Workin' it y'all

This is my special Labor Day post! So listen up.

If you've been reading IHATH for very long you may remember back in June when TG and I celebrated our wedding anniversary, and TG was out of town on the day, and he sent me flowers ... and to paraphrase The Bard, therein lay the rub.

Naturally I wrote about the whole experience ... in a post entitled Poorly Peddled Petals. If you haven't read it yet, please do so now because the rest of the story won't make sense unless you know the first part.

I'll wait.

Well well! Now that you're up to speed, I think you'll like this.

I Cast My Wilted Petals Upon The Water

Thinking many freelance-writerly thoughts mixed fancifully with hopes and dreams, I sent a copy of Poorly Peddled Petals to the Society of American Florists' glossy to-the-trade magazine, Floral Management.

The editors liked it, liked my "sass" too they said, and wanted to publish my article in their magazine.

And so they did! I haven't seen the finished product yet (my copy is in the mail) but I know my words are in print because a few days ago I received a nice email!

He Knows From Flower Derangements

Ms. Weber:

I received my copy of SAF's Floral Management magazine today and read your article (Viewpoint. September 2010). Thank you for writing it!

I own a flower shop in the suburbs of Atlanta, Eagle's Landing Floral Design, and have worked hard over the last eleven years building my staff. I married into the business and know little about color wheels, designing, texture and the like, but I do know about business and customer service. My wife is the creative end of the business and I pay the bills and do the heavy lifting.  

I pride my staff on "going the extra mile" to satisfy our customers and I am positive that is what has carried us through this downturn in the economy. What I stress to them is that, even though they deal with the beautiful flowers every day, the customers we serve only see them occasionally. 

In your case, the error by the driver was merely an inconvenience for him, having to return to make the delivery. Our policy would be not to deliver the same arrangement, but deliver an upgrade to make up for the inconvenience we put you through.

We do not make many errors; we are a charter recipient of the "Petal of Honor" from Teleflora for our outstanding customer service. But when we do, we do our best to have the recipient focus on our product and not our error.

You can bet that your article will be priority reading for my staff. It will certainly help to reinforce our motto: "We don't just deliver flowers; we deliver WOW."

Thank you again for your timely article.

Sincerely,

Bob Wood  

Owner, Eagle's Landing Floral Design

Stockbridge, Georgia

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

So! My feeling is that if you live in the metro Atlanta area or are sending flowers to someone who lives in the metro Atlanta area, this is your florist. 

Because clearly they get it.

God be with every hard-working American who on a daily basis provides goods and services to the public in a conscientious, courteous, and considerate manner.

A healthy work ethic makes the American dream come true ... one satisfied customer at a time.

~Happy Labor Day Weekend!~

Comments

[Sue the hobbit]

Darn, I never even though about a special Labour Day post, even though my family all comes from the working class. I think it's superlatively spiffy that you got published. I did get published once. I wrote a particularly impassioned letter to the editor and they used it as a Guest Opinion piece. Not sure if I even remember what it was about now!
I love the letter from the florist.
Long live hard work and good customer service!

[Mari]

I remember the fake flower incident. I think it's great it's being published. And - if I lived in Atlanta I would use this florist.
Happy Labor Day!

[Debbie]

Congratulations on getting the article published, and what a nice letter from the florist, they do get it. If I ever need to send flowers in their area, I most certainly will use them.

Ordering flowers that you not see ahead of time can be so stressful. I've done it, also ordered live plants, and a couple of times when I actually saw what was delivered, I was almost embarrassed knowing what I paid and what pathetic specimen was actually delivered.

[irene]

Good Show. I'd be appalled too if I got artificial something in my fresh arrangement. Nice letter from the florist too, Good for them, know that quality and customer service is what keeps you in business. I think this might have been our first meeting. you anniversary and mine.

[Sue McG]

Amen sistah! Glad to hear your very correct feelings about flowers and floral services were published, as they should be. I just posted about a bad airline experience, bad customer service reaches so many more ears than good customer service - happy to see you link to a local florist with the right attitude :)

[Jennifer]

Hobbit ... I don't think I've ever done a Labor Day post either, until now! It just struck me, this was a good topic for this weekend. Customer service is what it's all about.

Mari ... it's just nice to know florists like this one exist! Happy Labor Day to you!

Debbie ... I've had experiences like that too. Once I ordered a Mother's Day corsage for my mom ... this was many years ago, I was just a kid. All I knew is, she did not like orchids so I said, just don't send her an orchid. What did they send her? An orchid.

Irene ... I do believe that is when we met! What serendipity that was! And the artificials really were beyond the pale. I do believe I squeezed an ounce or two of lemonade out of those lemons.

Sue McG ... well hello and welcome! Loved my visit to your blog and cringed at your airline lack-of-service story. The moldy hotel room would have sent me right over the edge. You are a brave woman. Please come back and see us!

[kev]

Published! Yet again!

Congratulations, Jenny. :)

[Tracie]

Congratulations on getting published! Way to turn a negative into a positive. (Be careful how you treat me, or you'll end up in my novel, eh?) And a late Happy Anniversary to you, as well. (Or perhaps early for next year!)

[Tracie]

That was me up there. :)