Making Lemonade Out of Plants?

Sometimes we have to fix mistakes.

Things that are out of our control.

Things that aren't our fault...but we make it right.

Things like a plant basket that left the greenhouse in great shape, but something happened in the home of the recipient.

We received the following email from a dissatisfied customer:

From: "Bev B"
Cc: simonsaysroses@shaw.ca
Sent: Thursday, 23 May, 2013 10:58:07 AM
Subject: Mother's Day Delivery

The weekend of May 4/5 I had a 4 plant basket delivered to my Mother.
As I live in Calgary, I did not actually see what was delivered. I recently learned that the basket was infested with small flies and that the plants were sub-par.
Unfortunately I will not be using your companies for any future business.
Thank you.
Bev. B

 Aphids spreading from other plants in the home, nesting on our arrangement!

WOW! Not good! We're not even given the chance to fix the problem (*sigh*).

This is the first we heard of any problem. We know that if there was a "bug problem", it would have infested the entire greenhouse, and that wasn't the case. It sure looked like the bugs came from within the home.

It would be so easy to "write this one off" and lose the customer forever, based on the tone of the email.

But good florists in Canada don't do that, however. It's not in our nature.

We fight to retain every customer, no matter how hard it might be. My reply:

From: FRANK SIMON [mailto:simonsaysroses@shaw.ca]
Sent: May-24-13 9:30 AM
To: Bev B
Subject: Re: Mother's Day Delivery

Thank you for comments, Bev.
We have spoken with the delivering shop and the owner knows Margaret personally. She will be speaking with your Mother to determine the problem with the order.
Thank you for letting us know.

Frank Simon
Simon Says Roses Florists & Gifts
Local, national, & worldwide flower & gift delivery Winner of 2012 award for Community Business Integrity at http://twitter.yfrog.com/h6kvfjqj
FTD Top 10 Canadian florists since 2003
1-800-705-ROSE(7673).
Website: http://www.simonsaysroses.com

And the customer's response?

"Thank you for looking into this matter.  I appreciate it. Bev."

That's all it takes sometimes. An acknowledgement of the problem. A promise that we will follow up. And sometimes replacements are sent out (with some education to check for bugs on other plants before the problem happens again).

Such is the life of a florist!