



V 



12 



The Florists' Review 



NOTSHBBB 2, 1916. 



has to keep good stock and charge fair 

 prices. He has also to give good serv- 

 ice. When a customer comes into a 

 jtore and orders $5 worth of flowers and 

 selects something which might have 

 been in the store for three or four 

 days and is not up to the standard, he 

 should be told: "Do not buy this." I 

 can not sell flowers that would cause 

 dissatisfaction and that are utilized 

 only for the store. 



Sometimes a patron sends $5 or $6 

 worth of flowers only a block. Then 

 there is no expense attached to the 

 order. And when this customer comes 

 back for only $1 worth of flowers and 

 has the same sent where there is a 

 little more expense attached than the 

 ordinary car fare, he should not be 

 charged with extra expense. His one 

 order which he gives for delivery in the 

 neighborhood should even up the order 

 which goes to a far distant point. Just 

 in little things people are particular. 

 They will notice the fair-mindedness of 

 their florist and they will remember. 



Possible Impossibilities. 



When a customer calls or phones for 

 flowers which are scarce and rare or 

 which are not in stock, he should be 

 told: "How long will you allow me 

 to deliver the order! I shall try my 

 utmost to have it delivered on time." 



Do not say, "I will send out and try 

 to get for you the flowers you want." 

 That is a wrong expression. If we get 

 something which we need for a patron 

 in our store, we do not get it for him; 

 we get it for us, for our business. In 

 serving our customer our answer 

 should be: "We will try our utmost to 

 deliver your order promptly. Kindly 

 give us the best time lii^it." 



Where there is a will there is always 

 a way to fill this kind of order, even 

 if it is at times with a loss — that does 

 not count. By making possible the im- 

 possibilities, we gain the confidence of 

 customers, and through the fact that 

 we are* willing and that we never say 

 "no" to them, we greatly strengthen 

 this confidence. 



Not only so, but when we do some- 

 thing that they themselves thought im- 

 possible, they do not forget. The first 

 chance they may have, they speak about 

 it to their friends, they send us new 

 customers and our business grows. Good' 

 service given to a customer is nothing 

 but capital laid out by us in the form 

 of BO and so much work which bears in- 

 terest for us for the future. 



The Meaning of Service. 



Our service does not mean only to be 

 prompt, never to refuse any order, but 

 means to be careful with the filling of 

 the orders by selecting the stock; by 

 packing the stock; by protecting the 

 flowers after they are in the customer's 

 hands. We can do- that only by edu- 

 cating our customers regarding the best 

 way to treat plants or flowers, how to 

 take care of them properly so as to get 

 the longest possible life out of them — 

 here there should be no expense or time 

 saved. 



We have to begin the moment we 

 select the flowers for an order to see 

 that each flower is perfect, and we 

 should not stop until the flowers are 

 properly placed in water at the cus- 

 tomer's house. So, service means un- 

 tiring attention not only to the flowers 

 themselves but to the purchasers of our 

 flowers. And if we have too much to 



do, so that our business grows and we 

 have to have employees, then it means 

 alertness at every hour of the day, con- 

 stant vigilance, to see that our em- 

 ployees shall be exact and work with 

 our thoughts of service and with our 

 knowledge of service. 



We must impress on them the value 

 of this attention and service to cus- 

 tomers. We must impress on them hon- 

 esty, teach them to sell a customer only 

 what is good and to give a customer 

 full value for his money. 



Can We Stand Criticism? 



We have to do our work and oversee 

 their work at the same time. We should 

 have untiring ambition when we make 

 up a bouquet or a wreath or a basket. 

 We should not wrong ourselves by ask- 

 ing, "Isn't it pretty?" We must ask 

 them: "How do you like itf " We can 



The Kdltor is pl«r««d 

 'Whan a Reader 

 preaenta his Ideas 

 on any subjeot treated tn 



j^/IJfSJ 



Am experience !• the beat 

 teacher, ao do ^ee 

 learn faateat by an 

 exchange of experlencea. 

 Many valuable polnta 

 are brourht out 

 by dlaouaalon. 



Good penmanship, tpelllnv end 

 fninmar. thomrh desirable, are not 

 necessary- Write as 70U would talk 

 when doinff your best. 



WSSHAIXBX COULD 

 TO BKAB ntOM TOO 



glisten to criticism and ask ourselves if 

 . this criticism is warsanted. We should 

 try to improve our work from day to 

 day, and when we make something, no 

 . matter how pretty we may think it is, 

 we should ask ourselves, "Is it well 

 >, enough madef Can't we make some- 

 .- thing better t" And this spur to our- 

 selves to do better will sharpen our 

 judgment and will improve our knowl- 

 edge and will certainly show in our 

 iFOrk. 



We or It? 



♦ 



Our business — does it belqpg to us or 

 do we belong to itt 



A business man who feels himself the 

 proprietor and nothing else, loses his 

 hold on his business sooner or later. A 

 business man is only proprietor or owner 

 of his business in his own private life. 

 The moment he steps into the business 

 surroundings where his activity is 

 necessary to keep the business in prog- 

 ress, where his mind is really the soul 

 of the business, he is not less an em- 

 ployee than any of his other em- 

 ployees. He is there to see that goods 

 sold are sold right. He must teach his 

 salesmen, if they do not know it, how 

 to do it right. He must instruct his 



buyers. He has to understand book- 

 keeping and do bookkeeping. He has 

 to be a gardener, a florist, a designer. 

 It does not harm him if he knows how 

 to sweep his own place and to deliver 

 his own orders. .• . , - 



We Live to Learn. 



A business man should be able to 

 replace any of his workmen and should 

 in the average small business be able 

 to match the knowledge of every one 

 of his employees. What they all know 

 together he has to combine in his own 

 self, and his ambition should be to 

 know it better than the others, so that 

 when he gives an order he can look 

 straight into the eyes of his employees 

 and not blush over his incompetency. 



We can not know everything when 

 we start a business, but we can learn, 

 and none has as much chance to learn 

 as the beginner in business. Success in 

 business comes not only in consequence 

 of what a man does for his customers. 

 A very important factor is whether he 

 is strict in his dealings , with his grow- 

 ers and commission dealers or what- 

 ever sources of supply he may happen 

 to deal with. 



The Buying. 



He must be first of all a critical 

 buyer. That does not mean to cut 

 prices. That means to buy what is 

 necessary to keep a good stock on hand 

 in accordance with the amount of busi- 

 ness he does. He should buy good stock 

 which lasts well. He wants to make 

 progress by selling his own stock at a 

 fair profit, and he should be willing 

 to pay a fair price when his judgment 

 tells him that the stock is justly 

 worth it. 



He must be prompt in his payments. 

 It improves his credit and in this way 

 strengthens his selling power. When a 

 man is fair in his dealings with his 

 business friends and any merchandise 

 shall be scarce and many demand the 

 rare stock at the same time, the man 

 who is far-sighted in his dealings will 

 always have a plentiful supply for his 

 needs, while the man who only consid- 

 ers himself is often handicapped. 



An Exchange of Places. 



A business man has to become to a 

 certain extent even an inventor and 

 prepare in time for the busy season new 

 things to awaken the interest of his 

 patrons. He has to teach his employees, 

 whenever opportunity offers, what life 

 and experience have taught him. And 

 when he is on the way to success, if 

 he wants to continue his success, he 

 must do one last task: become an em- 

 ployee among his employees, not only 

 in form but with all his heart. 



A busy man spends half of his life in 

 his business. His successful business 

 which, when small, was not- too big to 

 take all its motive power from him, 

 grows to need besides himself strong 

 support which he can not gain for a 

 weekly salary. He can gain that added 

 motive power only if he manages to 

 awaken the interest of his employees to 

 such an extent that they begin to look 

 at him not only as an employer but as 

 a co-worker. . 



The Workers' Ideals. 



He must manage to arouse their am- 

 bition to such an extent that when they 

 begin to talk of his business they will 

 not say: "The place I am working in,'* 



y 



.:^-.. 



.. .x.^— _ -. 



