these shops, they’re just like, no time. So if you have a little bit of downtime, there’s like some really cool stuff that you can you can use to learn how to do them share

Joe Vega 1:59
with us. What are some of those things?

Unknown Speaker 2:01
Yeah, so so the first thing we wanted to talk about was okay, this isn’t really like news. Exactly. But coupons. Everybody loves a coupon, we’ve been looking into it a little bit. And the numbers are kind of crazy. And I know I do this. I don’t know if you guys do this, but like before you make a purchase online 60% of online shoppers go to Google and look for a coupon before they make their purchase. Do you guys do that? I do.

Daniela 2:29
Yeah. And there’s all these new aggregators that are putting together different coupons and stuff. So it’s like, it’s the training of the mind of the consumer is already in this mindset of like, I gotta go hunt.

Joe Vega 2:42
Yeah, actually, I use an extension, right? It’s go honey, a lot of people, a lot of people use extensions, small programs that are or modules that go on to your browser, and they just make your browser, like a super browser. And for example, every time on on Amazon, or anybody anywhere else, if there’s a coupon online for where I’m at the location that Matt is going to suggest a coupon and it’s, it’s almost effortless. So coupons are definitely very popular, super

Unknown Speaker 3:08
popular. And another number that I found was that close to 50% increase in revenue from email campaigns that contain coupons. So it’s just like, I mean, it’s it’s really important, right? So one of the ideas we’re thinking about, and this this actually came from, from one of our partners A while ago, and I love this idea to create create a coupon in your account. And I can actually show how to do that in a second, it’s really easy. But you can create a coupon in your account. And then we have this really handy way to print a sheet of coupons like it books, I think like six of them on there. And then you just cut them apart. And you can either I mean, you can put them on the counter or another great idea would be like an exchange, if you have another business in town that you have a good relationship with, leave a stack of coupons on their counter. And if they can do the same, like leave a stack of coupons on your counter. And the third idea that I’m a huge fan of is including it, including a coupon and every single outgoing delivery that you make, you know, so all those recipients will have an opportunity to like really have a motivation to turn into a customer.

Joe Vega 4:24
So it sounds like coupons are incredibly important to do business especially online. There’s so easily readily available to everyone. So Daniella What would you say to florists who want to use coupon but they don’t feel like their their work should be discounted that that cheapens their their product What would you say to someone like that?

Daniela 4:42
that’s a that’s a big piece and I get it because it’s your heart and soul that you’re putting into crafting something and so it feels like no I but I don’t This doesn’t deserve a discount like this is this is my thing. And I totally empathize with that because it’s true. Like that’s your your heart and soul. But unfortunately, when you put yourself in the mindset of the of the gift or the person who has the money, they’re not thinking of it that way, right? They’re thinking of like, Oh my gosh, I need to get a gift for so and so it’s their birthday, it’s or whatever. And, and they sometimes need a little help to make that decision, and, and nudge. And so what the coupon does is it gives them, like, they tell themselves, if like, I’m getting a deal, I should definitely do this, right. And so that should overcome the sort of discounting of the art because it’s like, again, like from the consumers perspective, they’re not thinking of it that way. That’s the end result, they’re gonna get a gift and the recipients gonna love it. It’s like, this is beautiful and amazing. But that’s not what’s going on in the consumers mind at that moment. It sounds

Joe Vega 5:43
to me like you don’t have to discount every single order either. You can easily control the coupon, you can have the coupon expired, for example, you know, you want to offer a coupon for today only, you know, that’s going to minimize the in your fears of discounting your work. The important thing here is to just to try it, right.

Daniela 6:00
Absolutely. And it’s funny that you meant you mentioned that another piece that’s interesting there, if you offer it today only, that has another incentive coupled with the incentive of the coupon, which is scarcity, right? And now the gift is like, Oh, crap, not only do I have to get this, but I have to do it today. So there’s those are two really powerful things at play, that can help increase the the orders. Sounds great.

Joe Vega 6:25
So totally couponers really important. Yeah, show us some stuff, I

Unknown Speaker 6:30
want to show you really quick what the sheet looks like. Because I think a lot of a lot of partners don’t know that they can print, they can print these coupons out. Once you create a coupon here, I’ll head back. So I created my coupon in my account, it’s in this little marketing tab, and you go to coupons. And then you see right here on your active coupons, you just click Print. And what you get is a sheet like this, it’ll have your website on it, it’ll have your address the coupon code, when it expires, everything’s on there.

Daniela 6:58
I like that idea. Emily, you had also like building the relationships with another small business in your community? Who’s that that does a lot like that helps you potentially reach a target audience that wouldn’t necessarily be thinking of you. But yeah, now you have that network effect. And you’re in your local community. So it’s like, Yeah, all of these things that have a really positive effect. So that that’s a really cool one.

Unknown Speaker 7:19
And you know, the favorite, our favorite idea, the best partnership possible is flowers and wine, right? So you should obviously go to your local liquor store, leave some you know, it’s perfect, perfect for date night, right? Great date night.

Joe Vega 7:35
So you you suggest, or you advise flower shops to be making, creating and building relationships with other local businesses, especially businesses that compliment the flowers like mine. Everything goes, everything goes with what

Unknown Speaker 7:50
I know, right? Even like a bakery, or like a chocolate shop, like anything that you could kind of imagine

Joe Vega 7:55
what you would have to barter that because obviously I have to you want to also help the wine shop or spirits or the bakery and put some coupons in your counter. Just Yeah. Or you may want to say hey, you know, a lot of our flower shops actually sell alcohol, if they pick it up, right. So you know, reading a gift basket with a with a wine bottle, they’ll guarantee to use their wines buy it from your shop, like there’s a lot of things that you can do. Same thing with the bakery, you know, cupcakes. Yeah, you know, we guarantee if we create a cupcake basket, that will be getting your the cocubes cupcakes from you. So there’s a lot of synergy there between all those small local businesses, and it’s important for them to support each other.

Unknown Speaker 8:40
Totally. Yeah, I think we’ve, you know, definitely something we’ve learned over the last year with the pandemic is, you know, how important the sort of local networks and local community helping each other out is. So let’s keep that going. You know, it’s it’s a good thing.

Daniela 8:55
I don’t know if bars are hosting like trivia nights again. But that would be another cool one. So like the prize for the trivia is like a beautiful arrangement, but then you get that promotion there at the same time. That’s a good idea. I like that one. trivia night.

Joe Vega 9:11
I know, you can tell what we’re what we’re missing. Cool. So this is the world of coupons. What else? You know, what else can florists do?

Unknown Speaker 9:21
So while we’re talking about communication, obviously, you know, we’re talking about kind of building the relationships between other local businesses and, and how powerful that can be. And, you know, one thing all of our partners already know but we we have some ideas to even to improve it further, is the relationships that they’re building with their with our customers, you know, recipients customers, the people that they’re helping celebrate these moments. So, you know, I, for me this this kind of started with like, what, what do you what do you guys think is the most annoying phone call that florists get, like 20 times a day. I have a guess.

Joe Vega 10:00
What is? Um,

Unknown Speaker 10:02
were my flowers delivered? Like, did you like to order? Yeah, it’s I think it’s like a non stop thing. But it’s it’s an interrupter on me. I know that our partners are great at handling these phone calls, but like you’re busy, like, do you really want to answer the phone 20 times, yes, we deliver your flower. So So we have some tips,

Daniela 10:26
just some different tools that we already have that that our partners can use in their account to streamline that process within the loving the account, we have that view for the daily workflow. And what’s really nice about it is that it’s super visual and drag and drop. So on one hand, it’s a really great organizational tool for the shop. So you can get that quick glance of like, okay, here’s my work that I have to do. Here’s like the work that’s been designed. Here’s the work that’s out for delivery. And here’s the one that’s done. So like having those different stages or, or a workflow really helps streamline the operations side of it. But it’s not just that, right? There’s something that happens each time you change that state. And the really cool thing is that you actually are sending an email to that gift or to that Senator who’s in that like, anxiety moment of like, what just happened, I just gave over my credit card details. I just made this really big purchase. Maybe they’re having buyer’s remorse. They’re in whatever emotional state, you know. And now because you as a florist are moving these things, you’re actually without even knowing it, communicating with that person and reducing that fear, increasing the trust and building that relationship. So really, really cool that that’s happening. And literally all it is is one, click and drag, boom. And that’s happening behind the scenes for you. Sure, I’ll show really quick since Yeah. Oh, here it is. Yeah, that’s

Unknown Speaker 11:54
it. Ah, so yeah, like Daniel said, it’s really it’s visual, it’s easy. And you just drag and drop? Yeah. I just, I just want to keep moving stuff around.

Joe Vega 12:05
So right now, the, the, the, that’s the recipients name. So the customer, whoever order for me right now just got an email saying, Hey, your arrangement is being designed.

Daniela 12:18
Exactly. Obviously, we don’t have a cam in your flower shop right now to show that, but this is a way that we can start to get that effect to be like, hey, so and so is designing this arrangement, and they can start to build that imagery, and there’s a stronger affinity toward that arrangement, and toward that whole experience, because they have that sense of being right there.

Unknown Speaker 12:38
When you move the order to delivered. Not only does that let you know, let’s the cut, lets the customer know that the order was delivered, which hopefully will get rid of some of those phone calls. But it also asks them to leave you a review, which is we all I mean, the importance of reviews, like can’t be as important as you know, like, it’s, it’s such an important thing to have positive. And honestly, a couple of negative reviews is okay to it actually having a few You know, there’s always a customer that like you can’t, you can’t please no matter what you do, and, and that’s okay, it helps make the rest of your positive reviews look more real. It’s really cool the delivery confirmation email, x for lovingly review that would go on your website. And the really smart thing is that if they leave you a good review, then the customer actually gets a second prompt to also leave you a Google review. So we’re doing a little bit of like the weeding out for you that if they’re unhappy, you get a chance to contact them. And before they go to Google and leave your review. But if we know that they’re satisfied, we just kind of, you know, send them on their way.

Daniela 13:50
Yeah, so it’s really help. It’s not just reviews, it’s truly reputation management. Yeah. A lot of things. But yeah,

Joe Vega 13:56
so I just want to go back to the status updates, right? How many emails if the florist actually moves every single from column to column? How many total emails will the customer actually receive? How many notifications

Unknown Speaker 14:10
they will receive? Um, so first, they get the order confirmation, right? So that’s when they placed the order. The next one would be when the orders in design. So it says like, Hey, we’re working on your order. And then the third one, there’s two different options that would either be that the orders in transit. So that would be either you just move it into in transit because you know, it’s on a truck. Or if you use our delivery routing, if you put it on a delivery route that also automatically moves in transit. So that’s another time saver that we’ll show you. So there’s InDesign in transit, if it’s a pickup order, when you put it into that third column, instead of getting an email that it’s in transit, they’ll get one that it’s ready for pickup. So that’s another really important One for pickup orders to make sure they know when to come. And then the final stages is delivered or picked up. So they get confirmation in design delivered in transit or ready and then delivered or picked up. So that’s four. And then they get one more, I believe, if they don’t leave a review, we send one more email asking just reminding them like, if they want to leave a review, that’d be great. So to try again, to really, yeah,

Joe Vega 15:28
so the system really tries to engage with the customer as much as possible. One of the things that I see one of the huge benefits that I see here is by doing so your your, your brand is connecting every single time with our customer. And you’re it’s an approach, you’re giving yourself an opportunity to be remembered in the future by by being connected as often as possible. So I think that’s a fantastic feature. And there’s a psychological aspect to all this because I mean, I’m in a period, let’s say I’m the one sending the flowers, and I’m nervous about whether he’s getting it or not. And, and I’m anxious. Right, that’s anxiety. Yeah, I just got an email saying that is being designed. So now he equated your brand with putting me at ease from an anxiety anxiety perspective to say, Oh, this flower shop has got my back. And then once that anxiety builds up again, Oh, look at that. This is not it’s on its way. Oh, man, I’m looking forward to another email from this floor is so you get associated, your brand gets associated with the feel good, you know, dopamine. So,

Unknown Speaker 16:34
yeah, totally. And and I think, you know, looping back a little bit to what we’re discussing with coupons. I think also, by including a coupon with the flowers that got delivered, the person that just got flowers is going to be like psyched, you know, they just got this beautiful arrangement. And like, maybe they’ll be like, Oh, my God, like, I want to pay it forward. Who can I send flowers to? Like, they have a coupon. Like, it’s, it’s taking advantage of these different, you know, moments in different ways.

Joe Vega 17:02
Right, and florists are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this. Because, you know, there are a lot of disadvantages, the floor is have over other businesses, for example, the product that you’re selling, it has a lifespan, if you don’t take care of it. That’s an example of a disadvantage. But a huge advantages. For every one transaction, there are two entities, right? There’s a customer and there’s also recipients. So for every, you know, most other businesses do not have that is just one for one, you have a multiplier of two, right? So it’s, it’s you should take advantage of that. And actually, you know, get recipients as well as customers to leave reviews.

Unknown Speaker 17:41
Yeah, it’s so, you know, I was thinking about this, too, I’m sure we’re, we’re all kind of used to like the Amazon delivery now where you’ve got their own delivery fleet, and you get a photo of the package at your doorstep. And you get an email that’s like your packages here. And like, it’s like talking about like dopamine, and you’re like, yes, my packages here is like, but get your package, whatever. So, and that is just funny, because like that’s on your very own porch, like, you don’t really need an email, you could just go look at the porch, you know, so when you imagine it from the perspective of the customer, like you were saying, Joe, like, they’re, they don’t know, like, they can’t go check the porch because the flowers aren’t coming to their house, you know. So it’s, it’s like all the more important to keep that communication open so that they know what’s going on somewhere else, you know, it’s like someone’s in surgery, and the nurse keeps telling them how it’s going, you know, it’s really important. So yeah, I think you’re totally right.

Daniela 18:40
So like, all these things that are happening are interesting, because it’s after the credit card transaction has taken place. Like we A lot of times, it’s easy to be like, oh, job’s done, I got the order. But like, though, there’s so much more that that’s happening there. And that that gift or that centers is not done, like they’re still going on this roller coaster of emotions, and there’s so much that we can do to help support that. So I’m excited about what we’re doing. I’m also excited about what’s what’s coming in the future to help continue that nurturing and that enhancement, so that they become a loyal customer, and they keep coming back and they tell their friends,

Joe Vega 19:21
your job isn’t done when you actually received the the order when the order prints out on your printer. Some people say of course not. They would just you know, they still have to make the arrangement and deliver the flowers, but even then delivering the flowers. Your job isn’t done until you help that customer hear back from the recipient and even after that, it’ll be great if you can help them celebrate that moment they do that and therefore it will be one full cycle.

Daniela 19:47
Obviously we have that thanks, you know packages driven by the super ticket so that when the recipient gets their beautiful arrangement, they have the car they can scan it with their phone and they can you know, write a message on the phone And that goes back to the to the center. So that they know like I did a good job. And that can get posted on social media. And that’s where the true power is of that celebration and that network effect. Perfect example is new baby, right? In the hospital room, there’s like at the window, usually beautiful arrangements, lots of celebration, people are in there. So imagine, like, a little bit of a guilt trip. But if that’s posted on social media, and all that celebration is taking place, and someone’s like, Oh, my gosh, I’m so happy I got this so and so is so thoughtful. And, you know, Mary’s flowers down the street did a phenomenal job. Somebody else is looking at that being like, Oh, crap, I haven’t gotten them flowers yet to celebrate. Mary, I’m gonna I’m gonna go there. And right away, they have an easy path to go back and add to that celebration. It’s a huge opportunity. So these Thank you messages, not only are feel good for the gifter to be like, hey, you did a good job, which is part of it. It’s the larger celebration. It’s the community, it’s the connections, and the brand awareness to sort of fuel subsequent purchases as well. And that becomes that sort of network or multiplier effect. Yeah,

Joe Vega 21:15
it just cements the fact that it’s not just about the floor arrangement. It’s about how that person feels. And there’s no better way of seeing that, then how, you know, seeing somebody’s photo with a big smile on their face saying thank you. And then they also get we also give them an opportunity to say within within their own words. Thank you. And yeah, it goes a long way. Right?

Unknown Speaker 21:38
Yeah, yeah, the things that it’s, it’s huge. And, you know, every once in a while, I’ll see some of the things photos and it always like, it’s like, so heartwarming, like, they’re so happy. It’s, it’s really great.

Joe Vega 21:50
It’s really great to see those is that something that we plan on releasing soon, providing the flower shops with access to some of these things, photos, so that they could potentially, I mean, I’m pretty sure they’re gonna want to know exactly like their work. This is what it means. Forget the monetary part of it. Look, look at these faces. Look how happy people are, instead of just hearing about it, or maybe reading a review. This is them actually seeing it. So do we have any, any plans? Future plans?

Unknown Speaker 22:24
We do have some plans. I think you’re totally right. And it’s something that like, we we kind of feel guilty about, like I was just saying, I see these photos, and it’s so heartwarming, and I’m like, Oh, wait, like, our partners can’t see these in their account yet? Like we you know, we do kind of, there’s a couple, part of the reason that it’s like, slightly complicated is that there’s privacy things involved, where, you know, we have to make sure that the the the people involved give permission to let other people see their photo. And you know, there’s like, it’s never as easy as it seems right. But we do, we do want to make them available to partners to see responses to their own work. And, you know, one of the best things to do with them and share them on social media, right? If the if the customer slash recipient said that’s okay. The shop themselves can share it.

Joe Vega 23:14
So this is what you guys are talking about someone sent Meg here some flowers, and she is celebrating this special moment online with her social media friends, you got six, six comments right here. And if if someone clicks on here, it’ll open up the Thanks. Yeah, you guys were talking about that just not Well, looks like a link right there to the right. Yeah. So it’s here, it goes to the shops brand. But somebody else can do the same. And order flowers looks fantastic.

Unknown Speaker 23:47
This is this is another good thing for I mean, Joe, you remember, like we I don’t know, I don’t know whose idea this was. But it was like when the pandemic started, we were like, Oh my god, like, we need to be able to let our partners do no contact delivery. So we built this and everybody, everyone has loved it. So that’s awesome. If you use our delivery routing tool in your lovingly account, that’s what shows it shows all your orders for the day. And it lets you kind of put them into a route. This lets you create an optimized route for your deliveries. Once you create a route, you can text the directions to your driver, or and or you can print this route sheet. So this gives you know the arrangement, the address, whatever. And then this is they don’t all have the QR code. I should mention we need the recipient cell phone number in order to generate the QR code because what this does is when you when your driver’s scans the QR code, they can send a text to the recipient that says like your flowers are here. A lot of shops don’t want to leave it on attended. But this lets them do it without having to Really ringing the doorbell and interact.

Joe Vega 25:02
So we’re making life a lot easier for delivery drivers as well.

Unknown Speaker 25:06
Yeah, yeah. And you know what else, what else that it also, it also marks through are delivered. So if you scan the QR code, it texts the recipient, and at the same time, it marks the order delivered and sends the delivery confirmation to the to the customer. So you’re doing like everything,

Joe Vega 25:27
which is so it’s got multiple, you know, one trigger multiple things happen. It’s super handy. I think one of my favorite things is the is the overall automation of it. All right, because we know florists are busy people they don’t have time to do. So we basically try to help as much as possible by automating all the things that we could automate, I think the cool thing

Daniela 25:44
too, Joe, you were mentioning that we are all talking about it like that build up of reducing the anxiety through that flow that’s happening is associated with your brand. And so like, that’s all good, but like the big powwow at the end, there Yeah, is the sort of gratitude from the recipient coming back and again, being like, oh, my god, that was amazing, like this, you made my day, whatever that message is. And again, that hope that it’s following that entire, you know, what I’m calling the post purchase funnel, or, but the gifters journey, right? Like that’s, that’s all tied together. And that’s all riding that wave of emotion. And that’s the best way to like, be able to support all the things that are happening, we’re in a really unique position in which we are that connection point between the local florist, the consumer and the recipient. And each one has such an important role in terms of like the card message, how they felt the artistry, and bringing these all together and weaving it into a story that we can we can share and have people come in and comment and participate in it, you know, all these things are amazing. Like, I feel like we’re just scratching the surface. And there’s so much potential there. And that’s what really kind of excites me, because this is this is that connection. These are these human moments and everyone is playing the part in this, which is

Unknown Speaker 27:08
pretty cool. All this stuff we’re talking about is is made possible by by you is not like the PBS slogan. You know, I was trying to think about this for florists. Like, we we know how important it is to mark the orders delivered. If you don’t do it during the day, at least check at the end of the day and make sure that you’re all caught up that everything’s marked delivered. So maybe think about something else you do at the end of the day, like, you know, maybe you have one of those sandwich signs outside that has a you know, come on in or whatever, like, try to think of something you can pair in your head if like, okay, when I bring in the sandwich sign, I need to remember to go double check one more time, and Mark everything delivered, you know, or something like that in the morning, like when you get your cup of coffee, check your email, I don’t know what it is, you know, but I really liked that advice of pairing a new thing that you’re trying to do with something that you already do, you know, trigger? Yeah, yeah. Hopefully, you know, you Everyone is, is on board with the importance of some of this stuff, and just how it really can take like the business to the next level of, you know, like you’ve said, it’s not just a flower delivery. It’s like this whole it’s a whole experience, you know, so it’s worth it’s worth doing it might it’s worth getting into the habit.

Joe Vega 28:22
This is exciting, guys. Yeah. Awesome. And there’s more to come, right. As always. Guys, thank you so much for joining me today. This was awesome. Got to do it again. Yeah, sounds good. Thanks, Jess. Yeah, we want to help you a business loan. Check out more episodes of flower shop secrets. Watch now on YouTube, like, subscribe and ring the bell for new episodes.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai