When you buy the latest Harry Potter bestseller on Amazon, you know the intimate details of the order process, from the day and time it leaves the warehouse to the exact moment it is hand-delivered by FedEx at your door. So why isn’t it the same for the flower business? Actually it should be. Why do Amazon and FedEx offer this service to customers to update them on the status of their order?

1. Because it is a good way to advertise their brand.

2. Because it’s good customer experience.

3. Because it stops customers from calling to check up on their order.

So why don’t florists do the same? Well most of them are not set up on the scale of an Amazon or FedEx, so they don’t have the tools to give customers the same kind of experience that the big guys do. But the reality is that it’s not so difficult to offer this kind of service if you are set up with the right ecommerce infrastructure. The advantages of keeping customers informed about their purchases are clear. Florists can use these tools to give their customers a better experiece – which will bring them back a second time. Update emails serve as free advertising. And, especially at busy times like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, these emails can stop the customer from calling in to check on a delivery – and prevent the prospective customer from getting a busy signal rather than a live person.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Customer Service, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.