Social distancing to combat the spread of COVID-19 has postponed countless spring trips down the aisle, causing a lot of frustration and heartbreak for couples, their loved ones — and their florists. During a March 24th webinar for the Society of American Florists, a trio of event specialists offered their best practices for communicating with clients and managing financials.
Kate Delaney, AAF, SAF’s director of career development and the former general manager of Matlack Florist in West Chester, Pennsylvania, moderated the session, “Strategies to Recover and Rebuild Wedding and Event Work,” which featured Cheryl Denham, AAF, AzMF, and Cynthia Linzy of LUX Florist/Arizona Family Florist in Phoenix alongside Zoë Gallina, AAF, of Botanica International Design Studio in Tampa, Florida.
Here is an overview of their advice:
Be proactive with communication. “Don’t wait for the bride to come to you,” Gallina said. “Reaching out right away provides another level of trust, as it shows you are on top of things.” Also, the quicker you act, the best chance you have at rescheduling brides and not missing out on a wedding you had planned to do. “We called our clients immediately to talk about postponement and, fortunately, were able to accommodate everyone,” Linzy said.
Pick up the phone. Avoid email for that initial contact. “This is an emotional and stressful situation, and it’s easy to misconstrue tone in an email,” Gallina said.
When encouraging postponement, look at your calendar. Both LUX and Botanica do very seasonal business, with couples typically foregoing the hot summer events for their nuptials. “Losing spring events and then going into our slow summer is a double whammy to our cash flow,” Gallina said. To lessen the drought, she’s encouraging couples reschedule in the summer rather than fall, when Botanica will be stretched pretty thin and a lot of other vendors are unavailable. LUX has had several clients willing to move their events to August or September, but most balked at June or July. Their alternate suggestion: a non-traditional day of the week. “Our Thursday, Friday and Sunday offerings booked up really quickly,” Linzy said.
Stick to your contract. While it’s important to sympathize with brides, florists should not feel guilty about following contract stipulations, including nonrefundable terms, the women urged. “It’s not being heartless,” Denham said. “You have a business to fund.” And if you don’t look out for yourself, “you put your future clients in peril by folding before their events come around,” Linzy added. “Have firm language in your contract and have faith that it will protect you.” Gallina emphasized again that picking up the phone and talking through rebooking options can make hard conversations easier.
Consider ways to cover your costs. For many of Botanica’s spring clients, payment in full was due in a matter of weeks; now, with postponed dates, that technically moves back many months. “On the phone, we’ve talked about our situation with clients and asked, if they can, to pay half of their bill now and the remainder right before their event to help us keep our doors open,” Gallina said. “People have generally been very receptive to this request.” At LUX, Denham and Linzy have seen weddings shrink from giant affairs to intimate gatherings. To avoid losing revenue, they’re reallocating planned floral decor: reducing the number of centerpieces but increasing their size, for instance, or adding statement pieces, like floral arches, or providing flowers for the rehearsal dinner as well. For clients who insist on rebooking on a very popular date, Botanica is charging a “restaffing” fee. “That language is very important,” Gallina said. “Rebooking may make clients think you’re trying to take advantage and price gouge them. ‘Restaffing’ makes them realize you have to hire more people to work their event.”
Look for opportunities. Are there marketing strategies you’ve had on the backburner for months or years? Now’s the time to tackle them. “I’m actually really excited to work on projects I never time for, like blogging,” Gallina said. Linzy plans to do a deep dive on Pinterest. “I want to have boards organized by venues,” she said. “My ultimate goal is for brides to send us photos of our own work, not competitors’, when we have consultations.” These kinds of activities, which can be very time consuming, are also great opportunities to give your employees work, Delaney pointed out.
Listen to the full webinar now for additional ideas, including discussions on flower availability and substitutions and the benefits of banding with other event professionals to brainstorm solutions and present a unified message to clients.
Note to readers: SAF is closely monitoring the evolving situation with COVID-19. Please check our webinars page for an updated list of upcoming sessions. Look for much more coverage of supply chain issues, HR concerns, financial management advice and more via SAF publications,safnow.tempurl.host and our webinar programming. Have a story angle you want us to cover? Email mwestbrook@safnow.org.
Katie Hendrick Vincent is the senior contributing writer and editor for the Society of American Florists.
