Our Mission

By Paul D’Ellia

Owner – The Wall Street Florist

After thirty five years in the flower business as the owner of The Wall Street Florist, I have seen many changes in the way business is conducted. Toll free phone numbers, fax machines, computers and the internet just to name a few. The one thing that has always remained the same throughout these years is the importance of taking care of your customers. All the machines in the world will not improve your bottom line if you don’t take care of your customers. I have always strived to take care of my customers personally and to encourage my staff to do the same.

Over the years we have been faced with difficult customer related situations that we made easy to resolve because we always kept the customers first. Once we had an investment banker customer who ordered a dozen red roses for his wife before leaving on a three month business trip to Europe and Asia. Upon arriving back in New York he called me to let me know that the dozen roses had died the next day and he was sorry that he hadn’t spoken to me sooner but he had been on an extended business trip. I immediately apologized and offered him a full refund or a replacement. He took a replacement and has remained a customer all these years. I did not need an investigation into this matter it was enough for me to know that my customer was not satisfied. I did not need to weigh what happened and that it took him three months to let me know, only that it had happened and we would make good his loss.

One day a secretary from E.F. Hutton called me and asked me to send her a bag of potting soil so she could repot a plant. She called other florist in the area and they would not send her a just a bag of potting soil even though she was willing to pay the minimum delivery charge for the item. I sent one of my employees to a local store to buy a bag of potting soil since it was not an item that we carried and then delivered it to her. She was so appreciative and being in charge of the corporate account for E.F. Hutton immediately gave all their business to us. At the time I sent her the potting soil, I did not know that she controlled the flower account. I only knew that she was a customer who had a need and was willing to pay to satisfy that need. I’ve always tried to satisfy every customer that interacted with our business and to go that extra yard to do so.

We had a banking customer who called us one day and asked us to send a flower arrangement to a friend with a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich in the middle of the arrangement. It seems this sandwich was the friend’s favorite and the customer wanted to recognize this. I did not tell the customer that we were a flower shop and not a deli. I just sent an employee to the deli on the corner and ordered the sandwich then put it in the middle of the arrangement and delivered it. I solved the customer’s problem, made a profit and kept the customer for many years. That I believe is the way businesses should interact with customers. Say yes to everything then figure out a way to do it and do it promptly. No is negative and turns customers away. If in the end you can not figure away to do it the customer will understand that you tried and it could not be done and will accept the no more readily.

The one area of customer service that we would not cater to is any thing that would strike of mean spirit and spitefulness. A customer once purchased a dozen red roses and asked us to cut off the heads and send them to his girlfriend who had just broken up with him. He was willing to pay twice the cost of the roses to have this done. We refused this was spiteful and mean spirited. No amount of money would put our good name and reputation in jeopardy. We sent that young man packing and would not do business with him. On the other hand we have had plenty of stock broker customers who would send a dead flower arrangement to a colleague to play a joke on them. Operating a busy flower shop where are turnover was daily we never had any dead flowers to send, so what I would do is make a fresh flower arrangement and bring it to a friend of mine who had pizza ovens and I would stick the fresh arrangement in the oven for a couple of minutes until it was wilted and looking dead and then deliver it to the recipient. Everyone had a good laugh and we got all of their really fresh flower business when they weren’t playing jokes and really needed to impress their clients. This is how we stayed in business for thirty five years, every situation is different and if we maintain our honesty and integrity and keep our eye on satisfying our customers we will be continue to stay in business no matter the technological changes.

Nothing is more important than to follow through and be sure that the customer gets what they want when they want it. I had an incident many years ago that drove home the point. For many years, I had been giving one of our affiliates all our business in a major city in New Jersey. One day a customer asked for a flower arrangement to be sent to this city the following day. After relaying this order to the affiliate for the next day delivery they delivered it that day. Obviously the customer was not happy for which I gave her the order delivered that day free of charge and sent a second order for the correct delivery date. My affiliate argued with me that it was my fault that it got delivered that day, I was not interested in whose fault it was I was only interested in getting it delivered on the day the customer wanted it delivered. My affiliate refused to deliver another the next day even though I was willing to be charged for the second arrangement. So we called another affiliate in the area and had them deliver the second arrangement. We paid for both of the arrangements, the customer paid for the original order. The most important thing was that the customer was satisfied no matter how much it cost us or how much time we spent making it correct.

Early in my business career I learned to listen to my customers and believe what they told me about our products and service despite what I thought I knew to be true. I had a very good customer in the advertising business that only sent high end flower arrangements to his clients. He called one day to and asked to speak to me personally, he had a very important client that he wanted to send f lowers to and need a rush delivery and wanted me to handle the order personally. I took the order from him, filled out the delivery ticket and enclosure card my self and supervised the making of a beautiful flower arrangement with my head designer. I then personally tagged and wrapped the arrangement for delivery. After a final inspection that everything was in order I handed the delivery to one of my delivery people and instructed him to go directly to the address and deliver the order. About a half hour later my customer called very irritated and informed me that he had spoken to his client and she had told him that the flower arrangement contained all dead flowers. Having inspected this arrangement my self before it left the store I could hardly believe what I was hearing. However, not to argue with my customer I promised I would send a replacement and take back the other arrangement and find out what had happened. This time after making another beautiful flower arrangement I left the shop and made the delivery my self. When I arrived at the delivery address I was shocked to see the arrangement all broken up and smashed. I replaced it and went back to the shop and asked the original delivery person what had happened to the arrangement. He then told me that he had tripped on the curb upon crossing one of the streets and fell down along with the arrangement. He didn’t think anything had happened to the arrangement (back then we wrapped everything in florist paper not clear wrap so he couldn’t see the arrangement unless he had unwrapped it) and that it was important for him to make a timely delivery since I had instructed him that this was and important delivery and had to be made immediately. So he though it best to make the delivery and not take it back to the store and waste time checking it out. While our delivery person had meant well he had not considered the consequences of his fall with the arrangement. We’re all human and that’s why they put erasers on pencils, we all make mistakes. I almost made the mistake of arguing with the customer and telling him that I checked the arrangement before it left and it met our high standards of quality and no way could those flowers be dead. Instead I stuck to my policy of taking care of my customers first and rushed another arrangement to the recipient then followed up to find out the unusual circumstances of this mishaps. This incident did wonders to reinforce the policy of customers first no matter how positive you are that you are right.

Dave Thomas of Wendy’s hamburger chain interviewed an executive for the job of Chief Financial Officer of his company several years before his death. He asked the candidate “You’re not a CPA are you.” The candidate answered that they were. He then asked “You’re not an MBA are you.” The candidate again answered that they were. He then said “You cannot think like an accountant. You have to take care of your customer.” To be consistently successful a business must never forget those words. That is our policy and our mission at The Wall Street Florist; to take care of our customers.