I have some nice customers!

Flowermomma

Well-Known Member
Oct 16, 2010
1,813
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New Hamburg
www.allflowersandcharm.net
State / Prov
Ontario
This week 4 days in a row I had a customer come in and get flowers . arrangement to take to her parents.. cuts for an elderly aunt etc etc.. something sim but different 4 days in a row. so I jokingly said "see you tomorrow" when she left yesterday. Well she just was in to bring me a Tea. Said I dont' need flowers but figured you would be too busy to get your Tea today...

that was so sweet of her!
 
This business is all about personality..... If you show you care and listen to your customer they really get the feeling that they are important. Its when all it becomes is about the money that people turn away because they know you don't care about feelings or take time to listen, now adays its to easy to go elsewhere ... Good Job Melissa !!!
 
Tee...Hee......we have a little old lady, sweetest creature.....is borderline Alzheimers, and an ex-teacher, and telephone operation....she comes in EVERY DAY, to tell us a "different story", the same one, just so she can chat a minute, and scoop a "sweetie" from our candy jar, and asks God to bless us, because she ALWAYS finds her way HERE, and back home safely!
We have a very young lady who drops in EVERY thursday, with our sale flyers, ALWAYS 2 bundles, one for us, and one for our staff, she reads another joke under our front counter glass, laughs out loud, has a VERY "infectious" smile, and then "hops" like a bunny out the front door??....she finally told us "I pop in, and I hop out...even scaredy cat bunnies would feel welcome here!!"......
WE have a Provincial Minister that sends his brothers in to buy flowers, and chat, so that he can have DIRECT knowledge about the "mood" of our area, since, we talk with so many locals, and politics is a "favourite"......you'd think we had a barber shop here!
We talked to 3 people in the past 2 years, about how once WE were done with this shop, it was "probably" DONE as a flowers shop....suddenly, we've got folks coming in and LITERALLY crying, 'cause they "heard" we were closing.....
I like what Joanne said.......you share, and you care, and your business is your conveyance.....
 
Yesterday a guy came in and started by saying, "I'm here to complain about my Thanksgiving flowers!" I asked him what the problem was and then he laughed. " They won't die and we want to decorate for Christmas!" That was pretty funny. He ordered his Christmas centerpiece and he made my day as well. This was a good week and we are closing the gap and hoping to do better in December sales than last year.
 
This was an "eye opener".......
Today, Sunday, I'm open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and actually, it's been pretty brisk!
I had an "old" young lady in, she looks to be in her 60's though I KNOW she's no more than 30, and all the while she dropped in from time to time, EXTREMELY incoherent most times, but, annoying enough that all of us really DON'T want to "serve her", even though she NEVER "buys" anything...just makes "inquiries", and today was no exception....but, at least I had a little time to "speak" with her.....I just "assumed" she had blown her brain on crack cocaine,and was making the best of it!......as we spoke, I finally got her name, after maybe 5 years, and asked jokingly if her "future" looked brighter, and her eyes welled up, but, she didn't cry!....she left a couple of minutes later......
Maybe 20 minutes later, I got a phone call from a "customer" out of our area, who said "DON'T SLAM the phone down on me, like you did the last time!!"......I was VERY unsure whether it was an amusing call beginning, or something else!
Turns out this "customer" called us several years ago, and one of our staff slammed the phone down......and then quit the next day...we NEVER found out the reason, or anything....she just left, and we'd forgotten.
Turns out this "customer" was in the slammer for raping and torturing a young local many years ago, was charged, convicted, and did his time in the pen, and when he called, just "assumed" that I would slam the phone down!
OK.....a little clearer now "what can I do for you today"??...I asked......"I'd like to send some flowers" and he placed his order, paid with his cc, and as I was closing the sale, asked whether he'd like a receipt faxed, or emailed to him, and he said "just put it in the mail, to the PO BOX I gave you!!".......I was kinda curious, so I said "I'm sorry, but for me to do that, I'll need your "physical address" to process your request"!...which he VERY,VERY reluctantly gave!!
Guess what??.....this guy, turns out, AFTER I put 2 and 2 together, is the guy that tortured and raped this gal, which, all these years, I was POSITIVE, was a drug addict of the worst kind!!........the trauma, and sheer death fear, aged her way beyond her true years, and almost completely incapacitated her world of reality...for the rest of time, it seems!
What "tipped me off" was when this "customers" said "I did my time, I will always regret being that person, and couldn't change my name...any attempts at "pardon" were rebuked"!
For every THOUSAND people that are nice, there's an a-hole that "makes your day as well"!
 
Well i am sure we all have stories to tell about our customers. I have one, comes to the mall everyday. She is mentally disable to a degree. Everytime a workers brings her she tells them to make sure she see's me. Her name is Emily. We have laughs together and she goes around the mall and see other people. She thinks I'm cute and tells me often.
Also the people that comes in and tell me their flowers are still alive, I tell them, No wonder I don't make any money, the flowers lasts to long. They get a giggle of that.
 
an hour ago, one of our longest,and amongst our favourite customers came in, to send flowers to his sister overseas, like he's done for 40 years, and to pick up some Christmas flowers for his dear wife......as we finished he sale, he said "well, this will be the last time I'll be sending flowers overseas", and I asked "I'm so sorry, is your sister not well"..I quizzed...
"No, I'm terminal, my wife is terminal, and we both will not see Easter!"........our whole staff broke into tears, and he was almost in shock, then smiled, said thank you, and walked out with his wife's Christmas flowers free!
 
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an hour ago, one of our longest,and amongst our favourite customers came in, to send flowers to his sister overseas, like he's done for 40 years, and to pick up some Christmas flowers for his dear wife......as we finished he sale, he said "well, this will be the last time I'll be sending flowers overseas", and I asked "I'm so sorry, is your sister not well"..I quizzed...
"No, I'm terminal, my wife is terminal, and we both will not see Easter!"........our whole staff broke into tears, and he was almost in shock, then smiled, said thank you, and walked out with his wife's Christmas flowers free!


oh .. your staff is not the only ones in tears now...
 
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an hour ago, one of our longest,and amongst our favourite customers came in, to send flowers to his sister overseas, like he's done for 40 years, and to pick up some Christmas flowers for his dear wife......as we finished he sale, he said "well, this will be the last time I'll be sending flowers overseas", and I asked "I'm so sorry, is your sister not well"..I quizzed...
"No, I'm terminal, my wife is terminal, and we both will not see Easter!"........our whole staff broke into tears, and he was almost in shock, then smiled, said thank you, and walked out with his wife's Christmas flowers free!

OMG! That made me cry...like really cry.

Right now in my life, where I am I am so blessed. I think about the homeless, the super sick, the alchoholics, drug adicts, the lonely, the damaged and I am so grateful for my little life. I am super over weight have a super rare genetic disorder that does effect my health- but isn't debilitating (hope I spelled that right), had a pretty rough childhood, but nothing I couldn't overcome, and lost 2 babies. But even with all that I do feel so blessed to be who I am and where I am.

Merry Christmas guys! Big Tight Shannon Bear Hugs to you all!
 
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