How to Master Your Customer Experience in 7 Days

Episode 258: In this episode, Vonda and Lori are joined by Ellie to discuss the powerful connection between exceptional customer experiences and effective sales training. As instructors of SalesPrepSchool, they delve into the highlights and key upgrades of the newly launched SalesPrep 2.0 by Flower Clique. Sales Prep School is a flexible associative learning system tailored specifically to the floral industry, designed to empower teams with the knowledge to excel in sales and customer service. 

To learn more about SalesPrep 2.0 and see if it's a fit for your business, schedule your course orientation with Lori here. Or, jump right in and purchase the course here.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

And that's from the whole experience. So from the moment that you walk in, the way you're greeted, to the way that you're talking to, to the way that they're giving you expertise on the products that you should be using to the actual design itself.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda. So, Vonda and Ellie, hello. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

You quitting? No.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Are you doing a live resignation? I'm doing a live res Oh my gosh, wouldn't that be insane? No. That would be crazy. That would be crazy. No, I'm stressed every year this time of year, as Vonda knows. You know too. I just get so stressed about my damn Christmas tree.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I'm with you. I'm I'm standing next to you, and then you're holding space for me. I'm holding space for your Christmas tree. Tell us all about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

I put it up at the beginning of October. I did not decorate it. Put it up because I love the lights. You know, the lights gift my life. So start decorating it when my daughter came home, had all of these ideas. She was like, We're gonna go vintage, we're gonna go old school, it's gonna be great. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sending me TikTok after TikTok after TikTok of all of these great, beautiful trees. I'm like, I'm in, I'm in. I'm so in. We're done with the glittery stick things that you know we've been doing. Great. She's like, we're doing tinsel, mama. We're doing tinsel. And I'm like, likes, okay. Are we doing it? She's keeps sending me all of the TikToks. We're doing tinsel. Everybody's doing tinsel. Okay. You know, I haven't done tinsel since the 70s, but okay. Well, we did tinsel. And I don't think we know how to do tinsel. Let's just say I will quote my oldest child who we were FaceTiming from Ireland. I showed him and he goes, It looked like someone threw up on the tree.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

That's exactly how well, first of all, I think we should post the photo of it and have our clickers have our clickers offer some input. Oh gosh. Yeah. Right? I think that'd be nice. Maybe. But I will say you and I are very much the same this year. I put mine up after Halloween. Yep. And I just finally got around to decorating it last night. Yeah. I don't like it. I don't like my tree either. I'm not happy. I don't like it at all. It looks like a cheesy department store tree. Oh so sorry. Yes. And I did also do tinsel, Lori. RC! At least I'm not alone.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

How do you feel about it?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Well, I will say we we we have a big tree and then we have the travel tree, which has like our special travel. Yeah. So first we did the travel tree on Thanksgiving night, Tyler and I. And we did the tinsel last. And Tyler tried to do the tinsel. Oh no. And it it looked like a gnarled cat. Yes. Yes. Like a hairy, yes. Electrocuted cat. Yes. Um, so I will say the way that you pinch the tinsel and lay the tinsel. Agree. But I almost feel like on the big tree, you need to lean in and do like a ton of tinsel. Like I feel like I haven't done enough tinsel. So you might be in that weird middle ground, no man's land where it needs to either take it further, right? Perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Well, I'm gonna affirm that, and here's why. So this weekend was my dad's 90th birthday party, as y'all know. Big, big 9-0, and all my relatives were here. And my one cousin who is an interior designer was over, and I met her at the door and I said, Look everywhere but the tree. She's like, Got it, got it. I'm uh okay. You know, she lives down in Houston where the cool people live. You know, I'm out in the suburbs where the uncool people live. At the end of the evening, I said, Okay, you may now look. And she walked over and she goes, Oh my. So she goes, We can fix this, we can fix this. And so she started dabbling. She said, My recommendation is two choices. You either shop back the tinsel off or go all in. She said, My says, You gotta go in more, you need yeah, twice as much. Go big or go home here. We gotta just go all in. Let's do it. Let's do it. And I was like, Okay, okay, we're gonna do it. So we need more tinsel. I'm in that middle ground where it does just look like throw-up. I need a photo of this tree.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, throwing up so bad.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

You know what's weird at night, it looks pretty. Yeah, it looks nice sparkly and pretty, but in the daytime, it does not look pretty, bro. I just don't look at it. Anyway. Just I feel you worry.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

I'm kind of intrigued, Ellie. What does it mean? You pinch the tinsel and place it?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Oh my gosh. So the package that the tinsel is in, it's like strings all together. But if you don't pinch off a piece, the strings, it all then frays like your hair gets knotted, and then it's a disaster. And then it doesn't lay right. It lays like a little piece of knotted hair on your tree. Also, I will give a PSA that tinsel is very toxic to dogs if they consume it because it can wrap around, but the same way that your hair can, really. Yeah. But just thought I'd throw that out there.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Our dogs aren't interested in eating. You literally can comb it with your fingers when it gets like that on the trees. Like I've been going down like that. Listeners, I am it's like it's raining. It's like I'm doing it see bitsy spider right now. Come down. That's what you're doing, and it will help straighten out those tangles that she's talking about.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

It's just yeah, but you you have some hum some humidity there. I don't have any humidity here, and I like it just goes straight back up. It's not great.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah, I um yeah, yeah, I it's funny, it's it's been a problem. So, anyway, that's what's going on in my world, and I think it's funny, but I'm not one bit surprised that Ellie also did tinsel because how our brains work. Yeah. Anyway, all right, ladies, we launched finally, we launched our new and improved sales prep school 2.0.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

We did. We should write some things about it, and you and your way you do things, Lori. You're like, let's just jump on the podcast. Let's just jump on the talk about it, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

And I think I was telling you, like, everything I do right now in my life, I think of it through the lens of customer service because we've been so immersed in it for the last I don't know how many months, redoing this. And so I was getting my hair done recently, and my girl who I love, I couldn't get in. I couldn't get into her, I couldn't even get into the guy that owns the place, you know, because I'm so last minute and it's before Christmas. Anyway, so what does one do when you can't? You jump on social media and you find somebody who everybody recommends. Anyway, found another place, got pretty good reviews. I was like, I'll go here. It's a little pricey, but I'll go because there was an opening. So I went not last week, but the week before, and it was on a Saturday. I was excited because I was like, oh, I'm gonna go on a Saturday. I didn't worry about taking a phone. You know how we're like sometimes we go during the week. If the struggle is, do we take a laptop? Do we not? And I was like, I'm not gonna worry about any of that. I'm gonna go on my Saturday, I'm gonna relax. And so I went. It was a very nice place. I knew it was gonna be more expensive, but I was okay with it, right? Because it was in an area of town that is just gonna be more expensive. I was disappointed. Here's why I have a point to this. You guys see my hair, it's fine, right? It's fine, it looks like my normal hair. To the normal person, they're not gonna think anything about it. But here's why it goes back to my customer service. I went there knowing it is a quality place and the prices were higher, and I knew I was gonna pay premium prices. So my expectation, right, was for like that level of quality. When I got there, I had to wait at the door because the girl wasn't there yet. And then she showed up about five minutes after I did, and she was like, Oh, give me a minute. And I was like, Oh, okay, sure, no problem. I was like, That's fine. She had to go take her son somewhere. That's fine. I get that, not a big deal. Took her a while. I go and I peek in, she's texting, and I'm like, knock, knock, are you ready for me? Like little things like that throughout the world. You had to wait outside. Well, I were inside. It's like a studio in a building. So I'm in the building, but I'm waiting for her to open up her studio. It's one of those places that they each have their own studio building. Anyway, so I get in, she's very sweet, but like her products weren't as high end as I thought they should be. Her expertise, just all of the things were okay, but not amazing for the amount she charges. You see what I'm like mid-range that would have been, yeah. This is what so long story short, I leave. I end up having to go back the next day because of a section she like completely did not highlight, and I had to go back and she fixed if she fixed it, not a problem. I didn't write a bad review because you know it's gotta be too bad for me to write a bad review. And she fixed it and it was fine. Um, but my point is, and Vonda even told you this, I thought a lot about flower shops, like retail flower shops, and how we're always telling them like grocery stores are not your competitor, Trader Joe's is not your competitor, the little flower cart on the street that's not your competitor. And here's why you are a quality high-end florist, a brick and mortar flower shop. When people call you, they know you're gonna be more expensive, right? You're doing that because they expect your expertise, they expect high-end customer service, they expect it to be beautiful all the time. They expect if it's not, you're gonna make it right, right? Like all of those things, yeah, and this girl, she's either gonna have to move her shop because she's not gonna be able to afford to stay where she is, yeah, or something's gonna happen because you're not going back. No, no, and she kept saying, please write me a review on Google, please write me a review, like in a weird way. Then I'm like, you really need to watch our video in prep school on how to ask for an online review, because yeah, the way you're doing it makes me not want to do it. Anyway it was so sorry because because I kept thinking about our prep school and how flower shops are that elite hair hairstyle place.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

And yeah, you're not going to Sally's and doing your own hair. No, right, and or Mastercuts, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:13

You you they expect top-notch customer service, top-notch design skills every single time.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

And that's from the whole experience. So from the moment that you walk in, yes, the way you're greeted, to the way that you're talked to, to the way that they're giving you expertise on the products that you should be using to the actual design itself or your hair, you know, your hair. Exactly. To the end, right from the when you have to bite the bullet and pay hundreds of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

And the girl that does the hair washing, you know, like that good massage. Yeah, the girl that styles it, like all of those little things, very much so why every single person on your staff needs to be educated on your products and how to sell them to the best of their abilities to customers, interact with customers, how to innovative, how to just having that experience rather than customer service.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

I think we're very big on it's customer experience, customer experience.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

And yeah, that's absolutely everything, right? And I I I think that touches on it so well because our sales prep school, what I love about it is it is about how to create the customer experience. It is not how to sell high price point, like how to upsell.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yes, that that's just part of yes. We have videos on upselling, but that's not but it's so much more than that. It's how to treat the customer, it's just about treating right the way you're and there's also so many nuances when you are working in the flower shop, like how in-store customer service is different than your phone sales, different than handling somebody who's excited about sending flowers for an anniversary versus somebody who is crying because their grandmother just died. You know, like it's so complex. Yes. And I think a lot of times people underestimate that when they start working in the shop or when they hire somebody. Yep. And that's the whole reason that sales prep school has been so successful for us in the past, and that's the reason that we've decided to invest further into it with this 2.0, is because it's so important. I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

So, Bonda, what are your favorite parts of our sales prep school?

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Well, I first I want to back up just a minute, Lori, because this weekend, since Turkey was done and I was just hanging around doing a little bit of looking through the social platforms, which I rarely do, you know, unless we're going to be yeah, you're not the big social media person.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Unless Ellie and I text you and go, hey, go here, get on Facebook, look at this specifically.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Yeah, that's what you do. Yes, thank you very much. I'm happy you do that. But I was looking for the Florist group, and there was so much talk about sales training, which I think is great. It was talking about how you need to do it, and then somebody was asking about, hey, should I have somebody come into my store and teach my staff about selling? And somebody else said, I don't think that was a good value. I had that, but somebody else said, Yes, it was. So obviously we talk about value and everybody has value different. But what I thought was interesting is someone said, it doesn't matter who comes or what you do. I know all this. It's just a reminder. So that kind of keyed into me because what we know about sales prep school is a lot of it you might know or you've heard before. Yeah. A lot of it will be brand new, of course. But the good thing about sales prep school and our online learning is look at it in three months, look at it in six months. It's always there. It's evergreen, is what we say. And when we did the first session on sales prep school, how many years ago?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Uh 25. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

I just ladies, it was less than three years ago. Well, so we've done an upgrade, and anybody who purchased the last sales prep 1.0 gets the 2.0 at no additional cost. So whenever we're adding new content, you're whoever has that gets it at no additional cost. And it's that constant reminder. It's like, oh yeah, let's go back and listen to this session. Let's let's listen to this. So, anyway, that's a long way to say. My favorite part of the whole course is that it is evergreen, that I can have my staff go back and look at it and listen to it again. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

So it can train your existing staff, and then whenever you have somebody new on board, easy to get them aligned with the rest of the team and the way that you guys do things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

And also if you have somebody who's saying something on the phone, maybe they've been there for 10 years and they're like, Oh, they said that. Yeah. How much do you want to spend? Word. Right. Let me have them listen to five steps to a perfect sale or something like that. Right. Because you can listen and you can key in on what it is that would really connect with them at that point.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Vonda, do you remember probably two years ago we were doing a podcast, and it was some study, you know, me and my case studies, I had found, and it was in the medical field, and it was about it was a nurses' study, and about between nurses and doctors on their step-by-step. Remember that on critical care cases, and the doctors that were starting to skip steps, and nurses were always following protocol, following protocol, and they decided, oh, I don't have to do that one step anymore. And sudden that that dismissing one step led to dismissing step two and three, also, and then three and four. And that's what comes to mind when you're saying that like, oh, we know all this, but do you? You know, you you knew it at one time, but are you really being thorough? The way I think about it is every single customer deserves all of your attention every time, right? They deserve you not to skip that step, right? Exactly. And sometimes we forget that, you know, because they're not calling you every day. You may be talking to 25 customers a day, but they're only talking to you probably once every six months, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:49

If that, if that yeah, no, really good point. So each one of them really needs and should have your undivided attention, yeah, and not skipping a step and giving them that full experience.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

But it's hard, it's hard for us when we are that employee to reset our mind, which is what we talk about, Ellie, when we're doing the flower prep school, right? That mindset, like to reset again to get to go on to that next thing. I think for me, the one of the things about the new course, there's so many things, but one of the things that I really, really love is the way we revamped the workbook. I mean, our last workbook was really good, but this one really coordinates with the course. We have the challenges and the check-ins and the click tips. The other thing I like about it is, you know, Ellie did a fabulous job about creating all of the bullet points because I think sometimes when you go through a course, at least when I was in college, you'd go through those courses and you'd listen to the lecture, right? And then you're trying to remember something that was in the lecture or the video, and you don't want to go back and have to re-watch the whole thing, you can go straight to the binder, the workbook, and go, and she has it on the bullet point. You're like, Yes, that's what I was trying to remember. That's a step.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

And so invaluable, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

It's you can refer back to it forever, and that's so valuable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

What about you, Ellie? What's your favorite part?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Well, there was a moment in which when we were designing this 2.0 of how to better organize it, to put it simply. Yeah. And we had this aha moment. I believe it was Lori's aha moment of I think, and this is how you've always kind of imagined. Sales Prep School 2.0 is designed in a way that you can learn in seven days. Yeah. So it is broken up by day. Of course, we have the welcome module with all the housekeeping. And then we have seven days broken down. I just want to go through the headings quickly, just so everybody has an idea of like what's in the seven days of learning. Great. So day one is build the foundation, which is pretty self-explanatory. There are some affirmations. There is just some building that groundwork. And then it ends with a challenge. So every day is going to end with a challenge where they can put whatever they learned in that day into practice in the real world, which is just obviously so invaluable to know exactly what you need to learn, what you need to practice with customers or with your staff and your team. Day two is learn the sales prep method. So this really gets into how to handle customers. It starts with an affirmation, ends with a challenge. You got a couple quizzes in there and plenty of content to absorb. Day three is dig deeper on customer interactions. And so that one's really powerful. Day four is decode customer mindset for sales success. So this is really where you can put yourself in the mind of your customer to know how to better handle their requests. We have a segment on generational buying habits. So the difference between selling something to a baby boomer versus Gen Z or Gen X, things like that. Day five is expand and elevate your edge. So this really levels up with lots of just more advanced, I guess. So within the first four days, you can really have somebody up and running. And then day five, you just build upon that. That's when we teach you about common and popular flowers and foliage and design styles and pre-calling and things like that. Day six, exceed expectations and master your craft. So this is about innovative ways of selling, exceeding expectations. We have some stuff on sympathy, how to handle those kind of clients. We have a video on how to diffuse difficult situations, which is a really, really powerful video. And then online reviews and how to ask for those things. The last day, day seven, is practice makes perfect. So this is all about scenarios and practicing for different occasions, whether it's every day, whether it's anniversary, whether it's sympathy. And then that challenge really initiates them into all the different things that they need to practice. Practice everything that they've learned within the first six days and put it in practice. And then, of course, we have the wrap-up, the complete course wrap-up, but then we have a seasonal sales section, which we get into more of those specialty sales. So selling for Christmas, selling for Valentine's Day, selling for Mother's Day, and the nuances involved with selling for each of those holidays.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

I think I told you guys last week when I started seeing it like really, really set in stone. The format we have makes so much sense to me visually. And and I'm so excited to talk to people about it because the flow of the course, it's just so natural and so easy now. Um, the first one was great. I loved it. The flow was not there, I'll be honest. It just wasn't there. It didn't uh flow with the workbook as well as it should have. And we knew that. That's why we knew we were gonna redo it, right? And so that's why we did. This one is just is just perfect. It's exactly the way it should be. And I'm sure people are like, what do you mean, seven days? Here's why it's seven days. No, if somebody is going to come in as a new employee and you think you're going to get them completely onboarded and trained in one day, got another thing coming. I mean, I don't know what world you live in. No one's gonna retain all of your onboarding information in one day. That's impossible.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

The flip side of that, which is what I thought you were gonna say, was nobody has time to take a month to go through a course. Well, that well, that's true. Or if you think you can spend a whole month on somebody going through a course, I mean, you could do a video a day. You could you can structure this these seven days however you want. If you want them to focus on day one for a week, yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

You can certainly do that, yes, but that's the flexibility in breaking it down by you could do on day one and then that challenge, you could do that challenge all week long, and then the next week do day two, however you want to do it.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

It just gives you a lot of options. It depends on what that employee, the previous knowledge of that employee, if they're brand new, if they worked in a shop before. Exactly. Different factors, right? So that's the beauty of being able to break it down this way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

So anyway. We just wanted to share this with everyone because we are really, really excited.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

I'm just super excited too. It's even having gone through that and we all filmed it together. Well, the two of you filmed a lot of it while I was doing a photo shoot. But I like to go through certain ones that I'm looking at and I'm like, oh my gosh, I just love listening to that. I love it when Ellie talks about the generational buying habits and how at ease she makes people feel about asking for those online reviews. Since you talked about that earlier in the pod, is about the lady saying, Oh, give me a review, you know. Yeah. No, there's certain things that make it so much easier. And and you, Lori, when you're talking about the customer service, it's just so real. It's not high pressure, it's just like these are the facts, and this is the way it can be done easily. And I think that's kind of what I'm really proud of is the way the two of you have really brought that together. And again, like you said, with the workbook, but pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

It's a great course. I was just gonna give an example, like right now, and try not to get emotional. I had to order flowers today because, as you guys know, and all my friends that are on Facebook, my aunt passed away, and so I called one of our Flower Click members in her hometown to send the flowers. And I was on the phone with her, and she knew her because it was one of her favorite stores, and using the POS system as you, Vonda, in the video, again, customer service train going through my head. She pulled it up and she goes, Oh my gosh, I forgot you are her niece. And I go, Yeah, I am. And we started talking about her, and she goes, She was one of my favorites. She always came in with her friend uh Brenda, and I'm like, She probably saw that in her note, you know. I and I go, Yes, she did, she did, and she started talking about her, and she loved the color yellow, and she I'm like, I'm crying, of course, as I she's telling me this because it's but I'm also thinking, man, she's really good at customer. But it was a beautiful, wonderful. She took so much time with me and shared a few little stories, which is what we talk about in the sales prep school, especially with sympathy. She did everything right, and then I just get an email from her, the receipt, and in the description, she says, a beautiful, fresh arrangement, something that the family can take home that's complementary to the other family pieces, lots of yellows, and make it extra spicy. Oh, and I'm like, oh yeah. And I'm like, that's customer service. That's customer service. What our sales prep school, that's what I want it to come across. That's what I want every person that goes through our training. I want them to be like Sherry, the girl that I talked to.

SPEAKER_03 30:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Because she did a really good job, even in the description, the notes, the email that she sent. And I'm like, ah, she heard me. You know, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

And how powerful is that for you as a customer? You know, powerful, like me.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

I haven't even looked at the total amount yet. I don't even care. Doesn't matter. Yeah. Make it a little spicy, make it really gorgeous.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

That's all I care about.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

That's so cool. That is so cool. That is so cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

We're gonna leave the link in the show notes if you wanna check out the course and purchase it. But we also have some bonuses that we'll be including, and we'll probably let those expire at the end of the year. So definitely want to take advantage now.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

And reach out to us, even if you're like, I don't want to just click and buy because it's a purchase. Yeah, even an investment in your business. I would love to jump on a Zoom call and show you the inside of it. That's typically what I do with people that are real curious and want to see what it is. I love to do that, and there's no pressure.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Absolutely. We also have payment plans. So you can buy it once, you can split it into two payments, or you can split it into six payments. So we try to make it as affordable as possible, depending on your situation.

SPEAKER_03 32:29

That's a great end of the year purchase. And I think Lori, before we came on here, you said it would be a perfect staff stocking. Yes, staff stocking stuffer. I had to say it's slow because stocking stuffer.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Staff there we got stocking stuffer. That's well, girls. Lori, send me a picture of that tree. Oh, you send me yours. We'll compare.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

We'll trade. All right. I gotta order more tinsel though. My target ran out. I got mine on Amazon. Oh, that's what I'll do.

SPEAKER_03 33:01

This will be a lesson for next year. No tinsel, girls.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

But I did see on TikTok, you just take the shop vac, suck it off. Uh that's smart. We're gonna have to do that. You know it! January. Genius. It probably sucked my whole tree up, but that's all right.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Take the ornaments off first.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Exactly. That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Take the ornaments off first. Okay, bye, mate.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

So please come back and join us to discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business!