Converting Phone Enquiries Into Flower Sales

Hi, I am Siobhan, and I am one of the owners of Lily's Florist, actually my husband Andrew is the other. We built this business from a humble flower and gift shop in Kingscliff NSW, to having over 800+ partner florists all over Australia. But also, hoping to win our one of our daughters over, Asha who is about to graduate year 12 over, and help us to continue it be a family owned and run business.

> Learn more about Lily's Florist

In that time, and I have tried to crunch the numbers, and I did step away a little when my youngest daughter Ivy was born in 2011 (8.5 months pregnant for Valentine's Day that year and still answering the phones), but roughly 26,000+ phone calls for people wanting to send flowers everywhere from Bendigo, to Taree, from Byron Bay, to Townsville, to Perth and everywhere in between.

It got me thinking, is there anything I can share, any advice I can give, any small thing that could help with those inbound calls, those flower enquiries. Actually, I am not sure, but I am prepared to give it a crack.

The Preface

Whilst I did own a flower shop, I am not a florist, we are not florists (you can read more about that in our foundation story by clicking the link above), if you are reading this you may have heard of Lily's Florist, in fact, you may have even taken and delivered one of our orders, we have been sending flowers Australia-wide since 2007, and under the Lily's Florist brand since 2009. 

Whilst I am not those things, I feel like that, after all those calls, I have a pretty good understanding of what works and what doesn't, so I want to share with you, my insights, some of my tips and personal opinions, on what works, and what doesn't.

The Lead

From my experience and looking at our historical data, still to this day, roughly 20% of people still like to call for flowers, compared with online orders. In 2009, it was closer to 40%, which was an incredible amount. But, buyer behaviour is changing and a new generation of buyers in maturing.

Anyone that calls your shop, it's a lead, and potential customer, someone looking at buying flowers. If they have come as far as calling you, they are motivated, hinged by emotion, and what we call are at the 'bottom of the funnel'. Meaning, they have done their research, or at least some, searched on Google, are now most likely on your website, and have physically dialled your phone number. They are 95% of the way to buying flowers, now your job, is to get them over the final hurdle, the last chokepoint. Not only that though, without sounding crass, remembering your goal is turnover, to have them walking away spending as much money as they possibly can afford.

Time Goal

3-5 minutes, time is money. That should be your goal. It may seem a little far-fetched, I know, but really, it is possible. Leaving more time to spend working on your website, more time doing the ordering, more time creating outstanding bouquets, more time training your staff and doing the book etc.

But how - follow these steps?

1. Answer the phone, with your florist name and your actual name "good morning Jane Doe's florist, Jane speakining...". Attaching your name tends to disarm the caller allowing for a more personal touch to the call.
2. Always steer the caller in the direction that suits you, firstly ask their name, then the recipient's name and delivery address, the latter being critical, but more on that below.
3. Reassure callers that you know the area with a brief anecdote near where sending flowers, maybe a delivery you did yesterday or last week in that street or close to it, a landmark you know well, or I shopped there yesterday, went to the Dentist next door blah. This instantly reassures the caller that you are who you say you are, and that you are an expert in your field and your delivery area.
4. Ask for delivery time and the delivery date
5. Ask for the recipients phone number - critical for any order
6. Ask what is the occasion
7. At this point, even before you know what flowers they are thinking of, ensure you get the message on the card. The reason for this is really important as it will allow you, in far greater detail, to give better advice on what flowers to suggest and plays a very important role in the below section titled "the Maccas Approach". Not only that, from my experience, once you get the card message the potential customer is far more emotionally engaged in the order and far less likely to change their minds.
8. Ask what flowers they are thinking, refer to Upsell section below.
9. Take all their payment details and process their order while they are still on the phone.
10. Ask them if they need a tax invoice and if so, grab their email address, this save a call later that day or week.

Expert advice: I realise that it's an extra cost, but I strongly considering building into your current platform an phone order taking solution. Some of you will already have it I grant that, but if you don't, this is for you. 

• No need to write down orders on scraps of paper
• No paper trail for credit cards, so better security for your customers and their personal data
• It will keep all your online and phone orders in the same platform
• Assessing your business from an accounting perspective will be way easier
• You can easily account for all your call orders vs online orders 

The Maccas Approach

You've all heard it I am sure, you know, you're on the way to the Gold Coast from Sydney and have stopped at Grafton McDonald's. You have just ordered something, and then you hear "do you want fries with that...?".

Or.

For the last 10 years or so, if you have bought a new car, no sooner have you signed and paid your deposit, you are swiftly guided to the next person with the same "do you want fries with that" approach, this time though, it's window tinting, paint protection, service packages, and even special finance packages just for you!

The Upsell

You get the point. It's the classic upsell, and companies like McDonald's, Kia, Starbucks, Dominoes (especially and almost painfully at times, I mean how many times before I pay are you going to ask me if I want garlic bread or 10 bottles of Pepsi) Amazon, and Apple have all mastered it to certain degrees.

It's your job to think hard about how you can replicate 'the upsell', in your own unique way.

Below are some tips I have developed in my almost 19 years of being around flowers. It just takes a little confidence, practice (I encourage you to roll play with your staff), and a little nous and you will be making way more per order.

With every phone call, average order value is key, it's often referred to as AOV. Even a tiny bump in your AOV, over a 12 month period can have incredible impacts on your bottom line.

Below, I went to great lengths to display for you the impact of upselling a $20 'extra', be it a teddy bear, chocolates, wine, balloon of vase and its impact on your sales revenue, over a year. As you can see below, this is only bringing a customer from from $60 to $80, and converting at 50% on the upsell. It's just an example but you can easily see how powerful upselling is.

Here are my top 4 upsell lines:

1. The Flowers: The customer was thinking a $60 seasonal bouquet, but you know you have an $80 native bouquet with greater margins in the shop also. At this point, do your best to have retrieved the name of the recipient and the occasions. In this example, it's Jane and it's her 50th birthday.
   
   Use positive reinforcement. "Ahh Jane is so lucky to have you as a friend..". "Given it's Jane's 50th, we had this amazing delivery of native flowers, Tasmania's best, in fresh this morning from Brisbane Flower Markets, I am looking at them across the shop now thinking, well, I bet she would really love something like that...".
2. The teddy bear & the arrangement: The customer was thinking of sending a $40 bouquet of gerberas to their friend who just had a baby in John Flynn Hospital in Tugun QLD.
   
   Same or similar to point one. Make a connection. "Wow, that is amazing news for Danielle, did she have a baby boy or girl?. "I am not sure if you know this but John Flynn Hospital doesn't stock vases so my best advice is to put the gerberas into an arrangement so they will last at least the duration of Danielle's say and it's only $10 more...". "Have you thought about sending a teddy bear too?". "I have this gorgeous one in store, in fact I am looking at it as we speak, that I am sure she and the new bub will love, for years to come...in fact it's our most popular gift, on top of flowers, we send to John Flynn Hospital...".
3. The chocolates: A customer calls and wants to say sorry to his girlfriend for being 'that guy'. You know he is calling and most likely he is a little desperate, it's your job to tap into that, but fairly. To measure the magnitude, always get the card message first, as mentioned in steps above. The card message should dictated how much you think you can nudge him. He's thinking a 6 rose bouquet.
   
   "Hey John, I think 6 roses would be a super way to say sorry, but as Jane is at work, I highly recommend upgrading to an arrangement as the roses will last way longer, moreover, she can easily then bring them home on the train with her, or just as easily leave them at work overnight without needing add water or find a vase...". "Also, does she like chocolate...? "Yeah me too, I can never get enough, we have some Lindt chocolates in store today that I am sure she will love, shall I pop them in with the flowers too...?". I know this is a little forward, but it works almost every time. 
4. The 50th birthday balloon: A customer calls, her BFF Mary is having a 50th birthday at a restaurant for lunch today, she wants her flowers to stand.
   
   "Yeah those flowers she will love. It's got me thinking though, given what you have chosen, I am looking across the shop at the birthday balloons we had delivered yesterday, and there is this one particular 50th balloon that I think will suit perfectly and make the whole arrangement pop...".

The Final Word

So there you have it. From someone who bought a flower shop with zero flower knowledge to 26,000 phone calls later. I'm still not a florist, but I reckon I've learned a thing or two about what makes customers pick up that phone and, more importantly, what makes them hang up happy.

If you take away just one thing from all this, make it the card message tip. Get that card message early in the call. It changes everything. The customer becomes emotionally invested, you understand the occasion better, and suddenly you're not just taking an order, you're helping them express something that matters.

Look, I know the phone doesn't ring as much as it used to. Online orders have taken over, and that's reality. But those calls that do come through? They're gold. These are people who want to talk to a real person, in a real shop, in their actual community. That's your edge over the big players. Every extra $20 teddy bear, every arrangement upgrade, every balloon that makes someone's 50th that bit more special - it adds up. That spreadsheet I showed you? That's not fantasy. That's maths. And maths doesn't lie.

After all these years, all these calls, all these partner florists I have worked with, I've learned something. This business isn't really about flowers. It's about being the person who helps someone say what they can't quite find the words for. And if you can do that in under 5 minutes while adding a teddy bear to the order? Well, you're doing alright.

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