Tim Huckabee shows how (and why) to eliminate the “blahs” from your team’s phone conversations with customers in this month’s issue of Floral Management.
Through his customer training company, FloralStrategies, Tim Huckabee has performed thousands of test calls and heard way too many sales people answer the phone with bland, impersonal phrases (“Hello”). Or worse: they bark out the name of the flower shop.
“I completely understand what’s happening in many flower shops today,” he writes in this month’s issue of Floral Management safnow.org/floralmanagement. “They have fewer people on staff and employees are pulled in many directions.”
But whether they have malicious intent or not, employees’ curtness diminishes your customers’ experiences and hurts your chances of repeat business.
To make engagement less daunting, he recommends using a standard opener.
“An opener that inspires confidence has four key components: greeting, flower shop name, your name and customer status,” he writes. (For example: “Good morning! You’ve reached Flowers on Main. This is Virginia. Have you shopped with us before?”)
If the customer is new, thank her for choosing you and ask how she found out about you. If it’s a return customer, ask for her name and then pull her shopping history to help you recommend the perfect arrangement.
For more tips on inspiring your staff to be more engaging, check out the “Dear Tim…” column in this month’s Floral Management.
Have a challenge in the shop that you’d like Tim to tackle? Tell Tim all about it, tim@floralstrategies.com.
